History Of Organic Gardening And Composting

A Brief History of Organic Gardening and Composting

The history of organic gardening and composting is not brief; it is as old as the history of man.  In fact, the history of inorganic gardening is the brief one; inorganic farming is only a little over a century old.

In the early 20th century, scientists began to study nutrition and soil, to discover ways to make food more nutritious and ways to improve crop production.  They discovered that there is a kind of “Law of Limitation” to growing crops.  The amount of a crop that is produced cannot exceed the least amount of required substances in the soil.

That sounds confusing, but here’s how it goes.  Say a crop needs 10 units each of substances A, B, C, and D.  And say the soil has 25 units of A, 4 units of B, and 10 units each of C and D.  The soil will only produce 40% of the potential crop, because it only has 40% of the substance B that it needs.

So, the scientists thought that perhaps they could improve crop production by adding substance B to the soil.  And it worked.  By using non-organic additives, American farmers began to produce more food than anybody, anywhere had ever produced before.

It wasn’t too long, however, before people began to suspect that there might be problems with this approach.  In 1943, Sir Albert Howard, the Father of modern organic gardening and farming, wrote An Agricultural Testament, which encouraged organic farming practices.  His research was continued by J I Rodale, and the Rodale Foundation still conducts research into organic gardening.

So, you could say that the history of organic gardening and composting began with the scientific research of Sir Albert Howard.  Or you could more realistically say that the history of organic gardening and composting began millennia ago.

One of the first written records of the history of organic gardening and composting was discovered on clay tablets from the Akkadian Empire.  The tablet was written 1000 years before Moses was born.  So the history of organic farming is at least that old.

Written bits of the history of organic gardening and composting are recorded in the Bible and Talmud, in ancient Arabic writing, and in the writing of the Greeks and Romans. 

When Europeans came to the New World, they brought organic gardening with them, but found that Native Americans—most of whom weren’t even farmers, also practiced organic farming. 

Inorganic farming is a blip on history’s line.  The history of organic gardening and composting is the line of history.