ABSTRACT
Organic agriculture is often traced to the beginning of the twentieth century. Early luminaries to promote organic farming methods include Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner (who, as discussed in Box 11.2, is also linked closely with biodynamic agriculture), Sir Albert Howard and Lady Eve Balfour (who together led the founding of the British Soil Association), and the Swiss couple Maria and Dr Hans Müller, and the German doctor H.P. Rusch. Despite some differences between the approaches, the main aim of organic farming – its spirit, you might say – is to create a sustainable agricultural production system. “Sustainable” here defined in a broader sense than just economic sustainability, including also envir onmental and social sustainability (Box 11.1). It is also worth mentioning that while “organic” to biochemists refers simply to anything containing carbon, to early twentieth century thinkers it held a different meaning. Organic, in this other sense, compelled farmers to think of their farm as an organism, that is, as a self-regulating whole that must be managed accordingly (rather than as a bunch of substitutable parts).
