Organic Agricultural Production in the United States: Debates and Directions

Abstract

The beginnings of modern organic agriculture are generally attributed to the writings in the 1940s of Sir Albert Howard and Lady Eve Balfour, which espoused that the health of plants, soil, livestock, and people are interrelated. It followed that farming practices should work in harmony with nature using inputs produced on farm. Organic agriculture was popularized in the United States by J.I. Rodale through the magazine Organic Farming and Gardening. Rodale advocated an approach to farming based on understanding and working with natural systems rather than attempting to control them. In the late 1940s and into the 1950s, chemical intensive agriculture successfully boosted agricultural productivity at relatively low cost, thus diverting attention away from the organic movement. However, the publication in 1962 of Rachel Carlson's Silent Spring gave rise to environmental consciousness and a renewed focus on