ABSTRACT
Eve Balfour was the most powerful and sustained voice in Britain – and many of its former colonies – to argue in favour of organic food and farming for most of the second half of the twentieth century. During the mid-1930s, Eve's concern about the negative impacts on farmers of Britain's commitment to free trade led her to champion a wave of protests against the payment of archaic tithes. As the Second World War loomed, Eve encountered ideas about humus or compost farming. Eve and the Soil Association accepted that an increase in food production was a priority, but insisted that problems with poor food quality were just as urgent. Eve was also heavily influenced by the core New Age idea that ill-health in an individual is connected to deeper, spiritual malaise. Eve died in 1990, a time when public support for organic food and farming was quietly growing.
