There is no good or bad among the life-forms on earth. Each has its role, is nec­es­sary, and has equal value.

It seems log­i­cal for peo­ple to choose some­thing spe­cial from na­ture and use it for the ben­e­fit of hu­man be­ings, but when they do this, they make a big mis­take. Tak­ing one el­e­ment from na­ture, in the name of cre­at­ing some­thing valu­able eco­nom­i­cally (cash crops, for ex­am­ple), gives that el­e­ment spe­cial value. It also im­plies that other el­e­ments have a lesser value. When hu­man be­ings plant only “use­ful” trees with high cash value in the desert, and cut down the un­der­growth re­fer­ring to those plants as “weeds,” many plant species are lost. Of­ten they are the very plants that are en­rich­ing and hold­ing the soil to­gether.
 There is no good or bad among the life-forms on earth. Each has its role, is nec­es­sary, and has equal value. This idea may seem sim­plis­tic and un­sci­en­tific, but it is the ba­sis for my plan to re­gen­er­ate land­scapes all over the world.
 Masanobu Fukuoka, Sawing Seeds in the Desert