Enduring silences

摘要

The Soil Association has always believed that using chemical sprays to kill insects or weeds, or to control diseases in crops is a risky and ultimately ineffective way of farming. The first edition of the Soil Association journal in 1946, Mother Earth, questioned the use of the pesticide DDT in agriculture: 'By the wholesale use of powerful insecticides, of which far too little is yet known, we may well be upsetting the whole balance of Nature. We are like schoolboys rat-hunting in a munition dump with a flame-thrower.'