Mu Landscaping

Larry Korn, founder and owner of Mu Landscaping is an active educator, editor and author in the fields of natural farming and permaculture. Larry has taught many permaculture courses throughout the United States and gives workshops on natural farming and local food production.

Larry helped translate and edit the seminal book, The One-Straw Revolution, by Masanobu Fukuoka which was published by Rodale Press in 1978. The English language translation of The One-Straw Revolution was republished by the The New York Review of Books in June 2009.

Larry has also written and edited articles and books on natural farming and permaculture for publications such as Mother Earth News, Rodale's Organic Gardening and Tilth, some of which are presented on this website:

The Future is Abundant
The Future is Abundant, A Guide to Sustainable Agriculture, Tilth, 1982.

Masanobu Fukuoka's Natural Farming and Permaculture
Originally published on www.permaculture.com.

The Amazing Natural Farm of Masanobu Fukuoka
(Excerpts from The One-Straw Revolution)
Mother Earth News, Issue #52, July/August 1978.

The Plowboy Interview: Masanobu Fukuoka
Mother Earth News, Issue #76 - July/August 1982.

Masanobu Fukuoka (1913 - 2008)
Masanobu Fukuoka, the Japanese farmer/philosopher from Shikoku Island, and author of The One-Straw Revolution, passed away on August 16, 2008 at the age of 95. He continued to farm and give lectures until just a few years before his death. He had been in poor health since October 2007, and in August of 2008 he asked his doctor to discontinue treatment. He passed away peacefully at his home a week later during the O-bon festival. O-bon, after New Years, is the most important Japanese holiday. It is when the ancestors come back to earth for three days to visit the living. It is a happy time. Villagers tend to the graves, families relax, visit and reminisce as children play together in the summer sun. On the evening of the third night the ancestors go back with a sendoff of songs and fireworks. Fukuoka-sensei died on the third day of O-bon.

About Permaculture
Bill Mollison, a fellow educator and the founder of permaculture, offers the following definition:

"Permaculture is an holistic approach to land use design, based on ecological principles and patterns. Permaculture aims to create stable, productive systems that provide for human needs, harmoniously integrating the land with people. The ecological processes of plants, animals, water, weather and nutrient cycles are integrated with human needs and technologies for food, energy, shelter and infrastructure.

Elements in a system are viewed in relationship with other elements, and the outputs of one element become the inputs of another. Within a permaculture system: work is minimized, wastes become resources, productivity and yields increase, and the environment is restored.

Permaculture principles can be applied to any environment, at any scale - from dense urban settlements to individual homes, from farms to entire regions."

If you would like to learn more about natural farming and permaculture, or how these principles can be applied to your environment, contact Larry Korn at (541) 488-1834 or ldkorn@gmail.com.