Abstract
Organic farming activists have promoted the idea that ancient peasant wisdom
informed the basic principles or Albert Howard’s Indore method, and of organic
farming generally. The myth of the peasant origins of organic farming has influenced
environmental activists and historians alike and concealed the remarkable
contributions of Albert Howard and his first and second wives, Gabrielle and Louise
Howard. A few statements made by Howard himself, and by his second wife, Louise,
inspired the myth of peasant origins of organic wisdom. But a closer look at the
published and unpublished writings of the Howards show that the formulation of the
Indore method, which lies at the heart of organic farming, is a strict scientific protocol
with its roots in the scientific work of Albert Howard and his cohorts.