Pigweed can grow three inches a day and reach seven feet or more
It took ten years from the first appearance of Roundup (the miracle chemical weed killer) resistant weeds for 10 super weeds to spread to 22 states infesting soybeans, corn and cotton. Common and giant ragweed, pigweed and most recently johnsongrass are all species of weeds exhibiting roundup resistant tendencies.
New York Times reports
Sales took off in the late 1990s, after Monsanto created its brand of Roundup Ready crops that were genetically modified to tolerate the chemical, allowing farmers to spray their fields to kill the weeds while leaving the crop unharmed. Today, Roundup Ready crops account for about 90 percent of the soybeans and 70 percent of the corn and cotton grown in the United States.
But farmers sprayed so much Roundup that weeds quickly evolved to survive it. “What we’re talking about here is Darwinian evolution in fast-forward,” Mike Owen, a weed scientist at Iowa State University, said.
Mr. Anderson, the farmer, is wrestling with a particularly tenacious species of glyphosate-resistant pest called Palmer amaranth, or pigweed, whose resistant form began seriously infesting farms in western Tennessee only last year.
Pigweed can grow three inches a day and reach seven feet or more, choking out crops; it is so sturdy that it can damage harvesting equipment. In an attempt to kill the pest before it becomes that big, Mr. Anderson and his neighbors are plowing their fields and mixing herbicides into the soil.
Strategies for fighting glyphosate resistant weeds are underway but currently they involve more applications of herbicides and therefore cause greater expense to the farmer .
Delta Farm Press reports
Pace Hindsley, a Marvell[Ark.] farmer, said the problem is forcing growers to go back to older ways of farming, including hand-hoeing to get the weeds out of the fields.
“We’re not just worried about the problem this year, but also next year and the year after that and each year until we can get a solution to the problem,” said Hindsley.
In addition to the frustrations caused by battling pigweed, cost is also a major consideration.
“You get to a point where it’s just not financially feasible to do anything else and you have to live with the results you’ve got,” said Jim Hubbard, who also farms in Marvell. “You pull your hair out because you’ve done everything you know to do and you just can’t beat this weed.”
UPDATE:
A great follow-up to this in the Room for Debate feature in the New York Times, which asks seven people familiar with the issue the following three questions:
What should farmers do about these superweeds?
What does the problem mean for agriculture in the U.S.?
Will it temper American agriculture’s enthusiasm for genetically modified crops that are engineered to survive spraying with Roundup?
Michael Pollan, author, “Food Rules”
Stephen Powles, plant biologist and grain farmer
Blake Hurst, farmer
Anna Lappé, Small Planet Institute
Scott M. Swinton, agriculture economist
Micheal D.K. Owen, professor of agronomy
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