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"Will
Allen is an organic farming visionary. A true activist, entrepreneur, and
expert, he understands the complexities of farming first hand and the impact
that commercialization has had.
In
the early nineteenth century as the American population grew rapidly, demands
on crop output increased. Seeing an opportunity to play upon fears from market
demand, chemical companies declared war on the vile, profitsucking,
output-wreaking, arch-nemesis of the average American farmer – bugs. With
precision, pesticide manufacturers delivered a “shock and awe” media campaign,
that can only be paralleled to the current blitzkrieg from today’s
pharmaceutical companies. Bugs were the threat to the American dream – and
there was a cure available to every farmer available in spray, granule, dust,
or systemic form that could be applied to your crops.
Will
Allen’s War on Bugs reveals how advertisers, editors, scientists, large scale
farmers, government agencies, and even Dr. Seuss, colluded to convince farmers
to use deadly chemicals, hormones, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in
an effort to pad their wallets and control the American farm enterprise.
Utilizing
dozens of original advertisements and promotions to illustrate the story, Allen
details how consumers and activists have struggled against toxic food. Echoing
the warnings of seminal works on the topic like, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair,
100,000 Guinea Pigs by Arthur Kallet and F.J. Schlink, and Silent Spring by
Rachel Carson, The War on Bugs shouts that the time to stop poisoning our food,
water, air, and ourselves is now!"
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