Elmer Laird, considered by many to be the father of organic farming on the Prairies, has died. He was 86.
Born on a farm near Swift Current, Sask., in 1924, Laird began farming organically in 1969 and used his farm near Davidson, Sask., as a testing ground for different crops and production methods oriented toward organics.
Laird’s initial decision to go organic was a matter of economics rather than not philosophy.
Grain was piling up on his farm in 1969 as a result of world market conditions and Laird, recently married to Gladys, was getting desperate.
His solution was to reduce his costs dramatically by eliminating pesticides and other chemicals.
By the time grain markets returned to normal a few years later, Laird had sold his sprayer and vowed he would never again use chemicals.
In !973, he and Gladys created the Back to the Farm Research Foundation to study organic farming methods.
In 1983, they set up the first certified organic farmers co-operative in Girvin Sask., which milled flour and marketed organic grain and oilseeds in North America and abroad.
Laird retired in 2001 and leased his land to the foundation, which turned it into an organic research and demonstration farm. Laird managed the facility and continued to speak out against the use of chemicals in farming.
He was inducted into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2008, the first organic producer to be so honoured.
Laird was also a founding member of the National Farmers Union and remained a member all his life.
He was predeceased by Gladys in 1999. The couple had no children.
