Agricultural History Review, Volume 58 Part 2 (2010), p. 288

Rebels for the soil is not a work of history. The author, Matthew Reed, is specific on this point, stating that it is not ‘an encyclopaedia of who did what and when in the organic movement across the planet over the last century’ (p.11). Instead, it is a work of political sociology underpinned by a substantial and – in this reader’s opinion – problematic historical account.

Reed’s primary argument is that the global organic food and farming movement should be seen as a persistent and durable social movement whose history can be organized around four phases or ‘waves’. The first wave occurred during the inter-war years, when a ‘critical community’ coalesced in Britain and Germany, concerned about the consequences of modern farming for soil fertility, nutrition and the spiritual health of society. From the Second World War and through the 1960s the organic movement became an organized ‘transnational’ force co-ordinated by organizations such as the Soil Association and the Rodale Institute. This was, according to Reed, the movement’s second wave and a time when it was highly marginalized. Reed is correct to insist that these wilderness years should not be dismissed as a failure, since it was during this difficult time that much of the groundwork for later success was laid. He also points out that this second phase included a focus on research farms, such as the Soil Association’s farms at Haughley Green in Suffolk, which mirrored the emphasis on experimental farms by the conventional agriculture of the period.

A third ‘wave’ in the history of the organic movement began in the early 1970s, Reed argues, when environmentalism and the threat of pollution overcame the movement’s earlier, narrower focus on soil fertility and nutrition. This was also the moment when standard setting and marketing of organic food became a priority, eventually leading to the successes of the last decade of the twentieth century and the first years of the twenty-first, when organic products became a significant niche element of mainstream food culture in the developed world. A fourth ‘wave’ is currently emerging, says Reed, centred on the ways in which organic agriculture fits, or does not fit, within increasingly urgent policy debates about food security – or ‘peak food’.

This bird’s eye view of developments within the organic movement is useful and, at times, thought-provoking, although it must be acknowledged that Reed’s four-wave schema is relevant only in terms of the British movement. The claim on the cover of Rebels that it charts the global organic movement is misleading. This reviewer presumes that the publisher, Earthscan, insisted on a global history; the decision has done Reed no favours, since his consideration of organic developments in continental Europe, the USA, Australia and New Zealand is sufficiently cursory and erratic as to be almost insulting.

Reed’s far more substantial historical account of the British organic movement is also frustrating. The level of detail, pace and approach to explaining the movement’s history varies so considerably and shifts so often and unpredictably that the book should come with a warning that it is not to be read by those who are not already well informed about the history of the British organic movement. Yet Rebels seems designed by Earthscan as an introduction for FE students, the very people least equipped to gain from Reed’s convoluted and, at times, mildly inaccurate historical account.

At times, Reed plunges into highly detailed explanations about, for example, the founding of the Soil Association, while in other places he fails to name significant actors involved in shaping the key organic ideas he has outlined. There are also some inaccuracies and odd bits of trivia. Why does Reed include a small box about Eve Balfour’s participation in the 1930s anti-tithe protests in a chapter that is not focused on the inter-war period? What is more, what has prompted him to assert that Eve Balfour had close dealings with Sir Stafford Cripps? If she did, this reviewer would love to know the basis for this claim. Reed also concentrates on the political tenor of the early Soil Association, to the exclusion of its primary activities and achievements.

Essentially, the problem with Rebels is that it offers an unbalanced historical account designed to substantiate a more interesting set of political arguments about the contemporary organic movement. Provided this is accepted and the book is read with caution, Reed’s discussion about the nature of the British organic movement today and about recent and current events is interesting. In particular, Reed’s comments about the movement’s long-standing aversion to public protest (with the exception of the successful participation by organic supporters in a confrontational late-1990s and early-2000s campaign against genetic modification) are useful.