Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The origins of organic agriculture
Early deelopment
The origins of modern organic agriculture are intertwined with the birth of today's 'industri-
ally based' agriculture. Many of the practices of organic agriculture were the only option for
farmers before the advent of chemically synthesised fertilisers, biocides, medicines, mechani-
sation and fossil fuels that allow industrial agriculture to function. Without recourse to such
technologies, farmers had no option but to work within biological and ecological systems. For
example, the only source of fertiliser to replace nutrients from cropped fields was human and
animal manure and leguminous plants. Failing to rotate crops caused a build up of pests, as
there were no pesticides to control them. From this perspective, organic agriculture is the
original and mainstream agriculture and 'conventional' industrial agriculture is the one that
departs from the practices that agriculture has been following since its inception.
This split between industrial and organic agriculture dates back to the start of the 19th
century when it was discovered that it was the mineral salts contained in humus and manure
that plants absorbed, and not organic matter. Sir Humphrey Davy and Justus von Liebig were
the key founders of this theory and published their ideas in
Elements of Agricultural Chemistry
(Davy 1813) and
Organic Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology
(von Liebig
1840). Their argument was that inorganic mineral fertilisers could replace manures and bring
agriculture into the scientific fold, with resulting increases in production and efficiency. The
agricultural revolution began in the 1840s and with it came the first commercial production of
inorganic fertilisers. However, like many revolutions, it was not without mistakes and signifi-
cant uptake of fertilisers did not occur until the start of World War Two (Grigg 1989).
It was in the 1920s that individuals who were concerned about the direction agriculture
was heading first started to speak out and to join together. Rudolph Steiner, the founder of the
philosophy of 'Anthroposophy' gave his agricultural lectures in 1924. Although these lectures
and other Steiner teachings were the foundation of biodynamic agriculture, which differs from
organic agriculture principally as it has spiritual, mystical and astrological aspects, they were
prophetic in their criticism of industrial agriculture and in plotting an alternative course. The
first organic certification and labelling system, 'Demeter', was created in 1924 because of Stein-
er's actions (Rundgren 2002).
During this time, Robert McCarrison, a distinguished scientist, was researching the vitality
of the fighting men of India and why they lacked diseases common in the west. He promoted
health as a positive concept of vitality rather than a negative form viewed as an absence of
disease. Good health was based on a diet of wholesome food - mostly fresh plants and grains
with modest amounts of meat, grown on land to which all manures were returned (i.e. follow-
ing the 'law of return'). McCarrison followed up his observations with dietary experiments on
rats, feeding one group on the diet of the Indians and the other of the British poor. The rats on
the Indian diet f lourished, while the others suffered a range of diseases and negative sociologi-
cal effects. This led McCarrison to expound the importance of a wholesome diet grown on soil
fertilised with manures and other organic matter.
Sir Albert Howard was also working in India in the 1920s on an experimental agricultural
research institute he established. Howard was a highly capable scientist as well, and while his
training was more than sufficient to understand the new chemical ideas, his upbringing on a
Shropshire farm made him highly sceptical of the approach. He was a keen observer of the
local peasant farmers and said that he learnt far more from them than from his scientific
training. Howard undertook a wide range of activities including a highly successful plant
breeding program and observed the effects of how forage was grown on the health of farm
animals. This led him to believe in the inextricable linkages between the health of the soil and
