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"Will
Allen is an organic farmer. An activist, entrepreneur, and researcher, who saw first
hand the complexities of factory farming and the impact that commercialization
has had while working on large scale farms and directing the Sustainable Cotton
Project.
In
the early nineteenth century as the American population grew rapidly, demands
on crop output increased. Seeing an opportunity to play upon fears of crop
losses, chemical companies declared war on both bugs and fertilizer shortages.
With precision, pesticide and fertilizer manufacturers concocted a media
campaign, similar to today’s campaigns by pharmaceutical and cola corporations.
Soon, there was a cure available to every farmer or householder in spray,
granule, dust, or systemic form that could be applied to your crops or sprayed
under the sink. By the 1860s fertilizer concoctions flooded the market,
unfortunately most were worthless.
The
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).
Utilizing
dozens of original advertisements and promotions to illustrate the story, the
book 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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