1. Albert Howard was a principal figure in the early organic movement.
20 Facts About Albert Howard
1. 2.
Albert Howard is considered by many in the English-speaking world to have been, along with Eve Balfour, one of the key advocates of ancient Indian techniques of organic agriculture.
3.
Albert Howard was the son of Richard Howard, a farmer, and Ann Howard, nee Kilvert.
4.
Albert Howard was educated at Wrekin College, Royal College of Science, South Kensington, and as Foundation Scholar, at St John's College, Cambridge.
5.
From 1924 to 1931, Albert Howard was Director of the Institute of Plant Industry, Indore, and Agricultural Adviser to States in Central India and Rajputana.
6.
Albert Howard was made a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1928, and in 1930 received the Barclay Memorial Medal of that society.
7.
Albert Howard was knighted in 1934, and made an Honourable Fellow of the Imperial College of Science in 1935.
8.
Albert Howard worked in India as agricultural adviser and was in charge of a government research farm at Indore.
9.
Albert Howard worked together with Gabrielle Matthaei, and her sister Louise.
10.
Albert Howard observed and came to support traditional Indian farming practices over conventional agricultural science.
11.
Albert Howard built on the traditional Indian composting system into what is known as the Indore method.
12.
Albert Howard went on to further document Indian organic farming techniques, and spread its knowledge through the UK-based Soil Association, and the Rodale Institute in the US.
13.
Albert Howard's 1940 book, An Agricultural Testament, is a classic organic farming text.
14.
Albert Howard emphasizes the importance of maintaining humus, keeping water in the soil, and the role of mycorrhiza.
15.
Albert Howard advocated studying the forest in order to farm like the forest.
16.
Albert Howard devoted the last half of his career to understanding that end, presaging those contemporary ecologists who advocate the understanding of the interface between ecology and agriculture.
17.
Indeed, Albert Howard is grouped, along with Rudolf Steiner, Sir Robert McCarrison and Richard St Barbe Baker, as one of the key progenitors of the Western organic agriculture movement.
18.
Albert Howard's knighthood was conferred in 1934, so in publications prior to that, he is not referred to as "Sir".
19.
Albert Howard was not knighted until 1934, and would not have been referred to as Sir.
20.
The error is an artifact of the manner in which Albert Howard's name has passed into contemporary public knowledge, via his two most famous books An Agricultural Testament, and Soil and Health, by which time he was referred to as "Sir".