Influence
In the international development of the organic farming movement, Fukuoka is considered to be amongst the "five giant personalities who inspired the movement" along with Austrian Rudolf Steiner, German-Swiss Hans Müller, Lady Eve Balfour in the United Kingdom and J.I. Rodale in the United States.
The One-Straw Revolution has been translated into over 20 languages and sold more than one million copies and Fukuoka has been widely influential, inspiring an international movement of individuals discovering and applying his principles to varying degrees, such as Akinori Kimura, David Mas Masumoto and Yoshikazu Kawaguchi, and has significantly influenced alternative movements in the West, such as permaculture.
His books are considered both farming compendiums and guides to a way of life. In northern Thailand, his visit organized by a former student was influential in the rapid and widespread adoption of organic and chemical-free rice agriculture. His influence is likened to that of a "strict and authoritarian grandfather figure" having a tendency to "theorize in a grand way" but not always be practical.
Read more about this topic: Masanobu Fukuoka
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)