ISHS Acta Horticulturae 13: Meeting on Horticultural Economics
PREFACE |
| Author: | L.G. Bennett |
| Abstract:
The first meeting organised by the ISHS Commission for Horticultural Economics took place during the Brussels Congress in 1962. Almost inevitably it was limited in scope, but nevertheless seemed to stimulate interest in and discussion of a subject not hitherto covered by International Horticultural Congresses. There is no doubt that a small number of people were very interested indeed in the possibilities which the 1962 meeting opened. But wider interest was difficult to arouse, despite the efforts of Professor Busch, Mr. de Zeeuw, Dr. Sangers, and others. Not until the end of 1967 did the time seem ripe for a fresh effort to bring together economists with a common interest in horticulture. Early in 1968 Professor Busch suggested that a party of Germans would be willing to attend a meeting of British economists if such a meeting happened to be an established feature in the United Kingtom. No suitable machinery for organising such a meeting existed, but from this suggestion sprang the meeting which was held in the University of Reading in July 1968. The University of Reading feels honoured that economists from so many European countries should have held this meeting on its campus. I myself am particularly pleased that the meeting was held here, but I think that it is important to record our regret that Professor Busch was unable to be present. He had done so much for the Commission during his term of office as chairman. This issue of Acta Horticulturae contains the papers which were presented at the meeting.
We are grateful to members, who, at relatively short notice, were willing to make a contribution to the Conference.
The papers cover several fields of interest, and there happens sometimes to be more than one paper in a particular field.
I hope that the papers given and the cordial discussions held during and after formal meetings, will stimulate interest in the next Conference, which will be held in the autumn of 1970. Late chairman of the ISHS Commission for Horticultural Economics On 12th January 1969 Dr.Bennett passed away after a heart-attack. In 1939 at the age of 28 Dr. Bennett, who until then had been engaged in his family's horticultural business in the South-West of England, entered the University of Reading to embark upon academic studies of the problems of the industry in which he himself had already been involved in a practical way for some ten years. He proved an outstanding student, and this fact together with an increasing interest in economic aspects of horticulture led, in 1941, to his joining the Department of Agricultural Economics - still at that time a comparatively young department headed by Professor Edgar Thomas, the first professor of Agricultural Economics at Reading. It was one of the important duties of the department in 1941 to maintain contact with farmers and growers in a considerable region centred on Reading and to obtain, year by year, systematic information about their situation and performance. It was natural that Bennett should be given responsibility for the horticultural side of this work. From this beginning arose an exceptionally valuable relationship, ever since maintained and strengthened, of mutual understanding and confidence between Bennett and a considerable number of individuals and organisations involved, either commercially or administratively in the British horticultural industry and in the distribution of its produce. In one form this relationship manifested itself in a long series of demands upon Dr. Bennett to act as consultant or to participate in the work of official advisory committees of various kinds; in another form, in a succession of publications embodying the results of many careful and practically significant economic studies of horticulture amongst which should be included the very interesting thesis on The Development and Present Structure of the Horticultural Industry of Middlesex and the London Region for which, in 1950, he obtained his doctorate; in a third form it has manifested itself in the growth of a considerable teaching activity at Reading in the fields of horticultural economic organisation, management and marketing and of food marketing - the present extent and content of which is very largely the achievement of Dr. Bennett. In recent years Dr.
Bennett was increasingly interested in international aspects of horticulture, stimulated especially by the prospects and problems of European integration.
Characteristically fruitful this interest led to his recent appointment as Chairman of the Commission for Horticultural Economics, which was a matter of pride to his department at Reading, and of congratulation to himself and to the ISHS. We have lost too soon this outstanding pioneer in the - long neglected - field of horticultural economics. | |
