History of Pesticide Use

Here’s a couple of interesting links courtesy of Will Allen, author of The War on Bugs.

Allen has documented how the use of agri-chemicals in farming developed in the US during the 19th and 20th centuries. Chelsea Green, Allen’s publisher, have published an extract from the first chapter here, and a timeline tracking key stages in the development of pesticides.

It all starts here:

1865

• The Colorado potato beetle, transported east by the transcontinental railway system, destroys much of the eastern US potato crop.

Check out the timeline to see how the agri-chemical industry got to here:

2004

• Seventy-six percent of cotton, 45 percent of corn, and 85 percent of soybean acreage in the United States is planted with genetically modified crops. Many farmers have few options for obtaining other seed, since Monsanto and the other corporate conglomerates refuse to provide anything but genetically manipulated seed.