GMO crops and chemical pesticides and herbicides have become commonplace in American agriculture. The search to garner non-GMO or heirloom seeds can be a lengthy one for both backyard gardeners and professional farmers alike. As with antibiotics, alcohol, and drugs, weeds can build up a tolerance and resistance to substances much in the same way as the human body does. Glyphosate appears to no longer not just keeping weeds at bay, but has seen the birth of a rapidly-growing and extremely resilient “superweed.”
Glyphosate pesticides created by biotech giants like Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, Bayer, and Sygenta appear to no longer be effective against the rapidly growing and extremely tall weeds. When farmers are forced to apply more chemical pesticides and herbicides to their fields, the cost of produce can skyrocket as crop yields diminish.
Superweeds have become so prominent that the subject became a primary topic during a recent American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition, the largest science and industry society in the world. Some agriculture professionals note that the costs associated with battling weeds has doubled, and in some instances tripled, in recent years. During that same time span, crop yields have allegedly experienced significant declines.
The gigantic weeds possibly caused by genetically modified plants and glyphosate chemical pesticides are a growing problem, according to agriculture experts, with huge weeds becoming more prevalent in pastures and fields around the globe.
Increased exposure to chemical pesticides and to herbicide-resistant crops is being blamed for the growth of the superweeds, says Natural News. One weed, the Palmer amaranth pigweed, reportedly can grow 10 feet tall at a rate of one or two inches per day. Superweeds possess stems thick enough to damage robust farm equipment.
“The problems associated with herbicide-resistant weeds are spreading and intensifying, especially weed species resistant to multiple products, including the mainstay of 21st century agriculture, the herbicide glyphosate,” said Bryan Young, Southern Illinois University Plant Soil and Agricultural Systems professor. “More than 200 individual weeds species have been confirmed resistant to at least a single herbicide, with infestations covering millions of acres in the United States and 60 other countries.”
Some in the agriculture industry are now considering embarking on a controversial environmental practice to combat the continued growth of superweeds. Deep tiling of fields to fight the massive weeds that have become resistant to herbicides is a tact agricultural experts thing will work, but often causes backlash from environmentalists. The rapidly growing weeks choke crops and cause a significant financial loss to farmers.
Midwest farmers have been hit especially hard by superweeds which have become resistant to glyphosate – the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup Ready herbicide. University of Missouri weed scientist Kevin Bradley said this in a farm report, “Palmer amaranth is our No. 1 weed to watch in Missouri and the Midwest right now.” Bradley also informed farmers that deep tilling can remove the weeds but will also lead to soil erosion problems and possibly other environmental concerns.
Heavy tilling practices largely ended several decades ago when “no-till” farming became commonplace. Glyphosate may not cause soil erosion but multiple studies have stated that the chemical may be very destructive to honeybees. Bees pollinated approximately 80 percent of the food we eat, if all the honeybees die, the human race will not be far behind. Agricultural chemicals and GMO seeds have often been blamed for colony collapse disorder which impacts the nervous system of the bee making it nearly impossible for the insect to find its way back to the hive and causing lethargy that leads to starvation.
Genetically modified crops do not provide a higher yield than conventionally grown seeds and actually lead to an increase in herbicide use, according to a groundbreaking new federal report that refutes conventional wisdom.
The USDA’s report does not offer an opinion about whether or not GMO crops are good or bad for honeybees or the environment, but the GMO review is not a glowing statement of approval, either. In fact, overall it’s negative.
Genetically modified crops first appeared in the United States nearly 20 years ago. Although some American farmers claim they benefit from growing GMO seeds, the negative impact on honeybees, and quite possibly human health and the environment are still troublesome.
The USDA report said researchers did not find a “definitive” yield increase during the first 15 years of commercial GMO crops production. “In fact, the yields of herbicide-tolerant or insect-resistant seeds may be occasionally lower than the yields of conventional varieties.” Several of the researchers discovered “no significant differences” between the net yield returns between farmers using conventional seeds and those using the GMO variety, Reuters reported.
Glyphosate and superweeds report excerpt:
“Herbicide-tolerant crops worked extremely well in the first few years of use, but over-reliance led to shifts in weed communities and the emergence of resistant weeds that have, together, forced farmers to incrementally: increase herbicide application rates [especially glyphosate]; spray more often, and; add new herbicides that work through an alternate mode-of-action into their spray programs.”
The overuse of herbicides appears to have played a significant role in the increase in weed resistance, according to the agricultural study. Because supweeds have become resistant to the current variety of chemical herbicides, biotech giants like Monsanto and DuPont are rushing to develop even stronger chemical mixes to combat superweeds. When the massive weeds ultimately become resistant to the new and stronger version of glyphosate herbicides, the biotech manufacturers will presumably have to once again go back into their laboratories and up the chemical levels again to thwart the growth of weeds.
“The biotech industry is taking us into a more pesticide-dependent agriculture when they’ve always promised, and we need to be going in, the opposite direction,” Bill Freese of the Center for Food Safety said in 2010.
Although gardeners and farmers traditionally look at weeds as foes, Secret Garden of Survival author Rick Austin begs to differ:
“The war against weeds makes no sense.The ‘weeds are bad and gotta be pulled’ argument is just plain wrong. The truth of the matter is that weeds are nature’s way of taking soil that is depleted and without ingredients and micro-organisms. Nature hates a vacuum. In the natural course of things, weeds are the first thing to go into an area that has been devastated after a fire or clear-cutting, for example. Weeds live and thrive when no other plants will. A difficult bare patch of soil with an annual crop like corn, needs the benefits of the natural role weeds play.”
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) says that 70 million acres of American farmland experienced glyphosate resistant weeds last year.
What do you think the enhanced used of glyphosate and the growth of superweeds meets for the safety and security of our food supply?