Agriculture Reference
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conservation reserves. In their concern about the preservation native flora and
fauna in its natural environment they also formed links with nature preservation
organizations dedicated to the protection of flora and fauna such as Save the Forests
Campaign, the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, and the Victorian National Parks
Association.
11.2.4
Summary
All three key principles that defined Australian organic growing in its early years -
humus-rich, fertile soil, chemical free production and biodiversity - were founded
on the fundamental concept that human health and the biophysical environment are
interdependent and intertwined. Food was a crucial site of interaction between a
person and their surrounds. To be organic was to produce food in a way that growers
believed promoted human health by co-operating with natural processes and
enhancing environmental health. Ecological thinking inspired these ideas. During
the mid twentieth century, the period when organic agriculture was becoming
established, there was a burgeoning interest in ecology and humans' relationship
with the natural environment (Worster 1994 ). Ecological thinking, as both a science
and a philosophy of interrelatedness, is a way of thinking about and understanding
the world that emphasizes the interdependency of all things. Humans are seen as
part of, and dependent on, natural systems that are mutual, dynamic and interactive.
Animate and inanimate entities and processes are interrelated and interdependent
and the context in which something exists has a profound impact on the individual.
Therefore changes within the natural environment can impact on human health and
wellbeing and as health ecologist and epidemiologist Tony McMichael explains,
human actions which damage the environment can, in turn, have detrimental effects
on human health (McMichael 2001a ).
Organic growers of the mid twentieth century acknowledged the inspiration of
ecological thinking in their principles, making statements in their magazines which
referenced ecology such as: “each life contributes its own individual part in the
great symphony of nature. The science of ecology teaches us of this co-operation”
(Victorian Compost Society 1952 ). One of the most eloquent and popular ecologists
of the interwar years who inspired Australian organic farmers and gardeners
was American forester and environmental philosopher Aldo Leopold. Leopold's
writings were informed by his observations of the destruction of environments
and over-hunting of large predators. Leopold's A Sand County Almanac (Leopold
1949 ), published posthumously, proposed a 'Land Ethic' that encouraged people
to see themselves as part of a community with the non-human world. He argued
that human wellbeing depended upon this circle of interrelatedness in which
humans were equal members rather than conquerors. Human actions, he claimed,
should therefore be limited by responsibility to the rest of the community and
curtailed to those actions that promoted the integrity and stability of the whole
community. Leopold described this as 'enlightened self interest' and argued that
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