5/8. Guano, Tragedy, and the Rise of Intensive Farming — Steven Moss — Moss discusses seabird guano (nutrient-rich droppings), first recognized as a valuable resource by the Incas and subsequently monetized by William Gibbs, who accumulated immense wealth trading guano from arid Peruvian islands. Moss emphasizes that guano harvesting occurred under tragic human conditions, with Chinese indentured laborers frequently dying during extraction operations. Mossnotes that declining guano availability stimulated the invention of synthetic fertilizers by Haber and Bosch, catalyzing the emergence of intensive chemical agriculture. Moss documents that high-intensity chemical farming, despite enabling global food production, precipitated catastrophic declines in bird and insect populations, a phenomenon extensively documented in Rachel Carson's seminal work Silent Spring.
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