by John Haberern

[Mr. Haberern is the President of the Rodale Institute. The following is the transcript of a speech given on March 4, 2000, by John Haberern at the Natural Agriculture National Conference held at our International Center in Misono, Japan.]

A Partnership that has the real potential of contributing a gift of lasting peace and happiness to this world! Now, that’s a real tall order. But that’s how I would describe the union between The Rodale Institute and Shinji Shumeikai. I am passionately convinced and truly believe that the collaborative work, friendship, and respect between Shinji Shumeikai and The Rodale Institute will turn what most people believe a Utopian Dream into a life-saving, practical reality. Certainly, it’s not going to be easy. The challenges ahead are enormous, and it won’t happen in our lifetime. But Shinji Shumeikai and The Rodale Institute together are laying in place the foundation pieces for lasting peace and happiness for the yet unborn generations. The cornerstones of that foundation are the wisdom, teachings and blueprint laid down for us by our two founders: Mokichi Okada and J. I. Rodale. Both agreed that the path to peace and prosperity and poverty alleviation rests squarely on the shoulders of Natural Agriculture -- a regenerative agriculture that relies on art and spirituality to provide the human link to nature. The message is clear: There can be no peace until people have enough to eat. Hungry people are not peaceful people. They’re physically weak and lack inner energy and spirit.

But Mokichi Okada and J. I. Rodale already knew back in the 1930’s that the use of chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers was not the natural or regenerative way to produce the plentiful supplies of food people need to survive and to avoid violence. Mokichi Okada in Japan and J. I. Rodale in the United States called for an agricultural revolution based on natural, organic methodologies. In his writings, Mr. Okada explained, "Thus the principle of the Natural Agriculture method is an over-riding respect and concern for nature. Nature can teach us everything… Crops, of course, are no exception. Therefore if they get enough sunlight, if their water supply is adequate, and if the soil they grow in is pure, there will be enough crops to satisfy the needs of humanity and more besides." In effect, what he’s saying is that there would be plenty of food - plenty of quality food - for everyone - a major step towards world peace.

J. I. Rodale basically said the same thing in his book, Pay Dirt, "A whole new era of agriculture research is in the making, one that will more nearly help to create a healthy society and keep it in touch with the land from which it gets it’s strength and sweetness." Again, he insists that, "Agriculture is the base or foundation for this transformation - from which to build," as he says, "A country of prosperous farms and a healthy, vigorous people creating a fine, new community life in the pursuit of happiness and peace."

God has given us an immense task to perform and through invisible ways He is helping us join our hands to help others toward the goal of heaven on earth and true happiness. Actually, many of you may not know this, but the first time we joined hands was more than 50 years ago when J. I. Rodale and Mokichi Okada exchanged correspondence. In 1947 J. I. Rodale started the Soil and Health Foundation, the forerunner of today’s Rodale Institute, to conduct and encourage scientific research, teaching, training and educating the public (by operating farms, schools, laboratories, experimental stations, and publishing houses) on soil, food and the health of humans and their relationship to each other.

A few years later, a very special correspondence took place between J. I. Rodale and Mokichi Okada–a meeting of the minds, so to speak, which no doubt laid the foundation for our partnership today. In September of 1951, J. I. Rodale wrote to Mr. Okada suggesting that he would like to cooperate with Mr. Okada to enhance what he saw as similar ideas and concepts concerning the relationship between soil, food, and health. Mr. Okada told the members who gathered in his office in Atami that he, too, would like to work together. At that meeting one of Mr. Okada’s members asked him to write more details about some of the negative effects of chemical fertilizers on human health, and the relationship between soil health and human health. Mr. Okada answered as follows: "I haven’t written about this yet, have I? Then I will write more strongly the next time. However, I feel what Mr. Rodale wrote in his book, Pay Dirt, is enough–don’t you think so?" In the ensuing years, both organizations moved strongly forward, building programs and helping people around the world based on the philosophy of their founders.

Robert Rodale, son of J. I. Rodale, built upon his father’s organic vision. Robert envisioned the concept of regenerative gardening and agriculture as an attempt to encourage natural tendencies in farming practices. He recognized the ability of safe, non-destructive and biologically fitting methods to improve and enhance the soil not only for current use, but for future generations, as well. Robert Rodale also saw the potential for people who use regenerative methods to improve more than just their land. Regenerative gardening and agriculture empowers people to reshape their lives in tandem with their environment. This concept has become a reality through the pioneering work of The Rodale Institute. In the US, Guatemala, Senegal, Russia, China and now in Japan, Rodale is working with the people of these countries in establishing programs based on regenerative methods to achieve social, economic and environmental change and progress.

Anthony Rodale is now taking regenerative agriculture into the 21^st century. Anthony has proclaimed 2000 as "The Year of the Child" and The Institute’s Experimental Farm is being used as a focal point for education, training and enterprise activities geared at reaching the general public, especially children. According to Florence Rodale, "Children are the agents for change. Empower them and you will be amazed at what they can do!" Programs such as our Youth Workshops, Gardening Presentations at Disney’s Epcot, our School Gardening Awards and our traveling exhibit "Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People™" are helping kids make educated choices about their health, their food and their environment. We all are so happy that Ms. Koyama and all of Shinji Shumeikai believe in the value of educating children.

Over the same time period, Shinji Shumeikai moved ahead strongly, strengthening it’s vision and mission to focus on a true integration and union of art, spiritualism and Natural Agriculture as a basis for the enhancement of human and environmental health and well being. The Miho Museum has helped Shinji Shumeikai receive international recognition as a world leader. But the Shumei leaders and members saw a strong need to advance their learning and skills in Natural Agriculture.

For it’s part, The Rodale Institute, while being recognized as a world leader in organic/regenerative agriculture with global success in helping people increase food production in a quality way, while improving soil quality and human and environmental health, also saw a strong need to better understand spirituality as embodied in regenerative agriculture.

Then, in 1996, something very special happened. I was privileged to meet a great man named Mr. Satoshi Togo. Suddenly, without realizing it, I was introduced to an organization that could teach us more about art and spirituality. And in return, we could help Shinji Shumeikai increase their knowledge, understanding, and practical usage of Natural Agriculture. But back in 1996 these possibilities never entered my mind. In fact, the odd thing about all of this is that I actually did not want to go to this meeting with Mr. Togo. I was sitting in my office one day when the phone rang with a call from our outreach program coordinator. She said that there was a Japanese group coming to visit The Rodale Institute Experimental Farm. Would I spend about an hour with them? I get a lot of calls with requests just like this. I usually take as many as I can because I enjoy talking about the work of The Institute, and our staff and the successful programs we have around the world helping people understand the relationship between Healthy soil, Healthy food, Healthy people™. But on the particular day Mr. Togo and the Shinji Shumeikai group was coming to The Institute, I had many things on my schedule. I did say I would come out for about an hour to talk with the group.

Well, that hour turned into almost three-quarters of a day. Something invisible, a sort of chemistry, a spiritual thing, held me there. A fire began to burn inside of me yearning to learn more about what I was hearing about your organization, the good work you were doing in Natural Agriculture and how you were going about doing it. But there was something more than that. Something that is hard to explain, something that came to me through the words, the facial expressions, the sincerity and conviction expressed by Mr. Togo. Throughout the meeting there was a bonding between the two of us - something again that I can’t explain but something which was real and mutually respectful. It was like a magnet drawing each of us together.

As the day progressed, I said to myself, "We must work together." The mission Shinji Shumeikai and Rodale Institute have set out for themselves is just too similar, too immense, too challenging, too big for any one organization to do alone. I suddenly had the feeling that there was a reason that Mr. Togo and his group came to The Rodale Institute. There was a reason I decided to come to the meeting. There was a reason Mr. Togo and I had a special bonding, a special chemistry between us. I was already thinking about what our partnership could do to help people around the world improve their health, regenerate natural resources, and make this world truly a paradise on earth -- something which our founder, J. I. Rodale, and your founder, Mokichi Okada, wanted so desperately to happen. And here we were in a meeting together setting the tone for a global partnership which I know for sure will go a long way toward making the dreams of our founders, and our own dreams right now, a reality.

I often think about this meeting and the good work we are doing together, and the challenge we have taken on together to help introduce natural regenerative agriculture into Japan and around the world in places like Senegal, West Africa, for example. This makes me very happy and I feel fortunate to have as our friends and partner you - the members of Shinji Shumeikai - and your leadership, headed by Ms. Koyama. We’ve been at our work for over 50 years and I can tell you the road has not always been smooth. But when you go down challenging, bumpy roads together with organizations and the people behind the organizations like Shinji Shumeikai, it makes the task a lot easier. As I said earlier, God has given us an immense task to perform and through invisible ways he is helping us join our hands to help us help others toward the goal of heaven on earth and true happiness.

Let me talk a bit about the invisible ways — perhaps the reason Mr. Togo and his group came to The Rodale Institute. The Very Reverend James Morton of the Interfaith Center of New York in his paper given at the Shinji Shumeikai Meeting on Art, Spirituality, and the Environment in April 1998 put it this way, "The second way (to reach our goal of true happiness) is invisible. It is the mode of energy, the way of spirit. It comes from inside. It is the life force, the God force, the spirit force that makes creation alive. The Spirit is the life of life, the insight and energy that makes us run." He calls on all of us to make the invisible on the inside of us become the visible outside of us. That is what spirituality is all about. "Bringing the light, love, and healing power inside of us outside in service to our neighbors — our fellow humans, our fellow trees and rivers, everything that is sick we can help cure. We were created to serve and to heal."

That’s exactly what’s happening today between our two organizations - our leadership, and most importantly, our members. It was started by Mokichi Okada and J. I. Rodale. We took a second giant step when Mr. Togo came to visit us at Rodale Institute. And then in April 1998 we took another giant step when we signed the Memorandum of Understanding between Shinji Shumeikai and The Rodale Institute. Today we are united in our desire to protect nature and the bounty she has shown us throughout the history of humankind. We are as one in our concern over the need to feed a hungry world with a rapidly increasing population and diminishing cropland. We feel strongly that the challenge to agriculture has never been greater. We also feel strongly that by combining the strengths of Shinji Shumeikai and The Rodale Institute, not only in the agriculture field but also by integrating the precepts and the workings of nature — in respecting nature and understanding the interconnections of art, spirituality, and Natural Agriculture - we will build the formula for success. One that will tie farmers and the global food system directly into the healing and health of plants, land, and people worldwide -- the health of the planet itself.

Together we are linking our two organizations and the earth. As friends and partners we will go forward and make our partnership a way of life for all of us now and into the future. We will share with you and work with you on our blueprint for success that is based on listening to the needs and capacities of our partners. We have developed a model of on-farm participatory research, demonstration, and technology transfer that can be applied in any community of farmers. All of this is done by working in partnership with farmers, governments, and private and public funding agencies. These same principles will be implemented in serving and enhancing the goals of Shinji Shumeikai and The Rodale Institute — Shinji Shumeikai partnership.

Much has already been accomplished–all geared toward the two major objectives of our partnership: study and expand natural and alternative methods to modern agriculture in Japan; and, lay the programmatic and long term collaborative relationship between the two organizations in promoting and helping implement their mutual strategic goals. During the past two years it has been our pleasure to host more than 80 members at workshops at The Rodale Institute. Workshop participants learned about the organic movement, consumer supported agriculture in the United States, and how The Rodale Institute is working with children to develop healthy soil, healthy food and healthy people. Meeting organic farmers at workshops in Pennsylvania, and on tours in Iowa and California provided Shinji Shumeikai members with a deeper understanding of organic agriculture. They learned about farmer-to-farmer networks, on-farm research and field days as a way for farmers to share their experiences and knowledge with other farmers and with consumers. Shinji Shumeikai interns gained first-hand experience and contributed to The Rodale Institute programs in Senegal, Guatemala and the United States.

These experiences broadened Shinji Shumeikai members’ awareness about individuals and groups in other countries who share with Shinji Shumeikai the goals of world peace, and are working to create a healthier earth and society beginning with the way farmers, marketers and consumers work together in growing and marketing healthy food. As a result of these experiences, members who participated in the Shinji Shumeikai/Rodale Institute Partnership have developed a deeper understanding about the mission of the Natural Agriculture Initiative.

You have developed an ambitious, strategic plan for spreading and strengthening Natural Agriculture throughout your country. Some of your Centers have developed strong consumer, marketers and farmer teams. You are developing a Farmer Network for farmers to learn from each other's experiences. You have also developed collaborative relationships with other groups in Japan who share your goals of Natural Agriculture and world peace. We believe these accomplishments are a great foundation for Shinji Shumeikai and The Rodale Institute to make great strides in developing a more regenerative society.

Finally, our partnership is working together to help articulate and implement how natural/regenerative agriculture is a key to lasting peace on the planet. A tangible example is the special workshop The Rodale Institute in partnership with Shinji Shumeikai conducted for participants at the Parliament for the World’s Religions, in Cape Town, South Africa last December. Successful Senegalese farmer, Demba DN Diaye told a jam-packed audience filled with Shinji Shumeikai members how The Rodale Institute worked with him and his fellow farmers in helping them improve soil quality and increase food production. Demba talked about land tenure, soil and natural resources management, and their spiritual connection with the people’s well-being and way of life. He focused particularly on the connection of Senegalese farmers with the soil, plants, and animals as elements of nature created by God that need to be respected by human beings. In no uncertain terms, he made it clear that building peace and prosperity for his people and all the people in the world will require greater attention to the role of an agriculture that respects and works with nature rather than dominating God’s domain.

We need to celebrate the friendships, the partnership and, yes, the challenges and hard work ahead. But none of this will ever be accomplished without true friendship and mutual respect and trust among people who make up our organizations. I truly believe that that friendship exists and will continue to build in strength and impact. Through the years we have accomplished so much. But truly the best — and most needed - is yet to come.

Let me close with this quote from a report entitled "To Cultivate Peace: Agriculture in a World of Conflict" put out by Prio of Oslo, Norway in collaboration with Future Harvest. "The fight against hunger, scarcity, environmental pollution and poverty can also convert hapless soldiers of violence into productive members of the global community. If prosperity for all is to be harvested in the 21^st Century, then the conditions fostering peace will have to be cultivated."

FROM SHUMEI MAGAZINE, VOL. 226, MARCH/APRIL, 2000