Roundup-resistant weeds pose environmental threat

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Associated Press

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- When the weed killer Roundup was introduced in the 1970s, it proved it could kill nearly any plant while still being safer than many other herbicides, and it allowed farmers to give up harsher chemicals and reduce tilling that can contribute to erosion.

But 24 years later, a few sturdy species of weeds resistant to Roundup have evolved, forcing farmers to return to some of the less environmentally safe practices they abandoned decades ago.

<snip>

But with any herbicide, the more it's used, the more likely it'll run into individual plants within a species that have just enough genetic variation to survive what kills most of their relatives. With each generation, the survivors represent a larger percentage of the species.

<snip>

That said, the company has started paying cotton farmers $12 an acre to cover the cost of other herbicides to use alongside Roundup to boost its effectiveness.

The trend has confirmed some food safety groups' belief that biotechnology won't reduce the use of chemicals in the long run.

"That's being reversed," said Bill Freese, a chemist with the Washington, D.C.-based Center For Food Safety, which promotes organic agriculture. "They're going to dramatically increase use of those chemicals, and that's bad news."

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jhIU9-B0h4pfKJVJDadwRUYkY_wgD9GFGSV02

[WeDidIt]

1. Looks like Mother NAture developed Her own Roundup Gene.

Nature ALWAYS finds a way.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

2. You can't fool mother nature.

At least not for long. Evolution is the process of adaptation which has been around longer than Monsanto and Roundup.

[corkhead]

15. not in Texas.

[ixion]

3. No. 'Round-Up' and MONSANTO are environmental threats

and should be sued out of existence post-haste.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. Did you see this...?

US Supreme Court lifts ban on sale of GM crop
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4435644

It's a direct blow to the farmers and every person in the world who consume their goods.

[LiberalEsto]

9. You mean MonSATAN

:evilgrin:

[peoli]

4. what a shocker

[SpiralHawk]

6. This crap is also causing mutations in soil organisms

Can't remember the study I saw that established this -- But Monsanto and Roundup are giving us mUtaNt soil.

Thanks a pantload.

[cdsilv]

7. I used to work at Monsanto (the nylon division that they spun off)....

and one of the standard jokes around the plant was :

'What do you call a round-up resistant soybean plant in a cornfield?'
'A weed'.

[jpak]

8. Organic agriculture

that is all

[DeSwiss]

10. K&R

"...forcing farmers to return to some of the less environmentally safe practices they abandoned decades ago."

And extending and worsening the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_zone_%28ecology%29">hypoxic (dead) zones in the already oil-drenched and beleaguered seas of the Gulf of Mexico.





- And the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVtxwFyOwRw&feature=related">band played on......

[corkhead]

11. Time for "new and improved Super-Duper Roundup(TM)"

:sarcasm:

[TheMadMonk]

16. Time for ethical tailored bioantagonists perhaps?

Engineer diseases for weeds, but make them in such a way that there is no way for them to survive in the wild. Only on fields which are sown with both disease organism AND one or more special nutrients required for the ogansim to survive and replicate. One for each would be a good choice.

Monsanto's patent "suicide" technology might be more hype than reality, but it does actually work if done properly.


Perhaps there's merit in engineering a crop/pasture mix to be grown off-season to grains, that likewise relies on a special nutrient, idealy while itself fixing nitrogen in the soil: Keeps the weeds down; Dies on command; Reduces need for herbicides considerably; Introduces nutrients in a more natural fashion.


Forget fobidding, you'll make more progress headbutting masonry. Do your best to make them do it right. Even this is a hard enough ask given the knobbling the Bush Admin gave the regulatory authorities.

[era veteran]

12. Monsanto is the MOST EVIL company on the planet.

From DDT to Agent Orange to roundup to destroying the seed base. May end up being the company most responsible for ruining the planet. Monsanto the evil empire.

[bobthedrummer]

13. Monsanto Source Watch profile

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Monsanto

[meow mix]

14. good for the weeds show em whose boss

go weeds