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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Superweeds and sustainability
  • Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:49:09 -0600


June 25, 2009: Superweeds and sustainability
Welcome to the Rodale Institute web update newsletter.
http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/20090625/newsletter


Hello: Reality-based policy incentives to bring greater carbon
accountability to U.S. agriculture haven’t fared so well thus far in the
U.S. House Agriculture committee, but there’s still hope for rewarding
biological soil sequestration in the final writing and rulemaking.

Harder to ignore, however, is the reality that chemical weed control
isn’t the slam-dunk technology it was marketed as for a time. There’s
slippage in the effectiveness of the wonder herbicide glyphosate being
recorded wherever it has been extensively used. Long the weed-control
lynchpin of non-organic cropping systems, its overuse, misuse and repeated
use has spawned resistant weed strains, including the big-time problem
varieties Johnsongrass and marestail.

Loss of weed control with chemicals is so bad in specific crops and regions
that some farmers are returning to the use of cultivators to salvage their
crops. As a sign of significant change in practices, this has its rough
parallel in chemical no-till farmers who are choosing to add cover crops to
improve overall crop performance. In both cases, the formula of cash-crop
no-tilling supported only by a broad-spectrum herbicide and synthetic
fertilizer is not adding up the way it used to.

Soil dynamics do not care about political ideology, and reflect the care or
damage inflicted regardless of what a farmer wishes to be true. Soil needs
growing plants during the growing season to be biologically resilient.
Where toxic chemicals are out of the picture, weeds require relatively
complex management using many cultural practices and mechanical tools, not
a single chemical biocide to counter a multitude of field-level variables.
Read more >>
http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/20090625/nf1

To discover more ways to support crop vitality and decrease weed pressure,
Rodale Institute continues its collaboration with USDA researcher David
Douds to evaluate the single and combined impacts of three different cover
crops and soil myccorrhizal fungi inoculation on organic tomato production
in a no-till planting. Evaluated with results from parallel studies at Penn
State and the USDA Beltsville station, the findings will show how these
regenerative practices can best be used. Read more >>
http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/20090625/nf1

In our continually updated news and research briefs, read about: still more
high-level assessments that agricultural carbon sequestration may be the
world’s best way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions… a new effort to
measure escaped nitrogen from agricultural production with more accurate
assessment tools… a truly green jobs initiative in Illinois, where new
legislation supports state purchase of local and organic food products…
endorsement by the American Medical Association of locally produced and
organic food to improve health and reduce waste and pollution.

Final note: Mark your calendars for the 2009 Summer Rodale Institute Field
Day on July 17. For a brochure and registration page for the event titled
“Cashing in on Soil Health,” read more >>
http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/20090625/nf2

Wherever you are, it’s time take your next step to expand organic
farming’s future in healthy soil.

Greg Bowman at the Rodale Institute




  • [Livingontheland] Superweeds and sustainability, Tradingpost, 06/26/2009

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