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Article ID: CBB001251551

Toxic Fables: The Advertising and Marketing of Agricultural Chemicals in the Great Plains, 1945--1985 (2012)

Vail, David D. (Author)

Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science
Volume: 36, no. 4
Issue: 4
Pages: 165-173

Publication Date: 2012
Edition Details: Part of a special issue, “Silent Spring after Fifty Years”
Language: English

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Pesticides; insecticides Agricultural chemistry Marketing techniques Agriculture 20th century, late Great Plains (North America) United States Carson, Rachel Louise

This paper examines how pesticides and their technolo- gies were sold to farmers and pilots throughout the midtwentieth century. It principally considers how mar- keting rhetoric and advertisement strategies used by chemical companies and aerial spraying firms influenced the practices and perspectives of farm producers in the Great Plains. In order to convince landowners and agri- cultural leaders to buy their pesticides, chemical compa- nies generated advertisements that championed local crop health, mixture accuracy, livestock safety and a chemical-farming `way of life' that kept fields healthy and productive. Combining notions of safety, accuracy and professionalism with pest eradication messages rein- forced the standards that landowners, pilots and agricul- turalists would hold regarding toxicity and risk when spraying their fields. As the politics of health changed in the aftermath of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, these companies and aerial spraying outfits responded by keep- ing to a vision of agricultural health that required

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Article Davis, Frederick R. (2012) Silent Spring after 50 years. Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science (pp. 129-130). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001251551/

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