What happens when you spray weedkiller Roundup made by Monsanto? Not only do you weed out the individual plants that have invaded your garden or farm, but, over time, you also weed out whole strains of those weeds, strains that can’t stand up to Roundup. What’s left?
Weed-strains that can withstand Roundup. From the New York Times: U.S. Farmers Cope With Roundup-Resistant Weeds.
Just as the heavy use of antibiotics contributed to the rise of drug-resistant supergerms, American farmers’ near-ubiquitous use of the weedkiller Roundup has led to the rapid growth of tenacious new superweeds.
Right now, the spread of these weeds is wide, having been found in 22 states, and several other countries, including Australia, China and Brazil, but it’s not terribly oppressive:
[S]even million to 10 million acres, according to Ian Heap, director of the International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds, which is financed by the agricultural chemical industry. There are roughly 170 million acres planted with corn, soybeans and cotton, the crops most affected.
But where these weeds do appear, they’ve become very difficult to manage — so difficult that many farmers need additional pesticides to combat them. Indeed, Monsanto seems to recognize that ag needs immediate “herbicide help” against these superweeds that their Roundup helped create. From the NYT:
[Monsanto] is concerned enough about the problem that it is taking the extraordinary step of subsidizing cotton farmers’ purchases of competing herbicides to supplement Roundup.
Farmers have been advised to alternate between Roundup and other herbicides, in order to preserve the effectiveness of the weedkiller. But Roundup’s price has been dropping lately, making it all too attractive for farmers to purchase and use.
What a vicious little cycle that can go nowhere but right into sci-fi wonderland. Like the antibiotic issue, where “antibiotic pressure” on the microbial world is hastening the evolution of drug-resistant staph bugs and giving rise to the need for a new generation of antibiotics, superweeds are going to necessitate a new round of Roundup and/or a new generation of genetically modified crops to resist them. Which will eventually give rise to even tougher superweeds and even greater farmer frustration. Which will necessitate even stronger herbicides, which will create stronger weeds that can, I don’t know, say their ABC’s and run a four-minute mile.
So here’s a few questions for conventional farmers: Are you encountering these tough strains of pigweed, horseweed, and ragweed? Are you spraying more Roundup to fight them? Using additional herbicides? What’s the answer to this problem?
Organic farmers, have you seen these weeds? If so, how do you deal with them? Can you deal with them?
PHOTO of Amaranthus palmeri (pigweed) by Pompilid. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
Finally this is getting to the public. Resistance has been a problem almost from day one on Roundup. Big Ag knew this would happen, but, just like any other big organization, they calculate the “acceptable risk” and don’t’ do anything until that threshold is surpassed. Then, if need be, they can just drop the hot potato and move on. Meanwhile they’ve made 10000% on their investment for 30 years! Check out the official critique!
I am a certified crop consultant, and work daily with growers who grow crops, and control weeds or other vegetation. Long before Round-up was introduced, the concept of resistent weeds has been a challenge. To cut to the chase, anytime you use just 1 mode of action to kill a weed, the chances that species will adjust and eventually evolvolve into a plant that can survive that mode of action is greater. This is not only true of the use and mis-use of roundup, but any chemical and a few mechanical methods of weed control. To blame a company and a product is irresponsible! The blame falls squarely upon the end user. Face it, some growers just are not smart enough to realize that if you mis-use and abuse a product such as Round-up (Atrazine was in the same boat 30 plus years ago), that product will become dud. From day one, Monsanto and other herbicide manufacturers highly recommended that multiple modes of action to be used in weed control, to avoid the current issues of weed resistence. Unfortunately, Round-up was too cheap and too easy to use. I witnessed professional crop advisors, and some not so professional, just go the easy route in their recommendations and just recommend multiple passes of Round-up over multiple years. IMO, they deserve the restistent weed issues. Cost of weed control is a major factor also. With the ever tightening margins on the farm, many growers who suffer from negative cash flows just look at the price they pay for weed control now, and fail to look down the road at the fallout that they will face when that resistent weed shows up on their farm.
So I guess what I am saying is, Round-up, Monsanto and all the other herbicides and their manufactuers are nothing but symptoms of the problem. The problem lies in the end user.
Kevin H
Great comment, Kevin. Well written, and thanks for sharing your considerable experience here.
Personally, I don’t think it’s irresponsible to hold Monsanto accountable for their role in the propogation of superweeds, even if farmers are misusing the product as you say.
If a company sinks hundreds of millions of dollars (more?) into an herbicide’s development, spends huge marketing dollars on selling that herbicide to farmers, develops genetically modified crops to withstand the continued use of that product, but then the spray’s overuse turns out to be problematic, isn’t it a bit disingenuous to hold that company blameless and instead say the problem lies totally with farmers? Individuals and divisions within Monsanto might have pushed for responsible use, but did the company pull the product? Of course not. Companies have a mission to sell product, and Monsanto had lots of product to sell.
If Monsanto dominates the market, drives down price, and makes Roundup irresistible to cash-strapped farmers, I think it’s only logical to say that the company is complicit in this situation.
Here’s an interesting addendum to the superweed story. From Slate:
Monsanto Rumbles About Superweeds Story
Monsanto’s social-media maven Mica Veihman writes: ”Underuse of the herbicide can also be a contributing factor. … It’s similar to what happens when your doctor tells you to take the prescribed antibiotics for 10 days, and you only do it for 5. You’re increasing the risk for your body to become resistant to the antibiotic.”
So Roundup is either overused or underused. That’s why we have superweeds. Well, if responsible use is such a problem, maybe Roundup needs to be regulated and farmers need to be licensed to use it. Is that what I’m hearing?
I think what Mica is getting at, is that the correct amount needs to be used. The fact that a reduced rate being used leads to too little active ingredient entering the plant, and the plant can metabolize that dose and survive. Using the prescribed amount reduces the risk of escapes, which can/may lead to mutated seeds form those plants that can survive a treatment of glyphosate. My point earlier was (in reference to over use of roundup) that the use of roundup followed by round up followed by round up, is irresponsible. That practice is what greatly increases the chances of resistent weeds. Adding an residual product with the round up (a second or third mode of action) will greatly reduce the incidence of resistence by working on the weed on multiple areas within the plant. Round-up is a major tool in the weed control system. Like any other tool, you need to use the tool correctly and when it is needed. (You use a pliers long enough to losen a nut, you will ruin that nut).
I don’t disagree that person’s using herbicides should be properly trained. Proper training and certification “can” help to make sure the proper use of products actually are being done. It is true that Round-up is not a restricted use product, but anybody who applies herbicides for hire must be licensed and certified. You know, the use and prescription of herbicides is not that different from going to your local drug store. Some products can be bought over the counter, and some need to be prescribed. Yet anyone of those over the counter medications can be just as hazardous, if used incorrectly, than the prescription only meds.
Kevin H
Kevin, looking at the superweed issue, seeing that these plants have appeared in 22 states and in countries abroad, do you think Roundup should be a restricted-use product? Can we afford to sit around and wait for farmers and their workers to correct their behavior? By the time Monsanto is paying cotton farmers to buy competitors’ product in order to change up the herbicide regimen, just as you described, it seems to me that it’s time to slam the gate on this one.
By the way, Michael Pollan, Blake Hurst, and others are weighing in on superweeds at the New York Times today.
If we should restrict Roundup since resistance has developed then we have a lot of restictin’ to do.
As I posted on the Biofortified forum post on the same topic (http://www.biofortified.org/forum/?vasthtmlaction=viewtopic&t=45.0):
Check out the International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds* where you’ll find that glyphosate (Roundup) is hardly the herbicide that’s had the most resistance develop. The worst offender is the class of pesticides that work by inhibiting acetolactate synthesis (including such pesticides as Telar, Glean, Corsair). These pesticides have 108 separate incidences of resistance developing, compared to Roundup (which is in the class of pesticides that inhibits EPSP synthase) which have 18 separate incidences of resistance. The list does seem to be current. If you click on any of the pesticide names you can find exactly which weed species are resistant to what and where, and if you click on a specific incident you can find more info including scholarly articles documenting resistance, if any exist.
* http://www.weedscience.org/summary/MOASummary.asp This site looks quite legitimate, and the project is funded and supported by legitimate groups: the Herbicide Resistance Action Committee (HRAC), the North American Herbicide Resistance Action Committee (NAHRAC), and the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA).
The problem isn’t genetic engineering but over-dependance on a single pesticide. I’d argue for farming policy that encourages rotation of pesticides whenever they are used, but that’d be hard to do. It’s also hard to find a herbicide as relatively benign as glyphosate. Problems all around.
-Anastasia (@geneticmaize)
weeds are a problem that have no easy solution.
one soluition is burn more petrol and plow more. not really the best solution.
the acreage and land covered in superweeds is rather small and confined to the south. its not like this is even on the radar in the midwest. its a non issue except on the internet.
Forever?