Economic Poisoning: Industrial Waste and the Chemicalization of American Agriculture

The toxicity of pesticides to the environment and humans is often framed as an unfortunate effect of their benefits to agricultural production. In Economic Poisoning, Adam M. Romero upends this narrative and provides a fascinating new history of pesticides in American industrial agriculture prior to World War II. Through impeccable archival research, Romero reveals the ways in which late nineteenth— and early twentieth—century American agriculture, especially in California, functioned less ...