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The proliferation of superweeds -- weeds that have mutated to develop resistance
to popular herbicides like Monsanto's Roundup formula -- continues to rise. But the
individual plants' overall size and strength is also increasing. According to a series of
new studies published in the journal Weed Science, farmers are having more trouble
than ever dealing with out-of-control superweeds in their fields, some of which grow up to
three inches a day in size, and are so strong and thick that they are destroying
farm equipment.
The studies reveal that there are
currently at least 21 different weed
species known to be resistant to Roundup,
also known generically as glyphosate. These species include ragweed, pigweed, horseweed,
waterhemp, and ryegrass. Since 2007, the total acreage of farmland known to be infested with
superweeds has also jumped more than 450 percent, from 2.4 million acres to 11 million
acres, which means that the problem is only going to get exponentially worse.
"Super-strains of plants like
pigweed -- which grows three inches a day and is tough enough to damage farm machinery --
have emerged, which may dramatically reduce the options for farmers to control them," writes Fast
Company in a recent piece on the issue. "The alternatives are usually more
dangerous chemicals or plowing and mulching fields, undermining many of the environmental benefits biotech crops are supposed to offer. It's 'the
single largest threat to production agriculture
that we have ever seen,' claims Andrew Wargo III, president of the Arkansas Association of
Conservation Districts."
And yet for years Monsanto has
denied, at least in part, that Roundup is the cause of superweeds, alleging also that
widespread concern about the issue is overblown. Though it now admits that Roundup may
actually be culprit in spawning superweeds (you think?), Monsanto is trying to somehow
spin the situation in a positive light. Back in 2010, for instance, a writer for
Monsanto's public relations blog
actually claimed that using too little Roundup might be a cause of superweeds (http://www.monsantoblog.com/2010/05...).
Genetically-modified (GM) crops, which are the primary target of herbicide applications like Roundup,
are currently planted in roughly 200,000 square miles of American farmland. Their very
existence requires repeated applications of herbicides and pesticides, including Roundup. But
some of the same superweeds that have developed resistance to Roundup -- but that used to
at least respond to other herbicides,
or combinations of herbicides -- have now developed resistance to these alternative
eradication methods as well.
A recent report in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (SLPD) explains that farmers are
quickly running out of options for controlling the superweed problem, as many superweeds
are now resistant to three or four other herbicides, and counting, besides Roundup.
Superweeds with massive stems up to four inches thick are devastating fields, and farmers
are becoming desperate for solutions (http://www.stltoday.com/business/lo...).
"It's rather ironic that we were sold glyphosate as an alternative to these older
pesticides, and now farmers are using them again," said Brett Lorenzen, a legal
analyst with the Environmental Working Group (EWG), to SLPD concerning farmers trying
anything and everything to get rid of superweeds. "But that's part of the pattern of
the pesticide industry."
The same report explains that, in order to get rid of the monstrous superweeds, farmers
are having to hire laborers to hack down the behemoth plants by hand, which together with
trying all sorts of other pesticides and herbicides, is costing farmers more time and
money than if they had never planted GM
crops in the first place.
Shuffling around pesticides and herbicides, and manually chopping down weeds, however, will not ultimately solve
the superweed problem. No matter how many chemical applications conventional and GM crop
farmers apply, superweeds just continue to get stronger and more pervasive. And they are
becoming so strong that not only are they squelching all non-resistant weeds from
existence, but they are also spreading resistant genes to other plants.
"Pollen can transfer the resistant trait; that's the problem," said Kevin
Bradley, a weed scientists from the University of Missouri, to SLPD. "There's not
much we can do about pollen flying
through the air, and that's why we see such rapid spread of resistance."
The USDA, of course, continues to allow
the introduction of new GMOs like
alfalfa, sugar beets, and now even Kentucky bluegrass, because it does not view GMOs any
differently than normal crops (http://motherjones.com/environment/...). The agency has refused to
hold GMOs to a higher standard as it should, and instead has reneged any responsibility
for properly regulating "frankencrops" -- and thus the world is being overrun by
superweeds.
The only way it is possible to get rid of superweeds, if such a task is even still
possible, is to end the cultivation of GM crops for good. In order to accomplish this,
every GM field would have to be uprooted, tilled, and burned, and the whole of mainstream
agriculture would have to embrace a system of chemical-free polyculture that naturally
encourages proper soil health and microbial diversity, two factors that eliminate the need
for using the herbicides and pesticides that have played a major factor in the superweed
problem (http://www.naturalnews.com/031597_D...).
http://www.naturalnews.com/033195_superweeds_farm_equipment.html
Sources for this story include:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1768090/.
"To Achieve One World
Government it is necessary to remove from the minds of men their individualism,
their loyalty to family traditions and national identification." (Brock Chisholm - Director of the World Health Organization)
"A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, who refuse to
believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a
reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a society that chooses and deserves the Police
State Dictatorship it's going to
get." (Ian Williams Goddard)
The fact is that "political correctness" is all about creating uniformity. Individualism is one of the biggest obstacles in the way of the New World Order. They want a public that is predictable and conditioned to do as it's told without asking questions.
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first." Thomas Jefferson