#7700, Evelyn (Eve) Barbara BALFOUR

Author of 'Living Soil'.  The organic farming movement was started in the 1920s in the hamlet of Haughley Green in Suffolk by Lady Eve Balfour.  It was known at the time as the 'Haughley Experiment' and led to the formation of the Soil Association in 1945.  Perronelle Chevallier #709 was a founder member.

The following is the introductory paragraph to William Kendall's piece on Lady Eve Balfour (2021) published in 'A New Suffolk Garland' in 2022, dedicated to Her Majesty the Queen on the Occasion of her Platinum Jubilee.

Lady Eve Balfour was a trailblazing agriculturalist of the twentieth century whose ideas on soil and the vital role it plays in human health were ahead of their time.  As a consequence of prevailing beliefs about food production, only a handful of people in the world were aware of the importance of her work during her lifetime and even fewer knew about it in Suffolk, the county she called home for the last seventy years of her long life.  William Kendall grew up in an East Anglian farming family and farms organically in the same village where Lady Eve lived the last decades of her life.  He never met her but has been inspired by her determination and vision.  He is an entrepreneur and campaigner for better food and nature.  He was a recent High Sheriff of the county and is a Deputy Lieutenant.