Ethics in the Organic Movement - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 27

the borders of a farm to the landscape (Principle of Ecology) and a community
(Principle of Fairness and Care). For Leopold, the land is a common good and
not the property of an individual (cf. Foster 1995 ; Freyfogle 2003 ). It is important
to note that Leopold sheds light on the relevance of individual freedom and
responsibility while identifying the need for a place-based education within a
governmental framework (see Knapp 2005 ).
Organic farmer and author, Jerome Irving Rodale (1898-1970), was first inspired
by Albert Howard's experiments and observations (Jerome Irving Rodale 1971 ).
In 1930 he established his own experimental farm for organic agriculture in
Pennsylvania. His topic “The Organic Front” ( 1948 ), presents his thinking about
organic agriculture, soils and health, including the interaction of organic fertilizer,
soil health and human health. Rodale's approach was very techno-ecological
oriented, and he advocated innovation and a more modernized type of organic
agriculture. As such, he therefore contributed a strong ecological and health oriented
perspective to the current organic movement.
Each of these organic pioneers influenced the development of ethics and value
that undergird organic production and consumption today. Although they were very
aware that food production inevitably required human intervention with nature, each
one understood that this intervention must respect nature. In summary, each pioneer
contributed to promoting the need for ethics or values which are documented today
in the IFOAM Principles of Health, Ecology, Fairness and Care.

2.3.3 Organic and Environmentalism

In the early 1960s, a time in which diverse groups of ranging values and objectives
already comprised the organic movement, Rachel Carson's (Carson 2002 ) critique
of pesticide use launched a new phase for the organic movement. Even though the
British Soil Association had already given environmental issues attention in the '50s
(Conford and Dimbleby 2001 ), Carson was able to broaden attention to the organic
movement and to organic as an environmental friendly agricultural practice. This
coincided with the rise of the counter-cultural movements in which many started
organic farming (back to the land movement) as a protest against the 'industrial-
military complex' (Sligh and Cierpka 2007 , p. 33). The discourse that economic
profits and self-interest should be less important than more holistic oriented values
was important during this time.
In addition to the traditional organic practitioners, who followed many of the
pioneers and the back to the land movement in the 1920s, many family farmers want-
ing to avoid the trend of 'get big or get out' turned to organic agriculture. During
this time, there was also a growing movement of food cooperatives that promoted
the value of healthy, local, and locally processed food (Allen et al. 2003 ). These
diverse motives and values illustrated the ways in which the organic movement had