From the ground up: The organic farming contribution to the health food movement, 1930-80

This article establishes the organic farming contribution to the health food movement. While the health food movement began before organic farming, by the 1930s and 1940s advocates of rural revival and neo-traditional agriculture adopted organic protocols with enthusiasm. The health food movement arose largely in the Anglo world and in time spread to many areas of the globe. Health food stores came, by the 1950s, to be seen as the natural home for produce raised according to organic protocols. The shared environmental and political ideas of those who advocated organic farming and the health food movement also aided in the merger of these two phenomena. By the 1970s, organic farming and health food had become inseparable in the minds of many consumers and retailers.