Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring had an impact in the Caribbean by bringing attention to the dangers of chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides like DDT. These chemicals remain in the environment and accumulate in food chains, posing dangers. The document discusses 8 essays ranging from Rachel Carson's influence to alternatives to slash and burn agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago. Sustainable agriculture practices like agroforestry that incorporate livestock, grasses and fodder trees are presented as better options for the region's environment and farmers.

1. Eight essays from Rachel Carson to Agroforestry
Cheryl Lans

2. Rachel Carson’s book had an impact in the Caribbean. For example the
(March 1976) Surveillance Report of the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre
(CAREC) (affiliated to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the
World Health Organization (WHO)) described how chlorinated hydrocarbon
insecticides revolutionized the control of insects of public health and agricul-
tural importance in the 1940s. This first paragraph then continues by stating
how these chemicals, including DDT remain in the environment and accumu-
late in the food chains of various species and how Silent Spring the well-
known book of Rachel Carson focused public attention on the danger posed
by these chemicals.
Rachel Carson paved a path of limited advocacy for other scientists

3. Science is politics by other means
when it comes to witchcraft
This essay focusses on the commoditisation of women's medical knowledge which some feminists say
began in the sixteenth century with the great European witch burning. The burning was apparently one
of the mechanisms to control and subordinate women, the peasants and the artisans, who in their eco-
nomic and sexual independence constituted a threat for the emerging bourgeois order, (Mies, 1986:81),
some academic women were also burned. They suggest that christianity, capitalism and science are all
'children' of patriarchy and that all existing knowledge and its commercialisation has to be seen in a patri-
archal light. What they say goes against all common wisdom, but also makes you question why some
wisdom is more 'common' than others, and why some [female] scholars are so little known that feminist
researchers can claim that they have been erased from HIStory.

4. Ants, academic politics and
integrity
People typically cannot choose a moral or
ethical stance outside of the normative con-
straints of society at large but have to stay
within the norms of the community. Unless of
course they are using praxis research to
guide society to a path that they consider to
be more sustainable, ethical and moral which
can be proved to benefit the whole. Integrity
in this scenario is individual behavior that im-
proves the lives of everyone in society (sound
citizenship).

5. Co-operatives as an alternative model of social organization
In this essay I argue that co-operatives offer an alter-
native model of social organization in the form of the
social economy. People and organizations turn to the
social economy to overcome some of the core problems
within contemporary capitalism such as global gender
and gage inequality and unemployment. There are ex-
amples in Europe in which co-operatives have altered
entire regions from rundown to dynamic. Writers have
referred to these regional successes using terms such
as transformative and utopian.

6. In this essay I illustrate how the consoli-
dation of the media has had a negative On how the media influence Canadi-
influence on Canadian democracy. I de- an democracy
fine democracy as the ability of all, even
the little guy, to have her viewpoint rep-
resented in the national media and to
have the government look after her inter-
ests, and not only the interests of the
multinational companies. I am not call-
ing for “advocacy journalism” (a right
wingers epithet for a progressive view-
point); nor do I want to call for “fair and
balanced” reporting now that Fox News
has hijacked that famous phrase. Per-
haps “equal opportunity, equal access” is
the best motto for a newspaper that aims
to promote democracy.

7. Methods in EVM - North America and the
Netherlands
Dr. Cheryl Lans and Drs A.G.M. (Tedje) van Asseldonk*
Research in Veterinary Anthropology in Europe and North America is
best conducted using a participatory data collection and dissemina-
tion method. This method bridges the gap between scientists and
knowledge holders (farmers), and it also generates a large amount
of usable data. The method is ethically-sound and gender-friendly
and it allows the participants (farmers, herbalists, alternative practi-
tioners) to improve themselves economically and socially through
mutual self-help. It is a collaborative venture in that participants can
pool resources, abilities and information thus multiplying the likeli-
hood that they can obtain useful solutions and it minimizes the risk
of failure.

8. The moral case for animal welfare for
snakes and alligators
In the 1990a the struggle over the proper use of the Nariva Swamp – as a
park or for rice production was framed in terms of co-management. At that
time conservation and preservation approaches were being challenged aca-
demically and were even criticized by Hanna Siurua in 2006 as “fortress
conservation.”
The core of the issue is that large and potentially dangerous species such
as snakes and caimans which depend on the Nariva Swamp cannot be co-
managed. Specific animals and their treatment in terms of welfare and eth-
ics are also discussed: these are Happy Feet the Emperor penguin, Elvis
and Eric, two Australian crocodiles and several nameless snakes.

9. Eco-alternatives to slash and burn agriculture for T&T
Sustainable agriculture is the best alternative for Trinidad and Tobago which has the problems
of increasing soil erosion and degradation, and shortages of livestock fodder. Historically land
was given out for farming without any consideration of their suitability for the purpose this has
led to soil loss and flooding causing property damage. Hillside farmers could be encouraged to
develop mixed farming systems including livestock production which would facilitate the incor-
poration of grasses and fodder trees for livestock feed. Labor intensive traditional agriculture
with its emphasis on multiple cropping, multiple storeys and multiple uses are more ecologically
sound in the humid tropics than conventional agriculture.

10. Eight essays from Rachel Carson to Agroforestry [PAPERBACK]
Dr Cheryl Lans (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/Eight-essays-Rachel-Carson-Agroforestry/
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to Agroforestry by
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