The War on Weeds in the Prairie West An Environmental History

It provides an in-depth chronicle of the war on weeds that raged in Western Canada between 1800 & 1950 & the evolution of the relationship between humans & weeds. It also provides an environmental history of weeds that covers the events in Upper Canada, the Prairies, & Northern United States. It gives a brief history of herbicides & their widespread acceptance by prairie farmers in the middle of the 1900s. Evans draws on extensive primary sources & considers the delicate connection between human culture & the natural world. This book is particularly timely because of debates on the use of pesticides & herbicide resistance crops, such as canola. It fills a need for a detailed survey of agricultural development & settlement on the Prairies. In this provocative book, Evans suggests that herbicides have simply prolonged the war on weeds, & that by breeding herbicide resistance into crops, agrochemical companies are attempting to secure long-term herbicide & genetically-modified seed sales by forcing farmers to continue to fight a war that can never be won.
Despite the fact that fighting weeds was of paramount importance to the agricultural development of Canada, there has scarcely been any research on understanding the origins and history of these lowly plants. Finally, historian Clinton Evans gives weeds the attention they deserve. In this ground-breaking study that spans four centuries of weed history, Evans focusses on the evolution of the relationship between people and weeds in the formative years of western Canada. This book documents the arrival of weeds with seed from England in the sixteenth century, how these foreign seeds survived and thrived on the plains of North America for centuries to come, and governmental perceptions and legislation against weeds. Highlighting topics such as weed biology and ecology, noxious weed legislation, and "weed science," Evans considers the delicate connections between human culture and the natural world.
A historical consultant and former agriculture student who battles weeds in his British Columbia lawn studies the war against weeds that influenced western Canada's development from 1800 to 1950. Introductory chapters discuss what defines a weed, and the relationship between weeds and British husbandry from 1500-1900. Includes color and b&w illustrations of such nemeses as wild mustard, Canada thistle, and bindweed.

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