THE SOIL ASSOCIATION May 2022
Every supermarket offers organic products and many of us buy them. Certification is provided by the Soil Association, two of whose founders appear on our family tree.
Lady Evelyn (Eve) Barbara Balfour OBE (1898-1990) #7700 on the family tree, author of Living Soil which has been reprinted dozens of times is normally credited with being the prime mover. She was certainly its first president. Her co-founders in 1946 included Jorian Jenks, Friend Sykes and Perronelle Mary Chevallier (1902-2004) #709.
Eve knew she wanted to be a farmer from age 12. She was the daughter of Gerald William MP PC, 2nd Earl of Balfour (1853-1945) #3715 and Elizabeth Edith (Betty) Bulwer-Lytton (1867-1942) #3711 and was the niece of Arthur Balfour KG OM PC (1848-1930) #14489, a former prime minister. She attended what is now Reading University and believed that ‘natural’ farming produced food which was in some way more wholesome than food produced with more intensive methods. She believed that mankind’s future and human health were dependent on how the soil was treated.
In 1939 she embarked on the Haughley Experiment in Suffolk where she was a neighbour of Perronell whose family ran the Aspall cider and apple juice business. It was the results of this experiment which provided the fundamental reasons for the foundation of the Soil Association. That her reputation lives on to this day is evidenced by a poster spotted recently in a garden centre.
