'Health, Wealth and Prosperity' press release   Save
Friends of the Land Collection
Description: Press draft of a talk by Dr. Jonathan Forman, M.D., Vice President of Friends of the Land, detailing the group's take on the relationship between soil health and human health. Forman's talk critiques several aspects of mid-century medical education, and goes on to discuss several human health ailments -- from tooth decay to degenerative disease to mental illness -- that he posits might be addressed by a sounder national attention to the minerals in our soil, which become the "building blocks of bodies." Forman's speech is a telling example of currents in the soil conservation movement in the early years of the Cold War, and ends with an invitation to join Friends of the Land, and a printing of the FOTL manifesto: "Soil debility soon removes stiffening lime from the national backbone, lowers the beat and vigor of the national blood stream and leads to a devitalized society." The Friends of the Land Collection (1930-1960) contains the papers of the Friends of the Land (1940-1959), a prominent national soil conservation education organization headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. FOTL produced an international literary arts quarterly, THE LAND (edited by New Deal agriculture writer Russell Lord) in addition to several members' only publications (LAND LETTER) and informational pamphlets. They also hosted annual conferences; ran conservation tours, teacher training labs, and workshops; and operated as a national clearinghouse for conservation information. Ohio farmer and novelist Louis Bromfield was active in the organization. Much of the collection reflects the career and interests of FOTL Executive Secretary Ollie Fink, who was a prominent conservation education pioneer in Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MSS364_B02F03_03_01
Subjects: Conservation education; Agriculture; Social movements; Agricultural Conservation; Soil science; Nutrition; Ecology
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)