The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
Interpretation
Farming is about nurturing people, not just producing food.
In this quote, Masanobu Fukuoka emphasizes the idea that the true purpose of agriculture transcends the mere act of growing crops; it focuses on the development and enrichment of individuals' lives. He believes that farming should foster a connection between people and nature, enhancing human potential and community well-being, ultimately contributing to a more profound societal transformation.
In practice
In a speech about sustainable agriculture, the speaker quoted Fukuoka to highlight the importance of nurturing community alongside food production.
When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.
As we kill nature, we are killing ourselves, and God incarnate as the world as well.
Modern research divides nature into tiny pieces and conducts tests that conform neither with natural law nor with practical experience. The results are arranged for the convenience of research, not according to the needs of the farmer.
Gradually I came to realize that the process of saving the desert of the human heart and revegetating the actual desert is actually the same thing.
Life on a small farm might seem primitive, but by living such a life we become able to discover the Great Path. I believe that one who deeply respects his neighborhood and everyday world in which he lives will be shown the greatest of all worlds.
The increasing desolation of nature, the exhaustion of resources, the uneasiness and disintegration of the human spirit, all have been brought about by humanity's trying to accomplish something.
The opinions and beliefs of men follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds.
You don't have to teach people how to be human. You have to teach them how to stop being inhuman.
To see the earth as we now see it, small and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the unending night ~ brothers who see now they are truly brothers.
...you're waiting because you thought it would follow, you thought there would be some logic, perhaps, something to pull it all together but here we are in the weeds again, here we are in the bowels of the thing: your world doesn't make sense.
Do not feel certain of anything.
It's true that Paris is made up of equal parts of social conservatism and anarchic experimentation, but foreigners never quite know where to place the moral accent mark.
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