The Haughley Experiment was the first comparison of

organic farming Organic farming, also known as organic agriculture or ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2024 on organic production and labelling of ...

and

conventional farming Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming (as opposed to extensive farming), conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per unit of ...

, started in 1939 by

Lady Eve Balfour Lady Evelyn Barbara Balfour, (16 July 1898 – 16 January 1990) was a British farmer, educator, organic farming pioneer, and a founding figure in the organic movement. She was one of the first women to study agriculture at an English university ...

and Alice Debenham, on two adjoining farms in

Haughley Haughley is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. The village is located northwest of the town of Stowmarket, overlooking the River Gipping, Gipping valley, next to the A14 road (England), A14 corridor. Th ...

Green,

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It was based on an idea that farmers were over-reliant on fertilizers, that livestock, crops and the soil should be treated as a whole system, and that "natural" farming produced food which was in some way more wholesome than food produced with more intensive methods. Lady Balfour believed that mankind's future and human health were dependent on how the soil was treated, and ran the experiment to generate scientific data that would support these beliefs. Deborah Stinner, an entomologist, has written that by modern standards the Haughley experiment was more of a "demonstration" than a true experiment because it lacked methodological rigour, and it is thus not possible to draw any firm conclusions from its outputs. Findings reported by the Haughley experiment included: # Levels of available minerals in the soil fluctuate according to the season, maximum levels coinciding with the time of maximum plant demand and these fluctuations were significantly greater in the organic plots. #Vegetative mineral levels remained as high or higher in the organic plots even without receiving the mineral inputs that the conventional plots had. #Organic fed animals required from 12-15% less input of food, were healthier, and lived longer than their conventional counterparts. #Increased yields. In the early 1980s just before it ceased operation, properties of the three sections were measured and showed differences in earthworm density, crop root depth, and soil properties including

soil carbon Soil carbon is the solid carbon stored in global Soil, soils. This includes both soil organic matter and Inorganic compound, inorganic carbon as carbonate minerals. It is vital to the soil capacity in our ecosystem. Soil carbon is a carbon sink in ...

, moisture and, surprisingly, temperature.

References

External links

Towards a Sustainable Agriculture - The Living Soil
nbsp;– text of address by Eve Balfour to the 1977

IFOAM IFOAM – Organics International (formerly known as the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) is a worldwide organization advocating for organics, with over 700 affiliates in more than 100 countries and territories. Histo ...

conference in Switzerland.

nbsp;– Archive link to Blakemore (2000) Haughley Earthworm Report paper. {{Agriculture in the United Kingdom Sustainable agriculture History of Suffolk Organic farming in the United Kingdom History of agriculture in England 1939 establishments in England 1939 in science Environmentalism in England

See also

References

External links