What makes us truly human
On Japanese natural agriculture, and a certain international treaty. And what it may mean for us all.
As you may already know, I’ve been fascinated with the principles of Japanese natural agriculture for awhile now.
I’ve read all the books; attended some sweetly awkward local classes helmed by a sincere (but English-challenged) Japanese farmer, each of which tended to leave me with more questions than I had going in; and I’ve been tentatively experimenting in the garden with some, but not all, of its rather confusing and ephemeral tenets.
If you missed it, an earlier in-depth post on this topic can be found here.
Despite the translation frustrations for the average Western gardener, the two main branches of Japanese natural agriculture that I’ve studied—which contradict each other, by the way—nevertheless both exhibit such a deep and profound understanding of, and relationship with Nature, that it thrills my soul.
Because in it, I recognize Nature as I myself experience it in the wilder areas of the Half Wild garden: Boisterous. Exuberant. And phenomenally able to regulate itself, despite all obstacles, finding its own balance and nourishing itself in all the just-right ways for maximum robust health.
But farming and gardening, of course, are artificial human activities. Even the most careful and respectful among us are imposing unnatural constraints on the landscape through these practices. Nowhere on earth are you going to find naturally occurring fields of a hundred tomato plants, for example, with very little else growing in between them.
And so this artificially high concentration—along with our human tendency toward over-selection of desirable traits in our seed crops—brings overall weakness to the plant species.
In our attempts to persuade our delicate crops to thrive, they say, we make the situation worse by using plant foods, fertilizers and mineral supplements—causing the plants to become dependent on artificial inputs rather than on the full complement of natural, life-supportive biology found deep in the soil.
Apparently these inputs also inhibit the plant’s ability to access pure life essence drawn down from the ethers—connection with which, is a strong tenet of one of the two Japanese natural agriculture programs. Or at least that’s how I’m interpreting it.
The weakness of our plant species inevitably invites disease and pests. (Whose actual legitimate job, in Nature, is to weed out the weaker genetic material, only allowing stronger plants to seed.)
If we then resort to the usual sort of pest, weed and/or disease management practices, we weaken the plants even more, making them ever more reliant on artificial inputs. So say the Japanese natural agriculturists, who, generally speaking, use no external inputs of any kind.
And they can point to plenty of evidence showing their own ridiculously healthy and resilient crops, as compared to the blight or insect damage or extreme weather events that ravage adjacent fields farmed by more conventional (or even organic) means.
The photographic evidence is pretty striking, as are the lab tests showing vastly higher brix content along with other beneficial nutrients, found in the foods they farm in this manner. Foods grown using natural agricultural practices keep without spoilage, for, like, 3 or 4 times longer than the average.
Pretty impressive.
And all of this makes sense to me, because although yes, it’s farming, they’re allowing natural processes to dictate how and when plants receive the nutrient they truly need. It feels like real Nature to me…or at least, it’s as close to real Nature as we’re likely to get while still growing food crops.
The closest version of this that we currently have in the West—and honestly, it’s not all that close, although it can look somewhat similar at first glance—is permaculture. Deeply influenced by one of the founders of Japanese natural agriculture, permaculture takes many of its fundamental practices from the more easily translatable practical aspects of natural agriculture.
But much is lost in that translation. There’s something about natural agriculture that works at an entirely different level; a level of deep communion and humble co-creative partnership with all of life.
It’s this humble partnership with real Nature that thrills my soul. Natural agriculture is a spiritual farming philosophy that invites us back into Nature’s fold, where we can relax once again into a rich sense of homecoming, which is our birthright.
Coming home to ourselves as integral parts of the whole of Nature, cherishing our role as respectful stewards of life itself. To me, this is part of what makes us truly human.
But.
(Ain’t there always a ‘but.’)
I’m giving up on Japanese natural agriculture. At least for now.
Because, think about it. Despite my best no-dig organic intentions, what I’ve been growing are crackhead plants; junkfood-addicted plants. They’ve completely lost their true natural resilience. The genetic wisdom in their seeds which once told them how to express naturally, has been deadened and addled through generation after generation of chemical dependency. (Yes, even the ones grown organically.*)
Our soils, too, are super-enriched to encourage yet more dependency. If we start withdrawing those external inputs, what do you suppose is going to happen?
It isn’t pretty.
On the left: a pot that held a cucumber plant last year; After the harvest I topped it up with an inch of fresh compost, then popped in some leftover rye plants. Based on the way I typically over-enrich my soils, this is how rye is ‘supposed’ to look in early March.
On the right: An experimental rye bed using Japanese natural agriculture principles. Um…yeah.
Proponents of both types of natural agriculture agree that it takes at least 5 generations, meaning 5 years of growing a given crop by natural agricultural means, before the plants begin to thrive and express their full potential. Before that, they go through a very brutal process of cold turkey, followed by years of rehab. So to speak.
No matter. Natural agriculture still strikes me as incredibly worthwhile, and certainly worth a 5 year investment of time and effort. But at the moment, I feel I haven’t got the luxury of a 5 year transition process.
Because nourishing food, grown by whatever means, will likely be needed long before that.
Current events intrude
A pandemic treaty is soon to be rubber stamped into law by your country and mine. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.
Quite apart from the human rights issues (which are serious enough) there are some very worrying pandemic prevention proposals in it.
Bearing in mind that the official definition of the word ‘pandemic’ has recently been broadened. It no longer needs to be directly health-related.
Indeed, the idea of a cyber-attack pandemic and a climate crisis pandemic have both already been floated. And according to the treaty, there no longer needs to be an actual pandemic…just the possibility of one in the future.
Presumably you can be locked down (among other things) for any of the above reasons.
Refusal will be illegal. Creating a new (and likely very large) class of criminal.**
But there’s more:
According to Catherine Austin Fitts’ interpretation of the proposed treaty and related material, embedded in these documents is a legalized land grab of epic proportions.***
In brief, she says if your house or land is found to be harboring any invisible substance said to be a possible contributor to future pandemics? It can be condemned and quarantined, then sold off cheap to developers, who will receive massive government grants (AKA your tax money), to ‘build back better.’
Remember that creepy World Economic Forum video telling you how life will be for you in 2030: You will own nothing, and you’ll be happy?
Did you ever think to yourself, Uh…how, between now and 2030, am I going to end up owning nothing?
Seems like this is how.
Hey, I’m no activist. My focus, in all of this, is not on the politics. It’s on food. Gardens. And my own ability to feed anyone who needs it.
This is why I’m putting aside my experiments with Japanese natural agriculture. Instead I will grow as much good wholesome food as I can, for as long as I can.
Because, over the past few months I have observed that many supermarkets in various locales around the world have already been gearing up for facial recognition and digital ID technologies. To keep you safe. And although the proposed treaty documents contain no such specifics, they certainly pave the way for excluding the abovementioned newly minted class of criminals from access to supermarkets.
So it’s not too much of a stretch to connect those dots.
Therefore I say this to you, whoever you are:
If you discover you no longer have access, for whatever reason, to real food grown from the actual earth. Knock on my door and know that I will feed you—no questions asked.
You don’t need to share my worldview. I don’t care who you did or didn’t vote for. I don’t mind if you think vaccines are swell, and that technology will save us all. I don’t mind if you think the opposite.
You are a human being. And that is reason enough. I will share a meal of my garden’s abundant goodness with any individual, and I’ll keep on doing that for as long as I have food to share.
Because that’s part of what makes me truly human. And no one can legislate that away.
*Neither form of Japanese natural agriculture advocates the use of compost. Shumei natural agriculture goes further, saying that the practice of mulching a bed (even with homemade organic compost) is in the same category of harmful artificiality, as using a toxic chemical herbicide product like Roundup. Presumably because both practices encourage the plants to rely on external inputs for their survival.
**Why do I suspect it might be quite a large new class of criminals? I’m basing it on some previous responses to the enforced attempts at creating 15 minute cities in Europe and UK: They put up roadblocks at the end of a street, and people tear them down. They put them back up and people tear them down. And people tear them down. And people tear them down. You won’t see it reported on the evening news, but these control measures are by no means a slam dunk.
***Catherine Austin Fitts is an economist, investment expert and former assistant secretary of the US Dept of Housing and Urban Development. Here is a 5 minute video where she describes what she views as the land grab inherent in the new pandemic treaty and related documents.
Oh my, I didn't know about the pandemic treaties. They sound horrible. Thanks for the heads-up and for your reminder about what makes us truly human.