2,4-D Ready Corn Has Non-farmers Fired Up

Global number of weed populations resistant to two or more types of herbicides. Image: Mortensen et al./BioScience


Wired:

These superweeds now infest 60 million acres of U.S. farmland, a fast-growing number that foreshadows a time when agriculture’s front-line weedkiller is largely useless. Enlist, which Dow estimates will save $4 billion in superweed-related farm losses by 2020, represents the industry’s main response to the problem: Bringing back old chemicals in new ways.
Of 20 genetically engineered crops under federal regulatory consideration, 13 are designed to resist multiple herbicides. They suggest a future in which more farmland is treated with more herbicides in ever-higher doses, and have been criticized by activists and researchers worried about possible chemical dangers to human and environmental health.
Largely overshadowed in the health furor, however, is the issue of new superweeds: If glyphosate-drenched Roundup Ready fields were evolutionary crucibles that favored the emergence of new, glyphosate-resistant weed strains that threaten multi-billion-dollar damage, what might new herbicide regimes create?
“Resistance happens, particularly when the selection pressure is largely from one or two tactics,” said weed ecologist David Mortensen of Penn State University. “Plants are wired to protect themselves from troublesome compounds in some interesting ways.”
In January, Mortensen and Maxwell co-authored “Navigating a Critical Juncture for Sustainable Weed Management,” a BioScience paper on superweed control that described two routes for evolving resistance to multiple herbicides.

There are going to be some major issues down the line, but the battle between weeds and farmers will rage forever.  It is interesting how much attention super weeds and super bugs are getting.  Farmers are going to have a public relations nightmare on our hands.