Safer than in the USA? The Reception of Silent Spring in France and the Difficulties in Achieving European Regulations on Pesticides, 1962–1976. Merrer, B., Dedieu, F., Pessis, C., & Bonneuil, C. Global Environment, 17(2):348–377, June, 2024. Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Safer than in the USA? The Reception of Silent Spring in France and the Difficulties in Achieving European Regulations on Pesticides, 1962–1976 [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
From having been a net food importer before World War Two, France rapidly became a leading European agricultural producer and the world’s second largest agricultural exporter – a model fueled by extensive use of pesticides. How, then, was the French reception of Rachel Carson’s work on the association of pesticides with health issues and environmental damage? This article constructed a corpus of 288 publications debating Silent Spring from 1962 to 1975 to map the trajectory of the controversy. We also mobilise rich archives collections to document how key actors and institutions endeavoured to control the fire sparked by Printemps silencieux and slow down the progress of new Europe-wide regulations. Lastly, we illuminate how, by 1969–1976, export imperatives and associated market-harmonisation concerns were factors as important as environment and health concerns for explaining the ban of a few molecules and the first 1976 EEC Directive regulating residues levels. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0.
@article{merrer_safer_2024,
	title = {Safer than in the {USA}? {The} {Reception} of {Silent} {Spring} in {France} and the {Difficulties} in {Achieving} {European} {Regulations} on {Pesticides}, 1962–1976},
	volume = {17},
	shorttitle = {Safer than in the {USA}?},
	url = {https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/full/10.3828/whpge.63837646622494},
	doi = {10.3828/whpge.63837646622494},
	abstract = {From having been a net food importer before World War Two, France rapidly became a leading European agricultural producer and the world’s second largest agricultural exporter – a model fueled by extensive use of pesticides. How, then, was the French reception of Rachel Carson’s work on the association of pesticides with health issues and environmental damage? This article constructed a corpus of 288 publications debating Silent Spring from 1962 to 1975 to map the trajectory of the controversy. We also mobilise rich archives collections to document how key actors and institutions endeavoured to control the fire sparked by Printemps silencieux and slow down the progress of new Europe-wide regulations. Lastly, we illuminate how, by 1969–1976, export imperatives and associated market-harmonisation concerns were factors as important as environment and health concerns for explaining the ban of a few molecules and the first 1976 EEC Directive regulating residues levels.
This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0.},
	number = {2},
	urldate = {2025-01-13},
	journal = {Global Environment},
	author = {Merrer, Bleuen and Dedieu, François and Pessis, Céline and Bonneuil, Christophe},
	month = jun,
	year = {2024},
	note = {Publisher: Liverpool University Press},
	pages = {348--377},
}

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