Insecticides, agriculture, and the Anthropocene

Abstract

Over the course of the past century, agricultural chemists have developed insecticides from plants with phytotoxic properties ('botanical' insecticides) and a range of chemicals including heavy metals such as lead and arsenic, chlorinated hydrocarbons like DDT, and organophosphates like parathion. All of the synthetic insecticides carried profound unintended consequences for ecosystems and wildlife alike. In the process of knowledge and technology transfer of the Green Revolution, industrial agriculture as practiced in the US spread to Mexico, China and India, and around the globe. In the constant search for novel insecticides, chemists returned to nature and developed chemical analogues of the botanical insecticides, first with the synthetic pyrethroids and now with the neonicotinoids. Despite recent introduction, neonics have become widely used in agriculture and there are suspicions that these chemicals contribute to declines in bees and grassland birds. The past and present of pesticides use resonates with themes of the Anthropocene and in particular the Great Acceleration following World War II. Along with chemical fertilisers, pesticides contribute to the conversion of natural ecosystems into human-dominated landscapes.