An invitation dropped into my inbox the other day, “…to attend a party to celebrate the birthday centenary of pioneering ecologist Rachel Carson.” This was from the Soil Association, and while I shall not be attending their shindig up in Oxford, it came very appropriately just as I had finished reading her seminal work – Silent Spring.

It was published in 1962, and details Americas disastrous love affair with the new chemical pesticides developed in the 1950’s. Even today it makes harrowing reading, as she quietly details case-study after case-study of large scale programs of pesticide (ab)use. Examples like the zealous attempts to eradicated such “pest” as the Chaoborous astictopus (a small gnat), which was annoying the fishermen of Clear Lake in California. The solutions was to simply pour the chemical directly into the water in order to effect a dilution that would make the whole lake toxic to the offending insect. Or even more incredibly the case of the Gypsy Moth, where, in an attempt to stop its spread into the city of New York (unlikely given the lack of suitable moth habitat!), nearly a million acres including whole towns and suburbs, were indiscriminately sprayed from the air.

With 50 odd years of hindsight, it comes as no surprise that not only did these schemes fail to eradicated the target insects  - but they wreaked havoc with the local wildlife and completely upset natures natural balance. Rachel’s work exposed the dangerous truths and shook a generation on both sides of the Atlantic.

As an Organic farmer this is one of those books that everyone talks about - but one suspects few have actually read. It has a brilliant title, in which just two words evoke the desolation caused by overuse of chemicals, and almost negates the need to read the book at all. But you should. These “elixirs of death” (as Rachel puts it), are entirely man-made and to this day little is understood of their affect on human health. Every one of us carries a level of these compounds in our bodies – it is impossible to evade. Even unborn babies are affected by their mothers toxicity. 

Strangely, given her in depth knowledge of the subject and the fact that she is now championed by the organic movement, Rachel didn’t suggest chemical abstinence as the solution, but rather more responsible use. So while many lessons were learned, pesticides are still in wide use today – if fact are a mainstay of non-organic agricultural production.

So it is depressing to learn that, since the decline of stubble burning, use of molluscicides (slug pellets) in agriculture in the UK has increased 70 fold in the last couple of decades and has contributed to a sharp decline in the population of the Song Thrush – one of our native farmland songbirds. Perhaps every packet should come with a government health warning – or better still a free copy of Rachel’s book.