Given the available research, my guess about the future of agriculture is that glyphosate resistance will become a lesson learned and that genetically engineered crops will become increasingly important.
Terrance Hurley
Department of Applied Economics University of Minnesota
Adler’s characterization of ragweed and pigweed (Palmer amaranth) as monsters is plain silly. These plants are just doing their amazing thing: surviving. Ragweed, for one—and I am allergic—is a wonderful survivor and great colonizer of bare ground. Carl Linnaeus was not kidding when he chose the name Ambrosia for it: achene, its nutritious fruit, provides lots of calories to wildlife. So do amaranths, which have been a human food staple as well. We have known about chemical resistance since about five minutes after we started using chemicals to kill pests. (Thank you, genetic diversity!) Yet we are using the same chemicals in ever greater quantities. I say, “Go weeds!”
“sayornis”
commenting at ScientificAmerican.com
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Add CommentSUPERWEEDS VS. SUPERCROPS
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