Organic Farming’s Political History, in Edge Effects, January 23, 2020.
In the US, the organic farming movement has been associated predominantly with left politics since the counterculture began championing it in the 1960s. But, in fact, the organic farming movement was entangled with fascist and quasi-fascist politics at its origins in Britain and Germany in the 1930s and 40s. In this essay, I trace some of that political history and argue that the politics of local, organic food are not necessarily left and not automatically committed to social and economic justice—so we must pay attention to them.
Michelle Niemann 