This chapter traces the development of the European Community’s (EC) governance of pesticides from the 1960s onward. Though a salient subject in public debate ever since the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, EC pesticide governance did little to curb the proliferation of toxicants. How can this paradox be explained? This chapter investigates it through the lens of depoliticisation, viewed as a contingent absence of politicisation rather than a deliberate political strategy. It does so by analysing the depoliticisation of EC pesticide governance as the largely unintended outcome of an interplay between a variety of actors: European Commission officials, member states, experts, and organised interests. The chapter distinguishes between two types of depoliticising dynamics: a vertical one—depoliticisation through delegation—that captures the dispersion of political authority across different levels of governance, and a horizontal one—depoliticisation through compartmentalisation—that describes how EC governance organised and operationalised technical expertise. Finally, the chapter demonstrates how the eventual politicisation of EC pesticide governance from the 1980s onward hinged on the ability of representatives of consumer and environmental organisations to challenge the vertical layering and horizontal fragmentation that characterised EC pesticide governance.