Green Harvest

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A History of Organic Farming and Gardening in Australia

By: Rebecca Jones

eBook - September 2010 - eRetailers

Explores the ideas and practices that have shaped organic farming and gardening in Australia.

Green Harvest explores the ideas and practices that have shaped organic farming and gardening in Australia from the interwar years to the present day. It reveals that Australian organic farming and gardening societies were amongst the first in the world, being active as early as the 1940s. + Full description

In what way does human health depend upon the natural environment? Green Harvest traces this idea through four themes of Australian organic farming and gardening – soil, chemical free, ecological well-being and back to the land – each illustrated with a case study profiling an Australian organic farmer or gardener.

Personalities in Australian organic gardening, such as Jackie French and Peter Bennett, talk about organic growing. The book also features extracts from early organic magazines and interviews with current organic growers, including banana and macadamia farmers, managers of outback sheep stations, dairy farmers and self-sufficiency gardeners. All of these tell the story of Australian organic farming and gardening: past, present and future.

- Short description

News

No longer available in a print edition.

"For those already converted to the organic way of thinking, Jones book makes for an enjoyable and fascinating opportunity to dip in to the development of the organic movement we know today. For those more concerned with quality than quantity, and the here and now rather than the future, perhaps a little time spent reading this book will sow an organic seed that will begin to spread its roots and flourish."
Alison J Beaty, Australian Certified Organic Magazine, Spring 2010

Reviews

"Imaginatively researched and lucidly presented."
Australian Garden History, Vol 22, No 3, 2011

"It’s fantastic to see such a history recorded and the pioneering work of so many acknowledged."
Steve Payne, Organic Gardener, January/February 2011

"In this pithy and original book, Rebecca Jones ranges over both organic gardening and farming, and in doing so significantly enlarges our understanding of a mode of environmental engagement that has become increasingly popular in Australia in recent years.

In sum, Green Harvest provides valuable insights into the material environmental interactions of organic gardeners and farmers in Australia, as well as what they have believed, and how they have organised themselves. As such, it is a very welcome addition to the scholarship on the history of human-environment relationships in Australia."
Andrea Gaynor, Limina http://www.limina.arts.uwa.edu.au, 2011

"Those interested in the history and underlying principles of organic farming and gardening in Australia will be very interested in this book by Rebecca Jones..."
Allison Cox, Southern Farmer, P.23 May 2011

"…the author helps the reader appreciate the reasons why organic practices have become popular. Highly recommended for all gardeners."
Paul Plant, subTropical Gardening, Issue 22, 2011

"At the book’s widest level, environmental history forms the lens through which Rebecca Jones has examined her subject, embracing changing ideas about health and environment. Such ideas are not merely confined to pragmatic practical aspects of horticulture: Green Harvest tackles far less tangible aspects of rebellion, refuge, self sufficiency, closeness to nature, and the continuity of the yeoman idyll (which inspired the ideology behind much of Australia’s rural settlement). The book is at its strongest when canvassing such ideas and linking them to the core subject of organic farming and garden."
Richard Aitken, The Australian Garden History Society, HRAS

"For those already converted to the organic way of thinking, Jones book makes for an enjoyable and fascinating opportunity to dip in to the development of the organic movement we know today. For those more concerned with quality than quantity, and the here and now rather than the future, perhaps a little time spent reading this book will sow an organic seed that will begin to spread its roots and flourish."
Alison J Beaty, Australian Certified Organic Magazine, Spring 2010

Features

The first history of Australian organic farming and gardening
Presents new historical research about early 'pre-counterculture' organic farmers and gardeners of the 1940s and 1950s (unpublished prior to this study)
Innovative structure combining thematic chapters with descriptive case studies
Presents case studies of Australian organic farmers in a range of different environments and production types
Contains interviews with high profile organic gardeners such as Jackie French and Peter Bennett

Authors

Rebecca Jones’s exploration of organic farming and gardening began when she dug up her front garden in inner city Melbourne and planted a vegetable garden. Needing more room, she moved to a small property in rural Victoria where she now has a big vegetable patch and orchard. Besides being a keen organic grower, she is a historian and researcher of environmental history and the connections between human health and the environment. She has published on topics ranging from soil and organic farming to oral history and mental health and well-being. She has completed a PhD about Australian organic growing and currently lectures in Health Ecology at Monash University Department of Rural and Indigenous Health.