Yoshimitsu Morita

Producer: Yoshimitsu Morita
Production area: Uki City, Kumamoto Prefecture
Main products: Taro, ginger, celery, etc.
No pesticides used
Fertilizer use Rice bran, rice husk

Yoshimitsu and Kayoko Morita, a married couple from Ogawamachi, Uki City, are veterans with 45 years of experience in organic farming. They are now indispensable to Kumamoto, holding many important positions including the Kumamoto Organic Agriculture Research Association, JAS organic certification, and the Agricultural Committee.
No pesticides or chemical fertilizers are used. The rice bran and husks from the rice he grows are returned to the fields. He uses only the materials from his own fields and rice paddies, and recycles them.

"Health comes from food," so "organic farming is a given." Both of them were very conscious of this even before they got married, and their beliefs have not changed in the 45 years since then.
Starting in the 1960s, when Japan was experiencing rapid economic growth, children born in the 1970s were already eating foods that contained pesticides, chemical fertilizers, food additives, and were far removed from nature.
"If we eat only food like this, we'll definitely get sick!" This strengthened the couple's desire to do agriculture that protects lives.
Also, the defoliant (herbicide) that was used in large quantities during the Vietnam War caused many casualties, and seeing the stories of Viet-chan and Doc-chan, I felt that its use was absolutely unacceptable.
In order to avoid wasting petroleum resources, plastic greenhouse vinyl is reused until it can no longer be used. They practice agriculture and lifestyles that are close to nature.

Looking back on that time, Kayoko says:
In that kind of environment at the time, the owner, Yoshimitsu, who was "not a doctor or a researcher but just a farmer", would always include a letter expressing his belief that "health comes from food" in each box of vegetables that he carefully grew and delivered to consumers.

Morita currently has four greenhouses, and for each greenhouse he tries out various patterns, such as sowing seedlings at different times, intentionally opening the bottom of the greenhouse, or opening the roof.Through constant experimentation, he has determined the best method for both the crops and the work involved.
While looking around the greenhouse, I discovered a celery plant that was infested with aphids and looked weak.
There were also beneficial insects such as ladybugs and snails there to eat the aphids.
Aphids are inevitably prone to appear when growing celery, and if they appear on a plant, they are pulled out by the roots to prevent them from damaging other celery plants.
According to Morita, in other production areas, people wanted to increase the number of ladybugs, which are beneficial insects that eat aphids, so they deliberately invited aphids to increase their numbers, but it is not so easy to artificially restore the balance in nature, and in some cases the damage caused by pests has become worse.

Morita says that since he is dealing with nature, it is important to do things in a way that is as close to nature as possible without upsetting the balance of insects and crops. As he approaches 70 years old and his physical strength is declining, he is always trying to find ways to harvest the best produce possible.

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