Wee, DDT

     DDT is a pesticide and this means it kills pests, if you have read my previous blog post you would know this. I related that it had been banned, but the truth is that it is still made today. Despite the known dangers of DDT, it is still manufactured in the United States but it is illegal to use it here (link). The chemical is only used in this country in response to a dire public emergency, such as need for strict disease control (spread by insects) or body lice epidemics. A quick internet search did not pull up any results about whether or not DDT was used against West Nile or its ilk, so obviously these did not count as public emergencies (what classifies this?). The U.S. can manufacture and sell DDT to countries, like Kenya, Thailand, and Mexico. They use it to control pest populations, where many are desperately trying to stem the deaths from mosquito borne diseases.
     When DDT was first introduced, it was hoped that it would be able to eradicate things like Malaria, a tragic global pandemic. Many debate today if that was ever possible, with some pointing out the resistance insects developed to the pesticide through overuse. Though, we all know that DDT was not synthesized to help people, it was synthesized to control pests that eat our crops. This type of mentality, controlling nature, is prominent in western culture.  Due to this cultural need for control, this dominion of nature, DDT was used. This is technology, why it is used and made, can be thought of from a cultural determinism standpoint. I actually intend to argue both sides, with the other being known as technological determinism. I want to do this to show that yes, I do pay attention in class. Also, I find that to think of things from a single theory never bodes well with the idea of truly trying to understand something.  Even if that something is just a pesticide.
     Cultural determinism is the belief that culture develops the needs for new technology, meaning that it has a say in how it is used. DDT was made to be a pesticide, well it was accidentally made, but when its effects were known the creator won a Noble Peace Prize (link). Knowing this it is not hard to imagine that this was a happy accident. Killing is what DDT does and that is what it is used for, it was used to purify the bad wilderness and bring our civilizing good crops. It did have nobler aspirations, but because of its overuse for big agriculture, they could not be met.
     On the flip side, technological determinism is the belief that technology causes effects, and thus is causes the changes to culture. DDT caused a lot of effects, it killed birds, fish, and harms the environment, and this all affects us. It never just eradicated the bad bugs that destroyed our crops, but caused a wave of cultural changes that still is moving today. This chemical cause a generation of people to turn to organic farming (after reading things like Silent Spring), and reject big corporations. This organic movement (which has deviated from the original movement) is now a major player in the global economy. We know that DDT was an accidental invention, so its side effects were not really known until around the 40s, around 30 years before it was banned.
     DDT was just something to kill some bugs so our plants would grow better, it would be cheaper to produce them, and then cheaper for us to buy them. But, as time went on we began to realize that our technology began to have a negative impact on us and our environment. We determined what we wanted it to do, but in the end its effects forced our culture to change.