Key Milestones in the Global Organic Farming Movement

Organic farming as we know it today did not emerge overnight. It evolved through a series of deliberate, hard-won milestones – each building on the last – spanning more than a century. From a philosopher’s lectures on a German estate to a global market exceeding 136 billion euros, the story of organic farming is one of science, activism, and a persistent belief that the health of soil and the health of people are fundamentally connected.

The biodynamic beginning: Rudolf Steiner, 1924 🔗

Biodynamic agriculture is widely recognised as the first modern organic farming system, and its origins trace back to a single week in June 1924. Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher, delivered a series of eight lectures at Schloss Koberwitz in Silesia – now Kobierzyce, Poland – in direct response to farmers who were already noticing the decline of soil quality and crop health as a result of chemical fertilisers. The 111 attendees came from six countries, most of them farmers. Steiner was one of the first public figures to warn that heavy reliance on synthetic inputs would degrade soil health long-term, and he introduced the idea of the farm as a single, self-sustaining organism – integrating crops, livestock, and soil biology into a closed-loop system. These lectures, later compiled and published in multiple languages, laid the philosophical and practical groundwork for what would become the biodynamic method. The Demeter certification system, which grew directly out of Steiner’s work, was established as early as 1928, making it the world’s oldest organic certification programme.

Sir Albert Howard and the science of composting 🔗

If Steiner gave organic farming its philosophical backbone, Sir Albert Howard gave it a scientific one. Howard spent 25 years as an agricultural investigator in India, eventually becoming Director of the Institute of Plant Industry at Indore, where he refined what is now known as the Indore composting method – a systematic process for converting vegetable and animal wastes into high-quality humus. Howard was the first Westerner to document and publish the traditional Indian techniques of sustainable agriculture, learning directly from local farmers and integrating soil microbiology into their practices. His landmark 1940 book, An Agricultural Testament, presented these findings to a general audience and argued that the fertility of the soil is the foundational condition of any permanent farming system. The book became a touchstone for the emerging organic movement. Inspired by Howard’s writing, a young American named J.I. Rodale launched his Organic Farming and Gardening magazine in the early 1940s, which took Howard’s ideas to a mass audience in the United States and beyond.

Lady Eve Balfour and the Haughley Experiment 🔗

In Britain, another pioneer was making her mark. Lady Eve Balfour launched the Haughley Experiment in 1939 – the first long-term, side-by-side scientific comparison of organic and conventional farming – in Suffolk, England. Her 1943 book, The Living Soil, published the initial findings and argued that human health was directly tied to the health of the soil. Its influence was immediate and far-reaching, leading to the formation of the Soil Association in 1946. The Soil Association became one of the most significant organic advocacy organisations in the world and remains a leading certifier today. Balfour’s work gave the organic movement something it urgently needed: empirical evidence, not just philosophy.

Rachel Carson and the environmental turning point 🔗

No account of the organic movement’s milestones is complete without acknowledging Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring. Carson, a prominent scientist and naturalist, chronicled the effects of DDT and other pesticides on the environment, linking the widespread use of agricultural chemicals to the collapse of bird populations and broader ecosystem damage. The book galvanised public concern about agrichemicals and helped connect the organic farming movement to the growing environmental movement. It is widely credited with accelerating regulatory scrutiny of synthetic pesticides in the United States and around the world, and it shifted organic farming from a niche agricultural philosophy to a matter of public health and environmental policy.

The founding of IFOAM, 1972: organic goes global 🔗

The year 1972 marks one of the most consequential institutional milestones in the history of organic farming. Roland Chevriot of France’s Nature et Progrès organisation recognised the need for organic movements across different countries to coordinate their efforts and share scientific data across borders. He invited organic pioneers including Lady Eve Balfour of the UK Soil Association, Kjell Arman from the Swedish Biodynamic Association, and Jerome Goldstein from the Rodale Institute to join him in Versailles to set the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM – Organics International) in motion.

IFOAM was founded by five organisations from France, Sweden, the UK, South Africa, and the United States. Its mission was to promote organic agriculture worldwide and to establish common principles and standards for organic practice. One of its earliest contributions was the development of the IFOAM Basic Standards, which provided a consistent reference point for national and regional organic certification programmes, giving the organic label credibility and coherence across borders. From those five founding members, IFOAM grew to over 800 affiliates in 117 countries by 2020, underscoring how rapidly the global interest in organic farming expanded once a unifying institutional structure was in place.

From principles to policy: national standards take shape 🔗

The decades following IFOAM’s founding saw organic farming move from advocacy into law. In 1990, the United States passed the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) – despite strong initial opposition – establishing a national framework for organic standards and labelling. The National Organic Standards Board followed in 1992, and the USDA formally implemented national organic regulations in 2002. At the international level, Codex Alimentarius, the joint UN commission for global food standards, completed its international organic guidelines in 1999. These regulatory milestones were critical: they transformed “organic” from a loosely defined marketing claim into a legally enforceable standard that consumers could trust.

The growth of the global organic market 🔗

With standards in place and consumer awareness rising steadily, the organic food market has experienced remarkable growth since the 1990s. Since the beginning of systematic data collection on organic agriculture, the global organic farming area has increased by over 400%, while organic retail sales have grown by over 700% between 2000 and 2021.

The most recent figures, published jointly by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and IFOAM – Organics International, show that by the end of 2023, nearly 98.9 million hectares were managed organically worldwide – a 2.6% increase from 2022 – with retail sales of organic food exceeding 136 billion euros. Africa recorded the highest relative growth in organic farmland at 24%, while Latin America added the most land in absolute terms. India remains the country with the most organic producers, with over 2.36 million farmers, reflecting the deep roots of traditional sustainable practice in the subcontinent – the very soil where Sir Albert Howard drew his earliest and most influential lessons.

India’s role in the organic story 🔗

India’s prominence in the global organic statistics is not accidental. The country has a rich legacy of traditional farming methods that align closely with organic principles – methods that Howard himself observed and documented a century ago. Today, India’s organic sector spans millions of small-scale producers, and the country is one of the largest exporters of certified organic products globally. This continuity – from ancient composting traditions, to Howard’s scientific documentation, to a 21st-century certified export industry – is one of the most compelling threads in the wider organic narrative.

From organic 1.0 to organic 3.0 🔗

IFOAM frames the evolution of organic agriculture in three distinct phases. Organic 1.0 was started by numerous pioneers who observed the problems with the direction agriculture was taking at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. Organic 2.0 marked the period of rapid market growth, formal certification, and expanding consumer demand. Organic 3.0, approved by IFOAM’s General Assembly in 2017, represents the movement’s current ambition: positioning organic farming not merely as a niche market but as a modern, innovative system capable of addressing global challenges such as soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change – while also supporting small-scale farmers and fair trade principles. The goal is a widespread uptake of truly sustainable farming systems, not just a certified label on a supermarket shelf.

The journey from Steiner’s lectures in a Polish village to a global market approaching 100 million hectares of certified land is a story of compounding milestones – each one making the next possible. Biodynamic principles inspired composting science; composting science inspired publishing; publishing inspired activism; activism inspired legislation; legislation grew markets; and markets are now shaping national agricultural policy across 188 countries.

What do you think? As organic farming continues to expand, particularly in the Global South, what role should traditional indigenous farming knowledge play in shaping the standards and certification systems of the future? And with the organic market now a €136 billion global industry, how do we ensure that small-scale farmers – the backbone of the movement from the very beginning – remain central to it rather than being marginalised by commercial scale?

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodynamic_agriculture
2. https://www.biodynamics.com/steiner.html
3. https://www.cultivarian.food/post/organic-farming-history-from-local-practices-to-global-movement
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Howard
5. https://ikaki.in/bagh/sir-albert-howard-composting-at-ikaki-bagh/
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_movement
7. https://ifoam.bio/about-us/our-history-organic-30
8. https://rogerblobaum.com/selected-organic-history-milestones/
9. https://non-gmoreport.com/current-trends-and-challenges-for-global-organic-agriculture/
10. https://www.fibl.org/en/info-centre/news/organic-market-back-on-track
11. https://www.fibl.org/en/info-centre/news/global-organic-area-grows-more-than-ever-before