Finally, in the 1940s, a philosophy of "organic" agriculture emerged at least partially in reaction to the
industrialization of agriculture. Lord Northburne (Look to the Land, 1940) first used the term "organic"
to describe the farm as an "organism" in which the parts of the farm are orchestrated into a functioning
whole - a kind of farming that stands in stark contrast to an industrial farm that relies on input-output
mechanisms. Other works influencing the organic movement included the writings of Liberty Hyde Baily,
Dean of Cornell University's College of Agriculture, especially The Holy Earth (1915); Lady Eve Balfour's
The Living Soil (1943); and Louis Bromfeld's Pleasant Valley (1946).
The Green Revolution
Industrial agriculture took another quantum leap forward in the "green revolution" of the1960s.
Norman Borlaug and his colleagues began breeding plants that would thrive with the inputs (fertilizers,
irrigation, etc.) used in industrial agriculture. The new seeds were designed to resist the more
commonplace diseases in monocropping systems. Dwarf varieties with stronger stems were developed
to prevent lodging (straw breaking down) due to the larger grain heads of fertilized crops. These
innovations made it possible to further increase the yields of a few monoculture crops, primarily wheat
and rice.