Throughout the twentieth century, despite compelling evidence that some pesticides posed a threat to human and environmental health, growers and the USDA continued to favor agricultural chemicals over cultural and biological forms of pest control. In Ghostworkers and Greens, Adam Tompkins reveals a history of unexpected cooperation between farmworker groups and environmental organizations. Tompkins shows that the separate movements shared a common concern about the effects of pesticides on human health. This enabled bridge-builders within the disparate organizations to foster cooperative relationships around issues of mutual concern to share information, resources, and support.Nongovernmental organizations, particularly environmental organizations and farmworker groups, played a key role in pesticide reform. For nearly fifty years, these groups served as educators, communicating to the public scientific and experiential information about the adverse effects of pesticides on human health and the environment, and built support for the amendment of pesticide policies and the alteration of pesticide use practices. Their efforts led to the passage of more stringent regulations to better protect farmworkers, the public, and the environment. Environmental organizations and farmworker groups also acted as watchdogs, monitoring the activity of regulatory agencies and bringing suit when necessary to ensure that they fulfilled their responsibilities to the public. These groups served as not only lobbyists but also essential components of successful democratic governance, ensuring public participation and more effective policy implementation.

"This book challenges the oft-cited belief that the Montreal Protocol remains an exemplary global environmental agreement. Through a sociological analysis of the political decision-making process and controversies generated at Montreal Protocol meetings, the book documents new ways global environmental governance is organized based on neoliberal ideals. The book shows how neoliberalism - as a dominant discourse and economic practice - has become increasingly embedded in the Montreal Protocol, and how global powers are able to act protectionist amid that discourse. The book demonstrates how recent controversies involve much more than just economic protectionism per se; it also involves the protection of the legitimacy of certain forms of scientific knowledge. It traces the rise of a new form of disagreement between global powers, members of the scientific community, civil society and agro-industry groups, signaling the negative impact of neoliberal policies on ozone politics and global environmental governance more broadly. The book reveals how global civil society groups involved in the Montreal Protocol are affected by the neoliberal discourse, which has left them relatively ineffective in their efforts to push for environmental protection"--