Organic Movement

It is of particular importance that monitoring standards be extended worldwide, since, as Meier (2000) predicts, the organic movement is now on the threshold of changing from a niche to a mass-market. 

Lawrence D. Hills, who founded Garden Organic (then known as HDRA) 50 years ago. One of the pioneers of the organic movement, he would be thrilled to see where, half a century later, his foresight, knowledge, and enthusiasm has taken us. 

It was the work and publications of people such as Howard, McCarrison and Steiner that influenced the next wave of organic pioneers. This second wave brought the organic movement into being, with the establishment of the early associations such as the Rodale Institute in the United States of America (USA), Soil and Health in New Zealand and the Soil Association in the United Kingdom (UK). The term organic was first used in relation to farming by North-bourne (1940) (see above). 

Conford, P. 2001. The Origins of the Organic Movement. Floris Books, Edinburgh. 

There are publications within the organic movement that relate the occurrence of specific weeds to specific soil conditions and that refer to the possibility of weeds being indicators of soil status (e.g. Pfeiffer 1970, Walters 1996). The presence of a given weed therefore suggests that the land has too much or too little of a certain soil feature (e.g. drainage, pH, copper levels) that may be modified by the farm manager. Although many of the recommendations are based on careful observation and commonsense, some of the relationships have not been conclusively established. 

Verhoog H. 2004. The reasons for rejecting genetic engineering by the organic movement. Forum TTN (Technik, Theologie, Naturwissenschaften) 12 13-31. 

Standards for organic animal husbandry have not been considered as explicitly by the organic movement as the standards for organic plant production. This could be explained by the organic movement having started with soil and plant production ( produce healthy plants on healthy soils ). 

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