Farm as Organism
Posted: 11 Nov 2014, 14:09
The Farm as Organism: The Foundational Idea of Organic Agriculture
John Paull
The term organic farming was coined by Oxford University agriculturalist Lord
Northbourne, in his book Look to the Land, and published in wartime England in
1940. It was a response to what he dubbed chemical farming, and from the outset he
presented these as two mutually incompatible, and contesting, agricultural methodologies.
The terms are introduced in contention: “organic versus chemical farming” in
the Chapter 3 heading (Northbourne, 1940, p. 81).
Northbourne’s key contribution is the idea of the farm as organism. He wrote of “the
farm as a living whole” (p.81). In the first elaboration of this concept, he wrote that
“the farm itself must have a biological completeness; it must be a living entity, it must
be a unit which has within itself a balanced organic life” (p. 96). A farm that relied on
“imported fertility … cannot be self-sufficient nor an organic whole” (p.97). For Lord
Northbourne “the farm must be organic in more senses than one” (p. 98), and he presents
the holistic view that “The soil and the microorganisms in it together with the
plants growing on it form an organic whole” (p. 99).
John Paull
The term organic farming was coined by Oxford University agriculturalist Lord
Northbourne, in his book Look to the Land, and published in wartime England in
1940. It was a response to what he dubbed chemical farming, and from the outset he
presented these as two mutually incompatible, and contesting, agricultural methodologies.
The terms are introduced in contention: “organic versus chemical farming” in
the Chapter 3 heading (Northbourne, 1940, p. 81).
Northbourne’s key contribution is the idea of the farm as organism. He wrote of “the
farm as a living whole” (p.81). In the first elaboration of this concept, he wrote that
“the farm itself must have a biological completeness; it must be a living entity, it must
be a unit which has within itself a balanced organic life” (p. 96). A farm that relied on
“imported fertility … cannot be self-sufficient nor an organic whole” (p.97). For Lord
Northbourne “the farm must be organic in more senses than one” (p. 98), and he presents
the holistic view that “The soil and the microorganisms in it together with the
plants growing on it form an organic whole” (p. 99).