9781422282816

World War II and the Chemical Industry

T he use of chemicals in agriculture, as well as in food preservation, medicine, and the like, sky- rocketed after WorldWar II. The war effort pro- duced new avenues for research, new scientists to conduct research, and new chemical facto- ries to be used for civilian purposes. Advances in agricultural production were needed to feed hungry populations whose croplands were de- stroyed by the war. Researchers would soon realize, however, that chemicals and other in- terventions in the environment could also pro- duce devastating effects. The use of fertilizer, as well as pesticides, grew during the postwar years, applied liber- ally to cropland to increase food production. Nitrogen, produced in the form of ammonia, became widely available due to its use in TNT, an explosive manufactured and used during the

A worker checking the data settings at one of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s nitrate plants, converted to military use during the war.

war. According to Wessel’s Living History Farm online, the government was producing 730,000 tons (662,244 metric tons) of ammonia annually, in both the new factories it built for the war and older ones. And more than twice could be produced, if needed. All this excess capacity was available at the end of the war, and growers took advantage of it. More andmore farms began to plant just one or two crops, no longer rotating them on a regular basis. These practices depleted the soil of nutrients quickly. Chemical-based fertilizer was an easy fix. Applying anhydrous ammonia—which is 85 percent nitrogen—to their fields helped enrich the soil. The more fertilizer they used, the better the crops grew. By 1950, chemical factories were churning out 2.6 million tons (2.4 metric tons) per year tomeet the growing demand. Unforeseen then was the environmental damage caused by chemical fertilizers—problems that would come to light in the coming decades. Malaria Control and Insecticides T he war effort also resulted in the development of DDT. It was used as an insecti- cide to control malaria and typhus, two deadly diseases that affected large numbers of civilians and troops in parts of Europe and the Pacific. Pyrethrum, an insecticide made from the crushed heads of daisies, was in short supply during the war. DDT, a chemical alternative easy to manufacture, helped the Allies, in a way, to win the war.

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FOOD, POPULATION, AND THE ENVIRONMENT