138 This is a Japanese story, where observation takes over to go beyond the limits that every form of knowledge sooner or later will express. There is a great deal of spirituality in that life we are going to tell with the direct testimony of the person who has observed this experience with his own eyes, but this is not an excuse to be estranged from it: few cultures are able to fully align themselves with the surrounding Zen Buddhism. What we must focus on is time, its importance and its meaning both for man and for nature. Respect for time and for the results it guarantees if, from counting the minutes, we switch to understand its acting, its relationship with things. The life of Masanobu Fukuoka (1913-2008) is told in many languages and his do-nothing farming technique is debated at a scientific level and cited in various publications. At the beginning of his experience he temporarily wrecked his family fields; it is equally true that, by meeting time and needs of the plantations, these were able to provide him with impressive harvests, in terms of quality and quantity. When speaking of Fukuoka, the scientific consensus fully agrees with one thing: the biodiversity needs of ecosystems must be put back at the center of the agricultural debate and Fukuoka’s techniques are a sustainable example of harmonious farming integration for the protection of the soil. Published in 1978, The One-Straw Revolution is the essay through which Fukuoka introduces his farming non-technique. Giannozzo Pucci is one of the publishers who contributed to the spread of the essay coming from the Far East; Florentine, he belongs to that community of people who actively works ahead of the times, who tackles issues half a century earlier than the general alarm. Pucci is one of the inspirers of the ecological movement, and he has lived first-hand both farming and friendship with Fukuoka. The core of Fukuoka's vision stands in that straw that gives its name to the book, left from the previous crop or spread by hand, which must cover the growing soil. Fertility, germination, protection from animals and water management are factors entirely managed by it, the straw, or the mulching, native citizen of the ecosystem. The organic remains of both newly grown plants and animals, fungi and bacteria intertwine in this litter. When the water comes, the whole lot is ready to nourish the soil. Another key factor is the coexistence of multiple crops overlapping and passing the baton one to the other, to prevent that there might be room for winter and invasive weeds. By crossing our arms and leaving this layer above the soil to take its course, it does not degrade and the ecosystem can reach its equilibrium. Fukuoka's technique stems from its own territory of origin, where he developed the need for a shift in strategy and where he began experimenting with the one-straw revolution. Universal has become the effect of applying his approach to the soil: in fact, the results on soil fertility are scientifically proven, unthinkable when compared to the industrial routes of agriculture, whose intensiveness of production can in any case be reached if one simply observes the environment and leaves it time to put to good use that same ecosystem that, in that place, would naturally grow. Federico Tosi Farming and soil: the unexpected results of the do-nothing
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