The Rachel Carson Letters and the Making of Silent Spring

Environment, conservation, green, and kindred movements look back to Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring as a milestone. The impact of the book, including on government, industry, and civil society, was immediate and substantial, and has been extensively described; however, the provenance of the book has been less thoroughly examined. Using Carson’s personal correspondence, this paper reveals that the primary source for Carson’s book was the extensive evidence and contacts compiled by two biodynamic farmers, Marjorie Spock and Mary T. Richards, of Long Island, New York. Their evidence was compiled for a suite of legal actions (1957-1960) against the U.S. Government and that contested the aerial spraying of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). During Rudolf Steiner’s lifetime, Spock and Richards both studied at Steiner’s Goetheanum, the headquarters of Anthroposophy, located in Dornach, Switzerland. Spock and Richards were prominent U.S. anthroposophists, and established a biodynamic farm under the tutelage of the leading biodynamics exponent of the time, Dr. Ehrenfried Pfeiffer. When their property was under threat from a government program of DDT spraying, they brought their case, eventually lost it, in the process spent US$100,000, and compiled the evidence that they then shared with Carson, who used it, and their extensive contacts and the trial transcripts, as the primary input for Silent Spring. Carson attributed to Spock, Richards, and Pfeiffer, no credit whatsoever in her book. As a consequence, the organics movement has not received the recognition, that is its due, as the primary impulse for Silent Spring, and it is, itself, unaware of this provenance

Bio-based chemicals from biorefining : Protein conversion and utilisation

The depletion of fossil feedstocks, fluctuating oil prices and the ecological problems associated with CO2 emissions are forcing the development of alternative resources for energy, transportation fuels and chemicals: the replacement of fossil resources with biomass. The conversion of crude oil products utilises hydrocarbons and conversion to (functional) chemicals with the aid of co-reagents, such as ammonia, and various process steps. Conversely, proteins and amino acids, found in biomass, contain functionality. It is therefore attractive to exploit this to reduce the use, and preparation of, co-reagents as well as eliminating various process steps. This chapter describes how biorefineries can add value to protein containing rest streams by using amino acids as economically and ecologically interesting feedstocks and that, by taking advantage of the chemical structure in biomass rest streams, a more efficient application can be developed other than solely utilising it for the production of fuels or electricity.</p