ABSTRACT
The term organic farming was introduced into common usage around 1940, following farming movements that had begun in the 1920s and 1930s promoting the concept of management of a farm as a living unit or whole system. During the period of the 1920s and 1930s, Albert Howard in the United Kingdom, and based on his work in India, laid out the social and practical groundwork for the organic gardening movement. Rudolph Steiner, through his lectures and teaching beginning in 1924, laid the foundation for biodynamic agriculture, which created the first organic-like certification and labeling system. However, biodynamic agriculture differs from organic agriculture in that the biodynamic system has spiritual, mystical, and astrological guidelines. Lord Northbourne, an agronomist in England, in reference to farming, introduced the term organic to the world in 1940 in his book Look to the Land. J.I. Rodale introduced the organic movement to the United States about 70 years ago with publications that advocated for health through farming organically. During the 1940s, the Rodale Institute (United States), the Soil Association (United Kingdom), and Soil and Health (New Zealand) were founded as associations devoted to study and promotion of organic farming. Similar organizations arose in Germany and Japan at about the same time or just following the establishment of the institutions in the United States, United Kingdom, and New Zealand.
