ABSTRACT
Ernst Fritz Schumacher was born in Bonn, Germany, in 1911. In 1970, after many years of gestation, Schumacher founded the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) with an article in the pages of the Observer newspaper. For Schumacher, care for the land and for the soil was fundamental to caring for the whole of the natural world, as well as a way of creating a just and equitable society. Schumacher was a holistic and ecological economist. The importance of small-scale and local production became crystal clear to him when Schumacher saw a lorry full of biscuits being brought from Manchester to London, and minutes later another lorry full of biscuits being taken from London to Manchester. Schumacher was greatly influenced by the Austrian philosopher Leopold Kohr, whom he considered his mentor. Schumacher Societies have also sprung up in the USA, Germany and India.
