It’s been a busy month or so… to catch everyone up, I’ve started a unique MFA program at the University of Edinburgh called “Art, Space & Nature” which works between the disciplines of art, architecture, and ecology. It’s a good match for the natural farming research and imagery I’ve been gathering the past year or so.
Currently I’m in Korea with Suhee Kang, visiting natural farms during the rice harvest time. It’s been really very amazing, sleeping in a traditional Korean “hanook” and working with a beautiful group of people at the natural farm of 최성현 (Seonghyun Choi), harvesting rice the traditional way — by hand!
While in the city during the week, I’ve been hosted by the amazing Dr. Kim and his wife. This week, we also visited Mr. Ryeo Seok Hong’s natural farm up near the North/South Korea DMZ to have a chat and gather some imagery during his harvest time. It was peaceful, besides the slightly eerie sound of bombing (practice?) that occurs near the border of these two counties.
All of this work visiting natural farms is part of The Final Straw documentary project, which has turned into a rather serious piece of work, exploring natural-farming options in creating a future for food on this planet.
It is truly amazing how much life exists in the fields of these farms, it is something completely unlike even the most well-farmed organic farms in the U.S., and it’s all due to the farmer’s attitude of farming ‘with’ nature instead of using devices to farm against it. No pesticides, no weeding, no nothing. Just. Real. Food. Growing in a natural setting.
Next week, I’ll be visiting Yoshikazu Kawaguchi’s natural farm in the Kansai region of Japan.
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Well, till later. Talk to you soon!