In 1941 he formed with H. J. Massingham and Gerald Wallop, Lord Lymington the Kinship in Husbandry, a group of a dozen men with an interest in rural revival. It was a precursor organisation of the Soil Association, which was set up in 1946.
Original members were: Adrian Bell, Edmund Blunden, Arthur Bryant, J. E. Hosking, Douglas Kennedy, Philip Mairet, Lord Northbourne, Robert Payne, C. Henry Warren.
The group first met in Edmund Blunden's rooms at Merton College, Oxford, in September 1941. They drew ideas from agricultural experts: Albert Howard, Robert McCarrison, George Stapledon and G. T. Wrench.
Other members were:
- Laurence Easterbrook
- Jorian Jenks
In official eyes, this grouping or think-tank was treated with less suspicion than its correlated far-right political organisations. It had some effect on agricultural policy, particularly in relation to self-sufficiency. It also had an impact on the thinking of the Rural Reconstruction Association founded in 1935 by Montague Fordham, and the Biodynamic Association.
Read more about this topic: Rolf Gardiner
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