Soil Association

Eve Balfour started the Soil Association, originally based around her Suffolk farm. Its website says

The Soil Association was founded in 1946 by a group of people who were concerned about the health implications of increasingly intensive farming systems following the Second World War. Their main concerns were:

• The loss of soil through erosion and depletion
• Decreased nutritional quality of food
• Exploitation of animals<
• Impact on the countryside and wildlife

According to David Clements …

By this time Lady Eve Balfour has launched The Soil Association and written her book “The Living Earth”. We had a good connection with her and she visited us several times. I remember on one occasion, her saying to George Adams that the organic movement looked to us to provide the philosophy behind the organic movement. Maurice Wood was a member of their first counsel and Deryck Duffy on their panel of experts.

The editor of “Mother Earth”, the Soil Association journal, Sam Waller, once said that B.D. was the poetry of the organic movement. So, from the start, we had our connections with the Soil Association – though from the start we also experienced opposition.

Also of interest is that Alan Brockman, organic farmer, designed their distinctive logo!