RoundUp Resistant "SuperWeeds" Thanks Monsanto - Grow 3" Daily

Remember that margarine commercial - "It's Not Nice To Fool Mother Nature"

Just as we have seen insects, rats and other pest becoming resistant to poisons, Monsanto's RoundUp Herbicide is now being resisted by many weeds and they can grow up to 3 inches a day.

Fair warning, fully reading either article and/or watching the YouTube Video this will make you very upset.


Super-weeds that can grow three-inches a day thanks to Monsanto

Yes folks, the company that brought you genetically modified seed crops and whose lawyers would make Apple tremble has outdone itself.

Weeds are a common problem, we all hate them and suffer through the yearly joy of cleaning them out of our gardens and lawns. As much a pain in the ass as they might be it is nothing compared to what is coming all thanks to Monsanto and its so-called miraculous weed-killer, Round-up.

It seems that the people who study weeds, and yes there are such people, have made a rather disturbing discovery. There is an increasing occurrence of what they are calling “super-weeds”; which turns out to mean weeds that have become not only resistant to Monsanto’s Round-up but also other herbicides.

This is from a study that was published recently in Weed Science.

“The herbicide resistance issue is becoming serious,” said journal editor, William K. Vencill, in a recent statement. “It is spreading out beyond where weed scientists have seen it before.” More than 11 million acres, up from just 2.4 million in 2007, are now infested with Roundup-resistant varieties. The herbicide, a relatively low-impact chemical since it biodegrades quickly, has ranked among the most popular for farmers since Monsanto introduced its genetically engineered Roundup Ready crops that are unaffected by the chemical, accounting for about 90 percent of the soybeans and 70 percent of the corn and cotton grown in the United States.

What males this even more worrisome is the types of weeds that are turning up to be resistant and the damage that they can do.

Even more worrisome is the steep (and unabated) climb in the number of weeds resistant to multiple types of herbicides. 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. 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 via Fast Company

Super-weeds that can grow three-inches a day thanks to Monsanto



Monsanto's 'Superweeds' Gallop Through Midwest

Now, as I reported recently, the USDA openly acknowledges the superweed problem and even delivered a pretty good explainer on it in its environmental impact statement (PDF) on Roundup Ready alfalfa. Yet it keeps deregulating or choosing not to regulate at all new Roundup Ready crops, all of them quite widely planted. This year alone, the agency has green-lighted Roundup Ready versions of alfalfa (a major cow feed); sugar beets (source of half of US sugar), and most recently, Kentucky bluegrass (popular lawn turf). These dubious USDA decisions will likely bring millions more acres—including lawns, parks, and golf courses near you—under the Roundup Ready domain. From the USDA's perspective, superweeds—and the toxic cocktails they call forth upon the to land—are simply something we have to live with.

As for farmers, crop prices are high enough—thanks, ethanol!—that they're still eking out a profit despite having to buy and spray the extra herbicides, the Post-Dispatch reports. And in many cases, Monsanto's market dominance is so complete that farmers literally have no other alternative than to buy Roundup Ready seeds. For example, it's virtually impossible to buy non-Roundup Ready sugar beet seeds.

As for Monsanto, well, as I reported Tuesday, Roundup sales are booming. The company expects to clock $700 million in profit from that product alone this year. And it has a plan for complaints about Roundup resistance. It will develop crops resistant to other poisons, creating whole new cycles of profit and ecological destruction. The Post-Dispatch reports:

There is, however, some hope in the pipeline. Monsanto is working on developing soybeans and cotton that are resistant to the chemical dicamba. The cotton could be on the market within three years.

Dicamba is a truly nasty poison—it makes the Pesticide Action Network's "bad actor" list, and is classified as a "developmental or reproductive toxin.

Monsanto's 'Superweeds' Gallop Through Midwest

The report of Monsanto's RoundUp Resistant weeds is not recent news. It just seems that the resistant weeds are now being labeled "SuperWeeds" because of their aggressiveness to harm crops.

Here is an ATS Thread from 2009;
ATS Monsanto Thread 2009

And one from 2010:
ATS Monsanto Thread 2010

My main concern is the talk about deregulating highly toxic substances to help thwart the problem.

I am most definitely against Monsanto, but not weeds themselves.

After reading several survival threads, I have come to learn the usefulness of many common weeds.

Dandelion, Goose Foot, Broad leaf Plantain etc.. All seem pesky but in a survival situation you might be glad that these so called annoying plants are around and healthy for that matter.

A perfect example of evolution in plants. Whether evolution occurs naturally, or through man altering genetics, the life on this planet evolves to resist those things that threaten to destroy it.

Great article, thanks for posting. Anything that shines more light on the Mengele-esque mad science that Monsanto sells to us as beneficial is a step in the right direction. My only input is that many of the species of pigweed are very useful plants. They can be used like many cereals and are called pseudograins. They have been cultivated and used from Indian to Asia and throughout the Americas.

If Monsanto continues to restructure and tailor plant genetics, then how long before human and animal digestive tracts need to be genetically modified just so we can absorb the minimum amount of nutrients we need to grow and be healthy. How is a company allowed to force the hand of evolution?

Down with GMO!

I guess we are just going to have to 'pull. the weeds like they used to do in the old days.


I wish we could weed congress like that.

Another point of view, this time in regards to this issue raising food prices even more:

Monsanto-Resistant Weeds Take Root, Raising Food Prices

For decades, farmers had it relatively easy when it came to weeds infesting their soil: apply herbicides, wait for the weeds to die and grow more crops. Those salad days, alas, are coming to an end.

A new series of studies released by Weed Science this month finds at least 21 weed species have become resistant to the popular herbicide glyphosate (sold as Monsanto's Roundup), and a growing number survive multiple herbicides, so-called "super-weeds." The same selection pressure creating bacteria resistant to multiple antibiotics is leading to the rapid evolution of plants that survive modern herbicides. If the trend continues, yields could drop and food costs climb as weeds grow more difficult to uproot.

Monsanto-Resistant Weeds Take Root, Raising Food Prices

reply to post by BishopNGreen


Quite right. Pigweed is a common agricultural crop in central American, also known as Amaranth. As a survival plant is a prodigious producer of not only cereal grains as you mentioned but edible greens (leaves) as well,
Amaranth is also a critical winter food source for many bird species. This is but one weed of dozens that are being altered by GMO technology inadvertently all of which will send reverberations through the local ecology of affected areas..
One man's trash (weed) is another man's treasure.

In places where herbicides have been used for many decades resistance is witnessed in selective species with the greatest adaptation in species with the quickest generational turn around which usually are "weeds". Thistle and blackberry both are highly resisitant to herbicide in the PNW coast range and are rapidly spreading along with Scotch Broom and fireweed they dominate quickly unless mechanically(by hand or machine) destroyed and the roots of scotch broom and blackberry must be dug out. This must be done with dedication during spring and early summer every year for at least five yrs to eradicate these natural "superweeds" to get all roots and seeds and also prevent further seeding. I had an organic farm/nursery and only used this method but even my neighbors who were not so tree huggy ended up having to do the same as the chems could yellow the leaves, but with scotch broom and blackberry would cause branching at the base and in the end make a bigger plant or with fireweed and thistle make them yellow and go to seed immediately thus spreading ahead of plants that did not seed this way. To me it is a no brainer. Plants are biochemical factories which take up what is in soil and use it to reproduce. the ones that take up what is available and reproduce best win. If hemp can be used to scrub radiation from around Chernobyl and thrive why wouldn't other plants do the same with what would seem less toxic than radioactivity with only some biochemical adjustments by nature? Scotch broom, the MRSA of the PNW forests!
seed

reply to post by mustard seed


Wow Mustard, you really know your weeds! There is another way to get rid of scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius - yellow flowers - is this the plant ?) and blackberry. They're pioneer plants and grow aggressively when there is little competition in burned or disturbed ground. Allowing the saplings to overtake them and eventually crowd them out takes 10 - 20 years but no hand pulling is required. Just allow the land to restore itself.
Of course blackberry fruits are wildly popular with wildlife so they will simply begin to spread elsewhere by animal transmission.
We have our own issues here in Virginia with Kudzu, garlic mustard (no offense ) and Russian olive. Fortunately the first 2 are edible!

A highly effective anti-depressant tea can be brewed from Eleagnus Sp. leaves and bark. It contains harmala alkaloids which are used widely in Indian Ayurvedic medicine and are ACTUAL anti-depressants unlike SSRIs. some dietary restrictions apply during use but very safe and long ago a proven effective anti-depressant effect due to MAOI effects on serotonin.Also the alkaloids are potent UV dyes for marking in "invisible ink" I, Like it seems you do also Ask, try and see a resource in the "problem" but scotch broom the best I can find out is desperate stoners smoke the toxic flowers. erm, not my thang. and thistle is just plain mean. The blackberry can be trained and contained with work to get a valuable resource and even fireweed has limited use as a weaving "reed" So yeah, adapt or die but the loss of some things to these is a problem for a healthy forest. Not that they are really healthy any more as the continued use of pesticides is changing the soil micro-organism balance and even the "factory" trees are suffering poor root health and not able to take up the ferts they use on them. Like I said the only real winners will be the rapid reproducers or the weeds trees just do not turn generations around quick enough to make the changes in the genome needed to keep up with chemistry while the fast breeders will kick it's arse. I think the OP is proving just that.
seed

It goes from bad to worse. GMO RoundUp Resistant Grass Seed for consumer home use.

I honestly do not what to say...

GMO Round Up Ready Lawns Set to Debut in 2012

...That’s why a preposterous idea like GMO grass seeds isn’t as surprising as it would have been a few years ago.

That’s right, according to Natural News, Scott’s Miracle Gro is set to debut GMO grass in lawns across America by 2012. And with it, tons of Roundup to kill the weeds. This means the contamination of natural seed will now spread beyond just farmland. Additionally, these crops are known to cause superweeds. These crazy mega-weeds are resistant to chemicals and can grow out of control.

This isn't a small deal because once such damage is done, it's difficult, if at all possible to turn back. Are you frightened by the idea of GMO lawns debuting next year? I am.

GMO Round Up Ready Lawns Set to Debut in 2012

My only hope is the source, Natural News can be one of the biggest scare-mongers online. Not saying they do not report accurately, just suspect at times.