Vol.4 No.1 (2009)

The Living Soil Association: Pioneering Organic Farming and Innovating Social Inclusion

John Paull

Abstract: The Living Soil Association of Tasmania (LSAT) (1946-1960) pioneered the concepts of organic food and farming in Australia's smallest state, for the decade immediately after WWII. The LSAT was one of the world's first organisations to promote organic farming. It was preceded by New Zealand's Humic Compost Society (founded in 1941), the Australian Organic Farming and Gardening Society (1944), Australia's Victorian Compost Society (1945), and England's Soil Association (1946). The Tasmanian Association engaged, or was officially affiliated, with each of these four organisations. The LSAT actively courted and recruited a broad spectrum of organisations and government departments, particularly those with interests, or responsibilities, in agriculture, health, and education. The Association consistently sought a co-operative approach while avoiding a confrontational approach. An innovation of the LSAT was the provision for 'Junior members'; the LSAT constitution included separate and specific Objects for Junior Groups, one of which was for school children to eat organic food.

Keywords: Soil Association, Living Soil Association of Tasmania, LSAT, Australian Organic Farming and Gardening Society, New Zealand Humic Compost Society, Victorian Compost Society, Organic Farming Digest, Farm and Garden Digest, Eve Balfour, Henry Shoobridge, Australia, Tasmania, history of organic farming, organic pioneers.

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