A History of Deadly Chemical Weed Control
A novel that uncovers Minnesota’s hidden, poisonous past, uncovering the chemical legacy of our generational inheritance of diseases.
Photo Credits: Minnesota Department of Transportation: Library Collections
About the Book
This will be a novel of one family’s experience exploring health issues and herbicides used along roadways and highways in Minnesota between 1955-1980. In this story the protagonists’ family works and lives along highways, in both urban and rural Minnesota. Haunted by a family history of unexplained disease, cancers, early death, infertility and more they ask the mother a VA nurse who won’t talk, about what might have happened to harm their family. But the mother refuses to discuss the past. What follows are hidden truths and lies which begin to surface. One question remains: how to decide if it’s worth the risk to reveal research, endure threats and possibly face losing housing, credibility, family and community.
Throughout Minnesota in infrastructure, including along highways, power lines, railroads, and forestry operations and in lakes and wetlands, harmful chemical weed and brush control is applied. Through interviews, field research, and oral history collection, I’ve documented stories and experiences that were often silenced or left untold. Through this work, hidden truths have been uncovered about how chemical exposures have impacted the health of individuals and communities across Minnesota.
