Contribution short abstract:

This paper explores the uneven ways in which chemical harm unfolds on 21st-century monoculture plantations, illustrating the disproportionate toxic burdens and uncommon futures shaped by the Chemical Anthropocene.

Contribution long abstract:

Monocultures play a pivotal role in accelerating the planetary unmaking through deforestation, habitat fragmentation, and chemical harm. The chemical entanglements of monoculture plantations are complex, ambivalent, and disquietingly insidious, posing significant threats to multispecies futures and the habitability of the planet. Rooted in colonial legacies and the extractive logics of agrocapitalism, their impacts are unevenly distributed across spatial, temporal, and social scales. This paper ethnographically examines the chemical-intensive monoculture of Indian small cardamom in the Cardamom Hills, a biodiversity hotspot in India, to illustrate how chemical harm unfolds in a plantation landscape marred by pesticide toxicity and ecological ruin. By foregrounding the uneven distribution of toxic burdens, the paper highlights how the intersections of colonialism, caste-gender inequalities, and monoculture render specific places and people disproportionately vulnerable to chemical injuries. The paper engages with the Chemical Anthropocene by emphasizing its inherently patchy production of toxic burdens and the disparate ways in which they are experienced. It argues for an understanding of the chemical harm’s uncommon burdens and futures.