A Agricultura Natural de Mokiti Okada: uma experimentação moral e política como fonte de inovação de ordem ecológica; Mokichi Okada's Nature Farming: moral and political experimentation as a source of ecological innovation; La Agricultura Natural de Mokiti Okada: una experimentación moral y política...
In: Estudos sociedade e agricultura: revista semestral de ciências sociais aplicadas ao estudo do mundo rural, Band 30, Heft 1, S. e2230104
ISSN: 2526-7752
This text analyses the development of Nature Farming in Brazil; this farming system is espoused by a group of organizations linked to the Brazilian Church of World Messianity which consider it necessary to achieve "Paradise on Earth," a world "free of disease, poverty, and conflict" envisioned by Mokichi Okada, the Japanese founder of this movement. Following in the footsteps of the philosopher Emilie Hache, this case is considered as a potentially practical response to the contemporary ecological crisis, and understood to be simultaneously moral, political, and epistemological in origin. The text highlights how the two main agricultural activity systems supported by the movement (market gardening and poultry farming) have followed very different evolutionary paths. Both systems are subject to the same group of tensions: the movement's identity and religious requirements on the one hand, and technical and financial performance requirements on the other. These tensions are resolved very differently due to the distinct constraints on gardening and poultry raising within the Nature Farming philosophy. This analysis highlights the contributions and limitations of this dynamic as well as its reach, which extends well beyond its own borders, revealing how a moral and political experiment of this type can be relevant in addressing the challenges of sustainable development.elocation-id: e2230104Received: 08.13.2021 • Accepted: 02.08.2022 • Published: 02.23.2022Original article / Blind peer review / Open access