In the last DOPE conference (2022), several scholars discussed the political ecology of pesticides in a session organized by Assist. Prof. Brian Williams (Mississippi State University) and Dr. Lucía Argüelles (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya). This new open Series collects the main ideas and contributions stemming from that session.

March 7, 2023

South-South Circles of Poison? Malaysia’s role in (re)creating uneven geographies

By Caitlyn Sears. The circle of poison describes regulatory failures to reduce the human and environmental harms caused by the global agrochemical industry. Originally used to denote relations between global North (high-income) and global South (low- and middle-income) countries, there is growing evidence that suggests circles of poison are (re)created in South-South contexts.
December 13, 2022

Formulating poisons: racism, agrochemicals, and cotton

By Brian Williams and Jayson Maurice Porter. In the U.S. South, cotton plantations served as an early laboratory for the toxic development and mass application of agrochemicals. Anti-Blackness shaped the formulation of this harmful agrarian calculus, and cotton, white supremacy and other poisons served as an important antecedent to the subsequent development of chemical-intensive industrial agriculture.  
November 10, 2022

From Autarky to Agnotology: Arsenic Pesticides and the Making of Ignorance in early Francoist Spain (1939-1953)

By José Ramón Bertomeu Sánchez.  Massive pesticide usage was created through the disciplining of farmers in the use of new chemical technologies during Franco's dictatorship, contributing to concealing the slow and invisible poisoning of agricultural workers and consumers, leaving a toxic legacy in Spanish agriculture up to today.
September 13, 2022

The gendered consequences of ‘undone science’ in a pesticide-contaminated area in Nicaragua

By Grettel Navas The impacts of the pesticide DBCP on women are largely understudied in comparison to infertility in male workers which is well documented. What are the gendered consequences of this 'undone science' and how are these shaped by ingrained power dynamics within local workers organisations?
July 5, 2022

Political Ecologies of Pesticides: An introduction

By Lucia Argüelles. A new series of contributions builds on the discussions taking place around political ecologies of pesticides in the 2022 Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference (DOPE).