Palmer pigweed in a Southern cotton field.
By Clea Caulcutt
The gospel of high-tech genetically modified (GM) crops is not sounding quite so sweet in the land of the converted. A new pest, the evil pigweed, is hitting headlines and chomping its way across Sun Belt states, threatening to transform cotton and soybean plots into weed battlefields.
In late 2004, “superweeds” that resisted Monsanto’s iconic “Roundup” herbicide, popped up in GM crops in the county of Macon, Georgia. Monsanto, the US multinational biotech corporation, is the world’s leading producer of Roundup, as well as genetically engineered seeds. Company figures show that nine out of 10 US farmers produce Roundup Ready seeds for their soybean crops.
Superweeds have since alarmingly appeared in other parts of Georgia, as well as South Carolina, North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri, according to media reports. Roundup contains the active ingredient glyphosate, which is the most used herbicide in the USA.
How has this happened? Farmers over-relied on Monsanto’s revolutionary and controversial combination of a single “round up” herbicide and a high-tech seed with a built-in resistance to glyphosate, scientists say.
Continue reading ‘Superweed’ Explosion Threatens Monsanto Heartlands
Europe has banneed several pesticides implicated in the disappearance of honeybees. Germany has also banned GM corn. Corporations like Monsanto shouldn’t exist. They endanger all of us with their toxic, anti_Nature products. Research shows that their products are very harmful to human health. As more and more people are unwilling to eat this garbage after reading about it, we need to push legislators to start to phase out these products before organic life becomes impossible.
Weeds are indicators. Telling us what the soil needs or in this case, doesn’t need. They mutate, as well – just like insects have to most pesticides. Million and millions of acres of farmland in America will be wasteland in a few more years because of the abuses of Roundup and GM crops. We are seeing it in our area of West Texas already. Horseweed, tumbleweeds, and more show no signs of dying after spraying. We are one of the few farms in this area that do not plant GM cotton. This is the greatest pandemic occurring in this country. Forget bank failures. Once the soil fails, everything else will too.
Has anyone tested the pigweed to see if is pulling toxins from the soil? Will the pigweed have beneficial long term effects on the soil? I imagine the soil could use some restoration if it has played host to years of pesticides and genetically engineered crops.
It looks like farming’s affair with pesticides is coming to an end. Tried and true organic mithods are destined to be the way to restore the health of farming and of agriculture in general.
In the meantime, can pigweed be safely used for bio-fuel?
As a field representative for a competative corporation some thirty years ago, I can recall glyphosate as a mediocre weed control agent. To kill pigweed today, I would still suggest Dicamba, as it was known back then as Banvel*
Superweed! Resistant to Roundup! Just like the crops!!!
How do you think the roundup resistant crops are killed? Why won’t this work on pigweed?