Good American Post Staff Reports
Heavy use of weedkillers like the product “Roundup” (or glyphosate products) appear to be having negative impacts on future crops of farms in our own country, as well as overseas. To mitigate the super-weeds that have developed, even more toxic herbicides must be used, as well as labor-intensive practices (i.e. hand-pulling of weeds and the tilling of soil).
All of the additional inputs – whether chemical or operational – will add to the cost of food.
In addition to this, there are negative environmental impacts that can further harm the soil and food production – these do not yet have a cost associated with them, but could be detrimental to farmers.
Genetically modified crops are created so that the seeds/plants are resistance to weedkillers. The weedkillers (i.e. Roundup and glyphosate) can then be sprayed without any worry about harming the crop. Of course, the creation of superweeds is also possible, and the implications of this should be understood.
Andrew Wargo III from the Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts said that this may be “the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen”(Neuman & Pollack, 2010).
Ken Smith with the University of Arkansas also added that there are environmental concerns that could come from frequent plowing (plowing more is necessarily because the farmers have to plow under the weeds in an attempt to mitigate them).
A farmer from Iowa relates that if one is paying a premium for the GMO weed-resistant crop plus the herbicide, that when one has to purchase additional inputs for those crops to mitigate the superweeds, that paying a premium does not make sense anymore.
The state of Georgia has been one of the states hardest hit by the Roundup-resistant weed called pigweed.
Read the whole story HERE.
References:
Neuman, W., & Pollack, A. (2010). New York Times. Retrieved on May 6, 2010 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/business/energy-environment/04weed.html?ref=business.
