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First Superbugs, Now Superweeds

Posted by Soulskill on from the as-long-as-there-are-no-supersharks-we're-ok dept.

Finxray writes "Years of heavy use of the broad spectrum herbicide Roundup has led to the rapid growth of superweeds. They are spreading throughout North America, creating headaches for farmers and posing 'the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen,' according to Andrew Wargo III, the president of the Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts. From the article: 'The first resistant species to pose a serious threat to agriculture was spotted in a Delaware soybean field in 2000. Since then, the problem has spread, with 10 resistant species in at least 22 states infesting millions of acres, predominantly soybeans, cotton and corn. The superweeds could temper American agriculture’s enthusiasm for some genetically modified crops. Soybeans, corn and cotton that are engineered to survive spraying with Roundup have become standard in American fields. However, if Roundup doesn’t kill the weeds, farmers have little incentive to spend the extra money for the special seeds."

5 of 435 comments (clear)

  1. Death to Monsanto by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes. Death.

  2. Weed... by pablo_max · · Score: 3, Funny

    ""Years of heavy use of the broad spectrum herbicide Roundup has led to the rapid growth of superweeds".

    Quick..someone mix this "Superweed" with normal weed! They wont be able to make that illegal! We can't be stopped!

  3. Re:Cross breeding... by tomhudson · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm sure it doesn't help that the plants that are resistant to roundup will cross-pollinate with the weeds that are supposed to be killed with roundup,

    The definition of species is the inability to reproduce outside a given genetic group. Corn doesn't reproduce with ragweed. Nice try though.

    Nonsense. Horse, meet donkey. Go, mule, go!

  4. Not a problem. by JeanBaptiste · · Score: 2, Funny

    We'll just send in Chinese Needle Snakes which will exterminate the weeds.

  5. Re:Just one inconvenient graph... by Scrameustache · · Score: 2, Funny

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_welfare_and_ecological_footprint_sustainability.jpg

    Yay Cuba?

    --

    You can't take the sky from me...