Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Tommy Tolson <healinghawk@earthlink.net>]

May 16, 2010
Resisting Roundup
A vast majority of soybeans and corn planted in this country, and in 
much of the world, are genetically engineered, and the technology is 
rapidly pushing its way into many more crops.

For farmers, the benefits are real — with these seeds they can spend 
less time plowing and cultivating and can use more benign agricultural 
chemicals to kill weeds. But according to a recent report from the 
National Research Council, there are also signs of trouble, chief among 
them the appearance in various parts of the country of 
herbicide-resistant weeds.

Such weeds could undermine the main purpose of genetically engineered 
crops: their ability to tolerate spraying with glyphosate, an 
environmentally benign herbicide marketed by Monsanto, one of the major 
producers of genetically engineered seeds, under the name Roundup. As 
ever, nature is finding its way around our defenses.

There were no glyphosate-resistant weeds when genetically engineered 
crops were introduced. A farmer could plant Monsanto’s seeds, spray with 
Roundup, kill the weeds and enjoy the harvest. Now there are many such 
weeds, and they are tenacious. Some farmers using genetically engineered 
cotton are facing the prospect of more frequent plowing and the use of 
other herbicides.

The trouble with genetically engineered seeds is not the technology 
itself — bringing genetic traits from one species into another. It is 
the way this technology has forced farmers to rely almost exclusively on 
a single herbicide, and on an industrial scale. Herbicides are like 
antibiotics. Overuse them, and they become ineffective.

Losing glyphosate would be a serious setback. But now that 
Roundup-resistant weeds are coming into their own — fulfilling the early 
fears of many critics of genetically engineered seeds — it’s time to 
acknowledge one of the central conclusions of the National Research 
Council report: farmers are simply planting too many acres of Roundup 
Ready crops.

The solution is more diverse crops and cultivation practices, and a 
wider array of seeds, including non-genetically engineered ones. The 
unpalatable alternative is the re-introduction of far less benign 
herbicides.