Description:
Chemical Lands explores the complex and often controversial history of pesticide use in North America's grasslands, tracing how farmers, scientists, and aerial sprayers navigated the promises and perils of chemical agriculture. David D. Vail reveals a distinctly regional ethic of environmental health, where local innovation and scientific experimentation shaped aerial spraying practices and pesticide safety. This compelling study offers a fresh perspective on agricultural modernization, environmental risk, and the evolving relationship between technology and rural landscapes.
Review Quotes:
"In Chemical Lands, David Vail incisively documents the complex relationship between sprayers, pesticides, herbicides, and grassland landscapes in America and Canada. For the first time, we can appreciate what was happening on the ground and in the sky through this thoughtful analysis of the sprayer's perspective on the toxic chemicals that became intrinsic to American agriculture." --Frederick Rowe Davis, author of Banned: A History of Pesticides and the Science of Toxicology
"Overall, David Vail has written a smart, polished, and valuable book of interest to environmental historians and historians of technology as well as agricultural historians. Vail tells the story of aerial spraying as the complex tale that it is, with careful attention to regional distinctiveness, the creation of ex-pertise, the assessment of risk, and the role of technology. But he tells it with clarity and energy, showing how much we can learn with careful attention to the practices and protocols of pesticide use." --Agricultural History