superweeds
-
![]()
![]()
A growing problem: Notes from the ‘superweed’ summit
What did hundreds of scientists and Big Ag executives decide when they met last week to discuss the mounting crisis of herbicide-resistant 'superweeds'? That they should spray more herbicides, of course.
-
Critical List: Too many tornadoes; scientists help plant seeds reach Antarctica
Super Tuesday results: The rich guy who would be terrible for the environment won primaries in six states, the scary evangelist who would be terrible for the environment won three, and the sad nerd who should know better but would probably be terrible for the environment just to fit in won one. March has already […]
-
![]()
![]()
Organic farming just as productive as conventional, and better at building soil, Rodale finds
Organic agriculture is a fine luxury for the rich, but it could never feed the world as global population moves to 9 billion. That’s what a lot of powerful people — including the editors of The Economist — insist. But the truth could well be the opposite: It might be chemical-intensive agriculture that’s the frivolous […]
-
![]()
![]()
How the agrichemical industry turns failure into market opportunity
It’s always blue skies for the agrichemical industry Monsanto rolled out seeds genetically engineered to withstand its Roundup herbicide back in the mid-1990s. Today, Roundup Ready crops blanket U.S. farmland. According to USDA figures, 90 percent of soybeans and 60 percent of corn and cotton planted in the United States contain the Roundup-resistant gene. Back-of-the […]
-
![]()
![]()
Fun with herbicides!
“The herbicide business used to be good before Roundup nearly wiped it out. Now it is getting fun again.”— Dan Dyer, an executive at agrichemical/GMO seed giant Syngenta, on the rise of “superweeds” engendered by the broad use of Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” GMO crops.
-
![]()
![]()
NYT’s superweeds coverage is welcome but myopic
iStockphoto It’s a happy day when the New York Times treads some of Grist’s well-worn paths. This time, it’s about how overuse of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide has given rise to “superweeds” and an exhausting chemical treadmill: Just as the heavy use of antibiotics contributed to the rise of drug-resistant supergerms, American farmers’ near-ubiquitous use of […]
-
The chemical treadmill breaks down and the superweeds did it
Tom Philpott has been tracking the rise of so-called “superweeds” — i.e. herbicide-resistant weeds — for a while now. He’s talked about the chemical treadmill — “the situation wherein weeds and other pests develop resistance to poisons, demanding ever higher doses of old poisons and constant development of novel ones.” Due in part to its […]
-
![]()
![]()
On the origin of ‘superweeds’ and the chemical treadmill
“There is no telling how many articles I have written with the theme of ‘Roundup every Monday morning until there is nothing out there but soybeans’ or ‘the best tank mix partner with Roundup is more Roundup.’ That made soybean farming so easy that even I could probably have done it.”—Ford L. Baldwin of Arkansas-based […]
