Anti-Toxics Movement

The Anti-toxics movement's origins can be traced back to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962. The book—initially serialized in the New Yorker—highlighted the impact of pesticides such as DDT on plant and wildlife in America in the years following the introduction of scientized methods of agriculture in the United States. In the aftermath of a wider public concern and scientific debate about Carson's work, President John F. Kennedy called on the Science Advisory Committee to investigate issues surrounding the use of pesticides. This inquiry confirmed Carson's position and led to the regulation of the use of chemical pesticides in the United States. Carson has been subject to a number of subsequent criticisms from scientists working for the chemical industry.

The environmental justice movement developed further during ...