Laurence Easterbrook
(died 1965), Agricultural writer and columnistSitter in 1 portrait
by Elliott & Fry
bromide print
NPG x89448
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VIvian Griffiths
01 February 2021, 21:25
Laurence Easterbrook (1897 - 1965) was a Sussex farmer and Agricultural Correspondent of The News Chronicle. He took a serious interest in the 1930s in humus farming feeling that good husbandry had little to support chemical application to soils.
He visited the secretary of the first humus farming organisation The Anthroposophical Agricultural Foundation called Karl Mier at the newly established Sunfield Children's Home's farm at Clent, Worcestershire in the mid 1930s and was very impressed with what came to be known as The Biodynamic Compost heaps with their plant and animal Preparations. He wrote very fullsome praise in his newspaper column and wished that these Preparations were made more available. He was also complimentary of Karl Mier's enthusiasm for this new form of natural agriculture. As The Preparations were only in limited circulation he naturally became interested when the work of Maye Bruce was brought to his attention who had worked on The Biodynamic Experimental Circle and had taken the plants of the Preparations as a basis of what she called the QR - Quick Return - to add to compost heaps. Having circulated widely as an agricultural correspondent the news of the BD Preps he now turned his attention to the QR Compost starter which his wife had used in her farmhouse garden compost heap with good results. An article appeared in The News Chronlcle by Easterbrook extolling their benefits as they were much more widely available especially as war time self sufficient gardening looked to composting as a central source of fertility. With war declared Easterbrook became part of The Ministry of Information and asked The Anthroposophical Agricultural Foundation for a statement on what was becoming to be known as Organic or Biodynamic farming or gardening as a reminder to those wishing for chemical free land in the face of huge encouragement to use artificials like ICI's Growmore Fertilizer. Easterbrook's Sussex farm majored on common sense agriculture with good husbandry at its heart. He was a founder member of the Guild of Agricultural Journalists and wrote British Life and Thought in 1944 and British Agriculture in 1948
He appeared as Guest at The Kinship of Husbandry Meetings and was involved in The Soil Association as part of their Panel of Experts when it was founded in 1946.