Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a city supermarket and “getting three to four times as much as conventional growers”. And although he had been “ridiculed”, he added, “Bob Crowder’s skin must be as impervious to insults as an elephant’s to a flea, because Bob just went on developing his ‘weird’ ideas in the face of all critics … Incredibly, unbelievably, Bob has never managed to persuade, bribe or threaten any of the world-class animal scientists at Lincoln to conduct a trial on these [BHU] pastures. Damn it, these so-called seekers after truth are missing a golden chance of at least proving he is talking a load of rubbish! Or not, and perhaps that’s why they try to pretend the unit is not there.”
According to Clark, Bob’s work at Lincoln was outstanding. The orchard contained 80 varieties of apple that had received no artificial inputs for years; at least six of the old varieties were ‘unblemished’ – an excellent result. The floriferous understorey of Apiaceae (previously called Umbelliferae; the carrot family) and a plethora of other flowering plants attracted predators of various pest species. Above this was a shrub layer that included flax, kōwhai, raspberries and gooseberries, and above these were shelter trees such as Lombardy poplars for coppicing. Then there were the vegetables.
“I was literally staggered when he brought me to his organic cropping area,” wrote Clark. “I have never seen such healthy-looking crops. Never.”
He described the six-year rotation of the semi-intensive beds: rest for a year with ryegrass, oats, mustard and clover, then brassicas, potatoes, amaranthus, garlic and leeks, corn, and finally sunflowers with squash as the understorey. “I have to say it again: these crops looked marvellous and they had never seen a spray.”
Despite the difficulties he encountered in his work, Bob continued to speak and write enthusiastically about the abundance of life at the BHU. In Growing Today he wrote, “Our experience over 16 years has been [that] some of the best things in life are free … an environment carefully created on the basis of sustainability through diversity will allow “care-free” productivity in the true sense of the word.”
He particularly promoted the use of flowers in the growing system. “Incorporating flowering plants into horticultural and agricultural regimes provides habitats for beneficial insects that fit into integrated pest management programmes and help maintain a natural balance without chemical intervention…Building a sustainable system based on organic techniques involves the bringing together of many parts to make a whole. The floriferous nature of that whole is a vital part in the system and works best when incorporated with a total holistic appreciation.
“At the Biological Husbandry Unit there has always been a conscious effort to have flowers throughout the growing season, especially the umbelliferae, and the greatest effort has gone into creating the now well-known ‘Floriferous, Umbelliferous’ understorey for orchards.”
His system was working and was simply better. Better for soils, for biodiversity, even perhaps for the spirit as it created “a more aesthetic environment both for work and play … Environmental strength through diversity is the future pathway for sustainable agriculture in New Zealand.”
*
Prince Charles (now King Charles III) was expected to visit New Zealand in February 1994. Invited to the reception for the Prince at Government House, Bob seized the opportunity to present him with an invitation to open the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) conference held in Christchurch. The Prince demurred but sent a message to be read at the opening: “My own view is simply that organic farming is as close as we are going to get to sustainable agriculture. It is, after all, remarkably close to the traditional farming systems which have proved themselves to be sustainable over hundreds of years…Unless we can develop systems of food production which work in harmony with the natural environment, the future for our planet and, therefore, for our own descendants must surely be bleak. Organic farming is a system which has precisely these attributes.”
Bob anticipated the conference would not be the “usual, everyday type of dry, smug insiders conference … IFOAM will have its philosophers and practitioners. People of the land, with dirt under their fingernails, all coming together with one common understanding: that there must be another pathway for the world to tread.” Hosting the conference was “a real coup for New Zealand. One that offers us great opportunities to put ourselves on the map as a true clean, green producer”. The conference was “a reflection of the increasingly mainstream nature of organic and sustainable agriculture in this country”.
The conference opened with an Organic Fayre in Victoria Square. There was a range of food and information stalls and entertainment and, of course, a performance by the Lincoln Tussock Jumpers (as Bob’s Morris dancing side was now called).
The official opening was held at Christchurch Town Hall. In her welcome address, Mayor Vicki Buck declared her hope that Christchurch could become the world’s first organic Garden City – a concept that would gather momentum in the coming years.
Speakers included Helen Browning, who said, “The organic movement must be part of this wider shift towards a saner world … [It] is very encouraging that this conference has as its main theme the connections between people, ecology and agriculture. As organic producers, we can demonstrate theory in practice and be the engine (literally) behind the forces for change. Agriculture is fundamental to our civilisation, and without sound foundations any new era will be built on sand … There is a fundamental need for us to widen our perspective, to reach out to all levels of society with our practical and far-reaching philosophy. “
Bob had curated an event that spoke to all his own values; even his spiritual side was given space in Erihapeti Rehu-Murchie’s address on sustainability, environmentalism and spirituality from a Māori perspective, and Professor Lloyd Geering’s “linking environmental values as the basis of a new spirituality and ethic in the world of the future”.
The conference was a tremendous success. New Zealand was in the spotlight of the international organics community, and it shone.
A mildly abbreviated extract taken with kind permission from Bob Crowder: A New Zealand organics pioneer by Matt Morris (Otago University Press, $45) – a portrait of one of the first advocates of organic horticulture in Aotearoa, whose homosexuality and larger-than-life character meant that he wrestled with homophobia and being labelled as ‘eccentric’ throughout his career – is available in bookstores nationwide.
Bob was always a thorn in the side of the agri-chemical business. May many other thorns continue to take his place and proliferate.
I greatly admire Bob Crowder and the work he did at Lincoln and beyond. His work was mostly not original but served to demonstrate that “stuff that had been learned around the world” could work here in little old New Zealand.
I am very sad that most other agricultural academics failed and are still largely failing to consider the possibilities that Bob’s work and that of a few others provide for this country.
One hopes that as the costs of importing material to support our current industrial farming methods, people at Lincoln will pull their heads out of the sand and have an unbiased look at Bob’s and other people’s work on natural, sustainable food and animal production.