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File:Evelyn_Barbara_Balfour.jpg Balfour in 1943

Lady Evelyn Barbara "Eve" Balfour, OBE (16 July 1898 – 16 January 1990) was a British farmer, educator, organic farming pioneer, and a founding figure of the Soil Association in the organic movement.

Early life and Education

Lady Eve Balfour was the forth of six children of Gerald, Earl of Balfour and Lady Elizabeth Edith Balfour (1867-1942) and the niece of former prime minister Arthur Balfour and Lady Frances Balfour (1858-1931), a leading Scottish suffragist, churchwoman and author.

Her later childhood was spent in private education, at her parent's house near Woking and in Whittingehame in East Lothian, Scotland, where her bachelor uncle Arthur Balfour lived. She had decided she wanted to be a farmer by the age of 12.

She was one of the first women to study a diploma in Agriculture at an English university in 1915, graduating from the institution now known as the University of Reading.

According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, she gained her first job, running a farm, for the Women's War Agricultural Committee, in 1918 (through lying about her age). There, she tended to the livestock and land along with her team of other land girls. In 1919, she and her elder sister, Mary Edith Balfour, bought New Bells Farm in Haughley, Suffolk to begin the first experiment into organic agriculture. It is also said that became an activist in her community, against the tithe tax, sharing her findings with the Royal Commission.

Outside of her farm work, she and her sister created a popular dance band, where she was a musician; a saxophonist. She earned an extra income on Saturdays through playing at a local hotel in Ipswich. In 1931, she learnt to fly and also sailed to Scandinavia with her brother, as crew. As a writer, she co-wrote 3 novels including The Paper Chase (1928) which was translated many times.

She was inspired by the book 'Famine in England' by Lord Portsmouth (1938) which questioned the sustainability of orthodox farming methods, during the 1930s. Following this, the Oxford DNB states that she contacted Sir Robert McCarrison, as he had demonstrated the benefits of organic farming on the well-known Hunza tribe of North West India. This tribe have been the subject of great subsequent health research (particularly with links to their natural fruit diet, including Apricot kernels as rich sources of Vitamin B17; Laetrile, largely responsible for their health and stamina). Her interest was taken by the 'Indore' composting process, based on eastern practices, developed by scientist Sir Albert Howard.

During the late 1930s she also gained tenancy over the local Walnut Tree Farm, according the the Oxford DNP. The owner was Miss Alice Debenham, who gave permission for the land to be used organically with the Haughley experiment. The farm was registered as a gift to Haughley Research Farms Ltd just prior to her death in 1940.

In 1943, thanks to a connection with the highly regarded publishers, Faber and Faber (through Miss Debenham's sister, Agnes) Lady Eve's book 'The Living Soil' was published. It has been called a classic text by the Oxford DNB, for uniting the philosophies of agriculture together with preventative medicine, nutrition and botany during a period of sincere uncertainty in British farming. Even a leading proponent of artificial fertilizers, Donald P.Hopkins, heaped praise upon this edition. Due to its all-round success, it was to be reprinted nine times.

Soil Association

In 1946, Balfour co-founded and became the first president of the Soil Association, an international organization which promotes sustainable agriculture (and the main organic farming association in the UK today).

Through the introduction of the Agricultural Act of 1947, Britain established its commitment towards a highly mechanized, intensive farming system, which disappointed Lady Eve, as it refused to offer support or funding towards organic production methods. By 1952, the Soil Association saw its membership increase to 3000, largely owing to the dedication of a small committee, including Lady Eve and the publication of their journal 'Mother Earth' (renamed 'Living Earth').

She continued to farm, write and lecture for the rest of her life. In 1958, she embarked on a year-long lecture tour of Australia and New Zealand, during which she met Australian organic farming pioneers, including Henry Shoobridge, president of the Living Soil Association of Tasmania, the first organization to affiliate with the Soil Association.

She moved towards the Suffolk coast in 1963 but made continual visits back to the farm at Haughley. The farm was sold in 1970, owing to mounting debts incurred by the centre. In 1984, she retired from the Soil Association aged 85 yrs but continued in the cultivation of her large garden. In 1989 she suffered a stroke from which she died, in Scotland, aged 90 yrs old, shortly after being appointed OBE in the 1990 New Year Honours list, on 14th January 1990. In the immediate day following her death, a grant was offered to encourage British farmers to change over towards organic methods, by the Conservative Government (under Margaret Thatcher).

Publications

• The Living Soil (1943)
• Three detective novels, with Beryl Hearnden, under the pseudonym Hearnden Balfour:

• A Gentleman from Texas (1927)
• The Paper Chase (1928)
• The Enterprising Burglar(1928)