As Farmers Battle Weeds ‘Conventionally,’ the Chemical Treadmill Speeds Up
July 24th, 2009Via: Grist:
I’m an ag nerd, so sometimes you’ll catch me reading stuff like Delta Farm Press—a trade publication for large-scale farmers in the deep south.
I find the damnedest things on those reading jags. Here’s one: farmers down there—which is cotton, soy, and corn country—are having a hell of a time controlling weeds, and resorting to evermore complex herbicide cocktails to combat them.
The dominant herbicide is still glyphosate, a broad-spectrum herbicide marketed by Monsanto as Roundup. Monsanto, of course, has established itself as an agribusiness giant by selling “Roundup Ready” corn, soy, and cotton seeds—genetically engineered to withstand copious lashings of Roundup. (Scientists recently discovered that the “inert” ingredients in Roundup damage human cells. Oh-oh!) The technology makes farming easy. You plant your seeds, and anytime weeds break out, you can knock them down with herbicide, without damaging the crop a bit! Except … Roundup applications have become so heavy that weeds are starting to develop resistance.
…
So you’d get farmers dousing their fields with not one but two broad-spectrum herbicides—blotting out biodiversity while conjuring up a few super-duper-weeds that will need their own chemical/GMO “solution” in the near future.
Research Credit: dilinger
imagine my shock!