‘Superweeds’ Causing Concern For Farmers, Chemical Pesticides Blamed

Weed management professionals are reportedly growing more concerned about the superweeds problem and seeking new ways to combat the issue. For the past 15 years, Roundup Ready, a popular Monsanto chemical herbicide, has been used as weed-controlling mechanism. Some farmers are going back to the old-fashioned hand weed pulling or expensive mechanical tilling practice to combat weeds without chemical herbicide to thwart the growth of more superweeds.

Superweeds possibly caused by GMOs and glyphosate chemical pesticides are a growing problem, according to agriculture experts. Huge weeds are becoming more prevalent in pastures and fields around the glove, according to a Natural News report. Increased exposure to chemical pesticides to spawn herbicide-resistant (genetically modified) crops is being blamed for the growth of the superweeds.

Secret Garden of Survival author Rick Austin had this to say about weeds, GMO crops, and Monsanto:

“The war against weeds makes no sense. The “weeds are bad and gotta be pulled” argument is just plain wrong. The truth of the matter is that weeds are nature’s way of taking soil that is depleted and without ingredients and micro-organisms. Nature hates a vacuum. In the natural course of things, weeds are the first thing to go into an area that has been devastated after a fire or clear-cutting, for example. Weeds live and thrive when no other plants will. A difficult bare patch of soil with an annual crop like corn, needs the benefits of the natural role weeds play. Weeds are stronger and healthier, and try to take the crappy soil and turn it into something that other plants can use in the future. They break up soil that may be too hard or compact. They make the soil better and allow water to get into the ground. When people pull weeds, they are doing exactly the opposite of what they need to do to make the soil become more fertile. In permaculture, or a food forest, weeds are still flowering when everything else has gone. If you pull out the flowering weeds, then there is no reason for predatory wasps to show up. Pests are most attracted to crops without predators, like wasps nearby.”

Superweeds have become so prominent that the subject became a primary topic during a recent American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition. The group is the largest science and industry society on the world. Some agriculture professionals have noted that the costs associated with battling weeds has double, and in some instances tripled, in recent years. During that same time span, crop yields have allegedly experienced significant declines.

Southern Illinois University Plant Soil and Agricultural Systems Professor Bryan Young had this to say about superweeds and chemical herbicides:

“The problems associated with herbicide-resistant weeds are spreading and intensifying, especially weed species resistant to multiple products, including the mainstay of 21st century agriculture, the herbicide glyphosate. More than 200 individual weeds species have been confirmed resistant to at least a single herbicide, with infestations covering millions of acres in the United States and 60 other countries.”

Professional Young went on to state that weed management near corn crops have become even more difficult due to the use of Roundup Ready style herbicide-resistant weeds. The superweeds are growing more quickly than the crops they surround, and in most cases, the unwanted farm inhabitants are also larger in size than the edible and money-generating crops. Corn, and other crops, are forced to compete with superweeds for soil nutrients and moisture and “defying multiple rounds of glyphosate,” according to the American Chemical Society member experts.

The Palmer amaranth pigweed reportedly can grow 10-feet-tall at an inch-per-day rate and possess stems thick enough to damage agriculture equipment. Weeds have developed a resistance to herbicides much like human are developing to antibiotics. Overuse of prescription medications and chemical herbicides is rapidly spawning superweeds and “superbugs” that industry officials are failing to thwart quickly enough.

The agribusiness industry is reportedly in the process of developing a new line of herbicides that will allegedly “sidestep” the resistance defenses of superweeds. The so-called experts appear to be doing nothing more than creating more powerful herbicides which will ultimately spur even more “super” superweeds.

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