Pity I seemed to miss 4 good events in Korea whilst I was in Japan. Including a workcamp at Sanan, the beach party at Anymeondo, the organic festival at Uljin, the peace festival at Imjinjak etc I'm in Pyeontaek just thinking ... I don't know what to do. I'm interested in places for the first time then cos they are new, but then everywhere is boring to me, I don't want to go in any of the restaurants, bars etc it's so difficult to find things I like in Korea or England. What will i do this winter ? I cannot find any interesting workcamps. I know 2 things I want to be in an English speaking place and I can't stay in a cold place like England. I have a ticket to London on October 4th but I might buy a ticket to Australia or something instead ! maybe I'll go up to tour Gangwado, there is a special alternative school I might visit there and there is a festival there next weekend Internet Main Home : www.mari.or.kr 032-937-2313~4 Address : 4-1140 Cho-ji, Gang hwa Island, Incheon City, Republic of Korea alternative school

I would like to find a MF farm in Korea, but so far my research has proved fruitless ... the term "natural farming" has been hijacked by the people who sell EM ... Cho Han Kyu.... Korean Natural Farming Association .. http://kale.com.ne.kr/soil.htm homepage ? another homepage with impressive ... explanation http://www.janong.com/ENGLISH/02.htm article about http://www.thainaturalfarming.com/index.php?lay=show&ac=article&Id=38073 working in Thailand seems actually to be EM report shows EM notv amazing good for red pepper, rice no advantage note ...http://homepage1.nifty.com/KASAI-CHAPPUIS/Miyozo.htm good unbiased article about masanobu http://www.seedballs.com/2seedpa.html AO ¨ù¨¬Co choi sung hyun translator of the MF book ¨öA¨¬nCN ©öc¢¯¢® jon shin segisan publishing company

WORKCAMP Research also been checking workcamps for interesting projects. vfp.org has the big ones the local orgs have the small ones NICE in Japan and www.1.or.kr in Korea

Pakefyka 2 8 vols PAKEFYKA is a center for the promotion of Natural / Do-Nothing Farming, an agricultural method based on the teachings of Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese ex- plant pathologist. The theory is that human knowledge is limited & imperfect, in contrast to mother Nature. Work is helping in the preparation of seeds for sowing fields & reforestation areas & in sowing fields. Possibly collect seeds. PAKEFYKA is situated on an abandoned camping ground about 10 km from Edessa, a picturesque small town in Northern Greece. Accom. in the buildings of the abandoned camping site. No warm water & rather basic conditions. Study the techniques of Natural Farming. Discussion on mainstream & alternative farming methods. There will also be workshops on self-sufficiency (bread, jam making etc). An interest in the issues is necessary ..

Interesting BM interview - http://seedsofchange.com/be_organic/mollison_interview.asp Now I have a friend in Japan; his name is Takao Furuno and he only uses ducks on his farm. He doesn't buy any fertilizer, any insecticides or any herbicides and he grows rice. He gets about 7000 pounds of rice an acre for a year. He plows with ducks; he fertilizes with ducks; he weeds with ducks; and he controls all pests with ducks so he's getting totally organic rice, totally produced by his ducks. We've just published a book he's written called The Power of Duck. The power of duck on his small farm is total. You don't need anything else for anything. It'll plow; it'll fertilize; it'll take all the weeds you don't want out, and it's just a duck. And then what you have leftover, as well as 7000 pounds of rice in an acre, you've got 2000 ducks. Some of the restaurants located around farms that are using his system sell 500 ducks per day. Got a lot in the freezer, of course. It's resulted in a second tremendous surge in duck sales in restaurants, you know, and restaurants set up purely to cook ducks in all possible ways. So, we've just published Furuno's book and you know, just as much as permaculture books are example after example after example of how you can save energy and get great benefits, Furuno's book is very important as it takes a rice crop, which is always subject to huge amounts of pesticides, and tells you how to grow it with no fertilizer and no pesticides. Vlaun: Are people starting to follow his model in Japan? Mollison: So far, I'd say about 15 to 20,000 farmers have adopted it wholly and sometimes whole areas of farms, In South Korea, probably 4-5000 acres of the rice farming district is in the Furuno system. He's taught it in China; Vietnam has adopted it very fast; Indonesia, and he's been to Tanzania in Africa where they grow the African varieties of rice. So he's spreading his system as fast as he can go. All the winter when nothing is happening in his field, he packs his wife and five kids and off he goes, teaching, into China or Vietnam or Indonesia or Korea or anywhere . . . anywhere there are rice farmers he'll come and teach you at his own expense. I met him in Vietnam. I was up there teaching permaculture; he was teaching rice growing, and he said, "You're my brother. We both just travel to teach when we're not actually on the farm, when it's wintertime at home, we go and teach other farmers," which is exactly what both of us do. I did it for 25 years; he's only been going about 8 or 10. But he will be going for 30 years because he's a young man and very keen on his system. Vlaun: Sounds like that one system could save a huge amount of fossil fuels and petroleum based fertilizers. Mollison: Vast. All that I'm telling you about the duck makes all the people with investments in fertilizers shiver in their shoes because you don't need any of that shit. The shit you want is duck shit.

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