We instinctively fear change, especially when it's returning to our roots. We tend to label it as primitive. However, we are lenient to technological advancement, especially when it helps our lives to become more convenient and efficient. But are we making the right choice?

Recently, while I was surfing on Internet blogs, I came across Yoko Ono's recommendation of a book called 'Miracle Apples'. It is a true story about Akinori Kimura, an apple farmer in Japan, who found a way to grow apples without using insecticide.

Kimura decides to reduce the use of artificial farming aids to help prevent his wife's skin infections. Kimura's wife was so sensitive to the pesticide that she would have to sleep for several days to recover from the 'unnatural' substance.

Normally, an apple farmer, at that time, had to apply various pesticides about thirteen times in the six months up to the harvest in the autumn. The idea of growing apples without pesticides was nonsense! But what made Kimura make the decision comparable to the lunacy, asserting that the earth revolved around the sun in Galilei's day?

Kimura, worried about his wife, goes to a bookstore to read about natural farming methods. He reads a book about 'Do-nothing' farming, a technique that relies 100 percent on a natural system, which is completely self-sustaining. Inspired by this technique, he tries to experiment ways to substitute each artificial-ingredient or technique currently used for growing apples. 

But, eventually, his trees grew vulnerable to insects and disease, and for five years running the situation failed to improve. The family income dwindled and neighbors called Kimura a failure. His debt mounted. The couple stopped talking.

'The faintest of hopes remained the faintest of hopes', and local farmers and even close friends started to doubt Kimura's motives, saying "there's something wrong with his head" and "stay away from him if you don't want to go crazy too".

Able to bear the pressure no more, Kimura one evening couldn't help but commit suicide. He took a rope and hiked up a mountainside to do the deed, but under the moonlight saw an apple tree.

There, acorns were growing wild, without the support of pesticides. And they were overflowing.

In the eighth year of his endeavors, one tree produced seven apple blossoms and later produced two small apples in the autumn. The following spring his entire orchard was covered with white apple blossoms. The Kimuras were reduced to tears, viewing the splendid landscape from their perch overlooking their farm.

The result of Kimura's dedication is apples so pure that a sliced apple does not turn brown even after two years. Currently, Kimura receives an overflow of order requests that customers have to go on a waiting list two years in advance.

What I'm trying to tell you is  that when you have a conviction for a belief that is different from others, don't give up. Just because the world seems to be going in one direction, doesn't mean that the world is agreeing to that decision.

Image: Google image