Many of us recognize the need for more ecological lifestyles, but if we live in a city with little or no ‘ecology’ around us, where on earth do we start? This short film brings us into the minds of natural farmers in Japan and the … Continue readingA City is Part of the Universe
This exhibition series features poetic verse and philosophical concepts collected over the course of five years of field research and study on natural farming, conducted in Japan, Korea, Scotland, and the United States. Although regarded positively by environmental experts, the practice of natural farming is … Continue readingWisdom From the Field
Join us this fall as we learn from and grow with each other during this 10-week series of events where participants learn to cultivate their creativity and ecological awareness, exploring art, nature, culture, and good food on the island of Megijima! … Continue readingREALtimeFOOD in Megijima, Japan!
Around the world, individuals are building social, economic, and ecological well being into their communities, they are becoming partners again with the earth in all that they do. Each of us, too, has the power to make a socially and ecologically just economic system a reality for ourselves and those around us. … Continue readingNature of Cities | Building an Ecology of One
We opened a slightly audacious restaurant and garden in a working-class suburb of Osaka, Japan with the intent of connecting people more deeply with food and nature in their neighborhood. Can an urban garden help us remember what it means to be human? … Continue readingNature of Cities | A Restaurant and Garden Serving up Connections to Urban Nature
What would our food situation look like if all of the suburban backyards and urban alleyways were producing some kind of food? Is this a silly agrarian dream? Would we still need GMOs? … Continue readingResilience | What if We all Grew Food?
Suhee and I are headed to the San Francisco Bay Area today. In the past two months, we’ve had a great, focused time to work with the film while in residency at Jageun Jip, and in the last ten days, we’ve organized multiple small ‘rough cut’ … Continue readingChange Starts with You
We’re kicking it up a notch here in Edinburgh. Suhee Kang arrived from South Korea a few days ago, and we’re now preparing both a gallery show and panel discussion for the Final Straw documentary project, set to take place at the end of November … Continue readingAn Expression of Understanding Nature
The [HUMAN:NATURE] team went on an ‘away’ mission yesterday. Seven people jumped into a car most that Americans would consider ‘small and cute,’ and off we rode to Awa, Tokushima with Professor Suizu. Our destination was Mr. Okitsu’s natural farm. During this past spring, I … Continue readingGroup Visit to Okitsu Natural Farm
It is absolutely absurd to think of what our food goes through before it gets put into our stomachs… the first thing, the most important thing for a farmer, is to make healthy plants and healthy people. … Continue readingThe Maddening Simplicity of Good Food
In Kyoto tonight and it’s been a long few weeks of filming and travel for The Final Straw with little internet time so this next post will come in two installments! Last week, I was able to spend a great few days on farms outside … Continue readingJapanese CSA Pioneers, and a Farming Trio
Tonight in Seoul we’re teaming up with Space Noah and Korean natural farmer, Ryosok Hong (홍려석) to produce a ‘lecture concert.’ Hmm, ‘lecture concert’ might need some explanation, it was a strange phrase to me when I first heard it used. As lecture events tend … Continue readingFinal Straw Event in Seoul
Yesterday was a pretty darned happy day for us here in Korea. In April of last year, we first visited with the leading natural farmer in Korea, Mr. Seonghyun Choi (최성현), and at the same time, we took our cameras to a relatively new farmer, Mr. … Continue readingConnecting Two Farmers in South Korea
This is a bit of great news, yet it’s also old news now. To my credit, at the time I was on the craziest 4-week schedule in recent memory, shooting amazing gigs for ZERO1 and Nova Jiang, clearing out and selling off everything in my … Continue readingInterview with Larry Korn
In our second visit to Kawaguchi’s home farm — the first was in May of this year — we enjoyed tea and a more informal chat than on our previous visit. Lately, Kawaguchi-san has spent his mornings working on finishing a book, and although he has … Continue readingYoshikazu Kawaguchi’s Natural Farm
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 … Continue readingHarvesting Rice by Hand in Korea
News update for the Final Straw documentary: Since returning from farms in Japan and Korea, I’ve been searching more for Japanese-style natural farms on the West coast of the U.S. — they have been very hard to find/contact — and just this week a very … Continue readingNatural Agriculture in Santa Cruz
We had our first meeting with a Japanese natural farmer today, and it was an amazing one. Yoshikazu Kawaguchi has written several books and is a “natural farming” icon in Japan. Today, he invited us to his home near Nara, Japan, where we talked over … Continue readingYoshikazu Kawaguchi – Day 1
Four years in the making, the documentary film Final Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness, has been screened in over 200 cities around the world, at film festivals, by global NPOs, community groups, and in academic settings. The film is also part of the Global Environmental Justice … Continue readingFinal Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness