Insects, Experts, and the Insecticide Crisis: The Quest for New Pest Management Strategies

ISBN-13: 9781468440003 / Angielski / Miękka / 2013 / 304 str.

John H. Perkins

Opis

Science and technology are cultural phenomena. Expert knowledge is generated amid the conflicts of a society and in turn supplies fuel to fire yet further change and new clashes. This essay on economic entomology is a case study on how cultural events and forces affected the creation of scientific and technical knowledge. The time period emphasized is 1945 to 1980. My initial premises for selecting relevant data for the story were ultimately not of much use. Virtually all debates about insect control since 1945 have been centered around the environmental and health hazards associated with insecticides. My first but inadequate conclusion was that the center of interest lay between those who defended the chemicals and those who advocated the use of nonchemical control methods. With this formulation of the problem, I was drawn to an analysis of how the chemical manufacturers had managed to dominate and even corrupt the work of entomological scientists, farmers, members of Congress, and regulators in the USDA and EPA. My own contribu- tions to a policy study at the National Academy of Sciences were based 1 on this premise. More recently, Robert van den Bosch developed the 2 "corruption theme" in considerable detail.

Spis treści

I • The Insecticide Crisis.- 1 A New Technology.- The Introduction of Insecticides.- The Discovery of DDT.- Impact of the New Insecticides.- Insect Control and the Apple Industry.- Concluding Remarks.- Reference Notes.- 2 Crisis.- Hazards to Humans and Other Species.- Resistance.- The Destruction of Natural Enemies.- Cotton: The Crisis in Microcosm.- The Insecticide Crisis in the Policy Arena.- Reference Notes.- II • A Search for Alternatives.- 3 Strategies I: Integrated Pest Management.- Huffaker and the Huffaker Project.- The Intellectual Traditions.- Classical Biological Control.- Ecologists Armed with Chemicals.- Launching the Huffaker Project.- The Significance of the Huffaker Project.- Reference Notes.- 4 Strategies II: Total Population Management.- An Alternative Research Strategy.- Edward Fred Knipling.- Ushering in the New Insecticides.- Sterile Males: A Fruitful Innovation.- Changing Research Directions.- Scientific Prelude to the Pilot Boll Weevil Eradication Experiment.- The Pilot Boll Weevil Eradication Experiment.- The Novelty of Total Population Management.- Reference Notes.- 5 Traumas.- The Pilot Boll Weevil Eradication Experiment.- Design.- Results.- The Trial Boll Weevil Eradication Program.- The Huffaker Project.- Concluding Remarks.- Appendix: Technical Guidance Committee, Pilot Boll Weevil Eradication Experiment.- Reference Notes.- III • Entomology in its Cultural Context.- 6 A Conceptual Framework.- Entomology is Both Science and Technology.- The Confounding of Scientific and Technological Expertise in Entomology.- Knowledge in Entomology.- Paradigms Refined.- Summary Remarks.- Reference Notes.- 7 The Philosophical Foundations.- Presuppositions.- Entomological Thought and General Intellectual Trends.- Naturalism and Humanism in Entomology.- Concepts.- Pest.- Control and Economic Threshold.- Environmental Quality.- Ecosystem.- Integrated Control.- Concluding Remarks.- Reference Notes.- 8 Revolutionary Farmers.- Agricultural Revolution: The Perceptions and Causes.- Attitudes toward Labor.- Sociopolitical Origins of Agricultural Science and Technology.- Agricultural Revolution: The Course of Events.- 1861–1914.- 1914–1954.- 1954-Present.- Concluding Remarks.- Reference Notes.- 9 Entomologists and the Revolution.- Entomology and Professionalism.- Capturing the Agricultural Market.- Entomology as an Academic Discipline.- Entomologists and the Agricultural Revolution.- The Shaping of Entomological Expertise.- Economic Entomologists and Basic Science.- Entomologists and the Chemical Industry.- Concluding Remarks.- Reference Notes.- 10 Entomology and Agricultural Production.- Insect Control and Agricultural Production.- Compatibility of Technology and Production.- Chemical Control.- Total Population Management.- Integrated Pest Management.- Concluding Remarks.- Reference Notes.