Editing Haughley Experiment

The '''Haughley Experiment''' was the first comparison of [[organic farming]] and [[conventional farming]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=White|first1=Kim Kennedy|last2=Duram|first2=Leslie A|title=America Goes Green: An Encyclopedia of Eco-friendly Culture in the United States|date=2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=California|isbn=978-1-59884-657-7|page=176}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=LADY EVE BALFOUR|url=http://www.ifoam.org/en/lady-eve-balfour|website=IFOAM|access-date=21 August 2014}}</ref> started in 1939 by [[Lady Eve Balfour]] and Alice Debenham, on two adjoining farms in [[Haughley]] Green, [[Suffolk]], [[England]].<ref name=lb/> 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,<ref name=nature>{{cite journal |title=The Haughley Experiment |journal=Nature |year=1957 |volume=179 |issue=4558 |page=514 |doi=10.1038/179514d0|bibcode=1957Natur.179T.514. |doi-access=free }}</ref> and that "natural" farming produced food which was in some way more wholesome than food produced with more intensive methods.<ref name=gordon>{{cite book|title=Reproductive Technologies in Farm Animals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rItfbxpris0C&pg=PA10 |year=2004 |publisher=CABI|isbn=978-0-85199-049-1 |pages=10–|first1=Ian|last1=Gordon}}</ref> 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.<ref name=gordon/>

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.<ref name="Lockeretz2007">{{cite book|editor-first=William |editor-last=Lockeretz |first1=Deborah |last1=Stinner |title=Chapter 4: Science of Organic Farming |work=Organic Farming: An International History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=25QnL3-njZQC&pg=PA50|date=1 January 2007|publisher=CABI|isbn=978-1-84593-289-3|pages=50–}}</ref>

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.<ref name=lb>{{cite web|last1=Balfour|first1=Lady Eve|title=Towards a Sustainable Agriculture&mdash;The Living Soil|url=http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010116Balfourspeech.html|website=Canberra Organic Growers Society Soil And Health Library|publisher=IFOAM|access-date=21 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150224214556/http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010116Balfourspeech.html|archive-date=24 February 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Widdowson|first1=R.W.|title=Towards Holistic Agriculture: A Scientific Approach|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780080342115/towards-holistic-agriculture|publisher=Pergamon: London|date=1987|isbn=9780080342115 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |journal=Soil Systems |volume=2 |issue=2:33: tab. 16 |year=2018 |title=Critical Decline of Earthworms from Organic Origins under Intensive, Humic SOM-Depleting Agriculture|doi=10.3390/soilsystems2020033 |author=Blakemore RJ |page=33 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

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]], moisture and, surprisingly, temperature.<ref name=blakemore>{{cite journal |journal=Biological Agriculture & Horticulture |volume=18 |issue=2 |year=2000 |title=Ecology of Earthworms under the 'Haughley Experiment' of Organic and Conventional Management Regimes |doi=10.1080/01448765.2000.9754876 |author=Blakemore RJ |pages=141–159|bibcode=2000BioAH..18..141B |s2cid=85386290 |url=http://orgprints.org/30000/1/Haughley.doc }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[History of organic farming]]
* [[Long-term experiment]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20150224214556/http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010116Balfourspeech.html Towards a Sustainable Agriculture - The Living Soil]&nbsp;&ndash; text of address by Eve Balfour to the 1977 [[IFOAM]] conference in Switzerland.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20230804080808/http://www.annelida.net/earthworm/Haughley/Haughley.doc]&nbsp;&ndash; Archive link to Blakemore (2000) Haughley Earthworm Report paper.

{{Agriculture in the United Kingdom}}

[[Category:Sustainable agriculture]]
[[Category:History of Suffolk]]
[[Category:Organic farming in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:History of agriculture in England]]
[[Category:1939 establishments in England]]
[[Category:1939 in science]]
[[Category:Environmentalism in England]]