Masanobu Fukuoka Masanobu Fukuoka was born on February 2, 1913 in Minamiyamasaki-son, Iyo-gun, Ehime Prefecture (now, the city of Iyo). He graduated from the Applied Biology Department at present-day Gifu University and went on to work and conduct research at the Plant Inspection Division of the Yokohama Customs Bureau. However, he was too devoted to his research and found himself on the brink of death from acute pneumonia. It was then he realized that “in this world there is nothing at all.” Returning to his hometown in Ehime, Masanobu began to perfect his unique, natural farming method of “no cultivation, no chemical fertilizer, and no weeding,” confronting nature through farming. He received accolades from abroad for his initiatives to reduce desertification by disseminating pellets of clay that contained seeds during his travels around the globe. Masanobu was a farming philosopher who propagated a “philosophy of nothing,” through his many publications, verses, and drawings.