'Roundup Ready' superweeds taking over

Us farmers are facing a growing problem of super herbicide resistant weeds that are threatening millions of acres of foodcrop production.

In the 1990s, Monsanto introduced a new line of seeds called Roundup Ready, which were genetically engineered to be immune to glyphosate. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup.

Roundup Ready seeds were not cheap for farmers to buy but nevertheless, because they were to make weed control easier, many farmers opted to plant them.

At that time, Roundup Ready system was hailed as an environmental breakthrough. But there was a catch. As more and more farmers used more and more Roundup, genes for glyphosate resistance began to spread in weed populations.

The growth of resistance was accelerated because farmers didn't rotate and grew the same crop year after year on the same land, overuse of Roundup caused a resistance to build up in the target weeds and a neglect of an active weed control program.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has written a report to urge US Congress and the USDA to take action to encourage better housekeeping:

• Fund and implement the Conservation Stewardship Program, which provides support for farmers using sustainable weed control methods.
• Institute new regional programs that encourage farmers to address weed problems through sustainable techniques.
• Support organic farmers and those who want to transition to organic farming with research, certification, cost-sharing, and marketing programs. (Organic farming serves as a "test kitchen" for integrated weed management practices that can be broadly applied to conventional farm systems.)
• Support multidisciplinary research on integrated weed management strategies and educate farmers in their use.
• Bring together scientists, industry, farmers, and public interest groups to formulate plans preventing or containing the development of herbicide-resistant weeds, and make the approval of new herbicide-tolerant crops conditional on the implementation of such plans.
• Fund and carry out long-term research to breed crop varieties and cover crops that compete with and control weeds more effectively.

Download a copy of the UCS report 'The Rise of Superweeds—and What to Do About It'