Masanobu Fukuoka and inventions

I recently read The One-Straw Revolution, by Masanobu Fukuoka and thoroughly enjoyed this glimpse into the life of one of the founding fathers of permaculture. Although I got the most out of this Japanese farmer's do-nothing farming technique, I was also struck by a throwaway paragraph in which he described an invention he failed to market:

After many attempts, dabbling as an amateur, I produced a handmade [rice] seeding tool. Thinking that this tool might be of practical use to other farmers, I brought it to the man at the testing center. He told me that since we were in the age of large-sized machinery he could not be bothered with my "contraption."

Next, I went to a manufacturer of agricultural equipment. I was told here that such a simple machine, no matter how much you tried to make of it, could not be sold for more than $3.50 apiece. ...and to this day my patent remains on the shelf.

As it often does, my microbusiness antenna perked right up. Fukuoka's invention sounds like the perfect microbusiness product --- a niche product serving a real purpose that is relatively cheap to manufacture. If Fukuoka had been inventing in the age of the internet, he could easily have followed our microbusiness plan to turn his seeding tool into the source of a bit of funding for his research.

The pedal-powered rotating drum thresher that Fukuoka mentions in the text would have made another great microbusiness product (and still might!) These threshers have been in use in Asia for quite a while, but small-scale grain growing is very unusual in the U.S. at this time. If we had an easy way to process the grain, might backyard gardeners and homesteaders start to grow our own wheat and barley? I suspect that construction of the pedal-powered thresher would make the subject of a lucrative ebook.

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Wetknee home Microbusiness ebook Appalachian ecology ebook Chicken ebooks News Recent comments Blog archive Tags Contact us Links Our sister sites: Homestead blog Deer deterrent Chicken waterer Cosmic cookout Nature art	Masanobu Fukuoka and inventions I recently read The One-Straw Revolution, by Masanobu Fukuoka and thoroughly enjoyed this glimpse into the life of one of the founding fathers of permaculture. Although I got the most out of this Japanese farmer's do-nothing farming technique, I was also struck by a throwaway paragraph in which he described an invention he failed to market: After many attempts, dabbling as an amateur, I produced a handmade [rice] seeding tool. Thinking that this tool might be of practical use to other farmers, I brought it to the man at the testing center. He told me that since we were in the age of large-sized machinery he could not be bothered with my "contraption." Next, I went to a manufacturer of agricultural equipment. I was told here that such a simple machine, no matter how much you tried to make of it, could not be sold for more than $3.50 apiece. ...and to this day my patent remains on the shelf. As it often does, my microbusiness antenna perked right up. Fukuoka's invention sounds like the perfect microbusiness product --- a niche product serving a real purpose that is relatively cheap to manufacture. If Fukuoka had been inventing in the age of the internet, he could easily have followed our microbusiness plan to turn his seeding tool into the source of a bit of funding for his research. The pedal-powered rotating drum thresher that Fukuoka mentions in the text would have made another great microbusiness product (and still might!) These threshers have been in use in Asia for quite a while, but small-scale grain growing is very unusual in the U.S. at this time. If we had an easy way to process the grain, might backyard gardeners and homesteaders start to grow our own wheat and barley? I suspect that construction of the pedal-powered thresher would make the subject of a lucrative ebook. Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed. Add a comment