Top

Published in:

2015 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

4. Defiance: Rounding Up Resistance

Author : Dr. Emily Monosson

Published in: Unnatural Selection

Publisher: Island Press/Center for Resource Economics

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

Some call them “superweeds.” Weed scientist and anti-resistance zealot Mike Owen calls them “driver weeds.” No matter what you call them, agricultural weeds around the world are evolving herbicide resistance, a problem that some claim is one of today’s greatest threats to agriculture. “If you don’t control them,” insists Owen, “you will have a serious economic problem.” Herbicide-resistant weeds are gaining ground, and conventional farmers across the country are scrambling for solutions. The weeds that get Owen traveling across the country and around the world, appealing to farmers, academics, industry scientists, and ag management alike, aren’t just any resistant weeds. These are the horseweed, pigweed, waterhemp, and others that have evolved a stubborn resistance to Roundup, the “once in a century” herbicide. Resistant weeds, hundreds of different species, are spreading across the country at an increasingly rapid pace, infesting more than half of our nation’s crops. By the time you read this, their numbers will have increased.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

previous chapter Treatment: Beyond Chemotherapy

next chapter Resurgence: Bedbugs Bite Back

Michael Owen (Professor of Agronomy and Extension Weed Specialist, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa) in discussion with the author, May 2013; William Neuman and Andrew Pollack, “Farmers Cope with Round-up Resistant Weeds,” New York Times, May 4, 2010; for details about resistant weeds, see: Ian Heap, International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds, www.weedscience.com, accessed March 28, 2014.

2,4-D is the common name for 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid; atrazine is the common name for 1-Chloro-3-ethylamino-5-isopropylamino-2,4,6-triazine. Regarding recent studies into the safety of Roundup, see: T. Bohn et al., “Compositional Differences in Soybeans on the Market: Glyphosate Accumulates in Roundup Ready GM Soybeans,” Food Chemistry 153 (2014): 207–15; Rick A. Relyea, “New Effects of Roundup on Amphibians: Predators Reduce Herbicide Mortality; Herbicides Induce Antipredator Morphology,” Ecological Applications 22 (2012): 634–47; Rick Relyea, “Amphibians Are Not Ready for Roundup,” Wildlife Ecotoxicology (Emerging Topics in Ecotoxicology series) 3 (201): 267–300.

H. G. Baker, “Characteristics and Modes of Origin of Weeds,” in H. G. Baker and G. L. Stebbins, The Genetics of Colonizing Species, Proceedings of the First International Union of Biological Sciences Symposia on General Biology, Asilomar, California (New York: Academic Press, 1965): 147–72.

Edward O. Wilson, The Diversity of Life (New York: W. W. Norton, 1993), 300.

Fred Gould, “The Evolutionary Potential of Crop Pests,” American Scientist 79 (November‑December 1991): 497.

EPSPS is 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase.

One study in particular, conducted by Gilles-Eric Seralini and colleagues, which reported liver and kidney toxicity as well as tumor development following exposure to Roundup Ready corn cultivated with and without Roundup, has created much controversy. The study was eventually retracted. For letters regarding the retraction, see: Gilles-Eric Seralini et al., “RETRACTED: Long-Term Toxicity of a Roundup Herbicide and a Roundup-Tolerant Genetically Modified Maize,” Food and Chemical Toxicology 50 (November 2012): 4221–31. For more about the controversy, see: “Seralini Affair,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9ralini_affair, accessed March 31, 2014. Another study hypothesized that Roundup may be related to a high incidence of kidney toxicity; for more, see: “Glyphosate, Hard Water, and Nephrotoxic Metals: Are They the Culprits Behind the Epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology in Sri Lanka?” International Journal of Environmental Health and Public Health 11 (2014): 2125–47.

For a history of no-till farming, see: http://research.wsu.edu/resources/files/no-till.pdf. No-till farming was enabled a decade earlier by “chemical seed-bed” preparation and a combination of herbicides including paraquat, 2,4-D, and atrazine.

For a detailed history, see: Daniel Charles, Lords of the Harvest (Cambridge, MA: Perseus, 2001).

Paul Berg, “Asilomar and Recombinant DNA,” Nobelprize.org, Nobel Media AB, 2013, www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1980/berg-article.html, accessed March 28, 2014.

Charles, Lords of the Harvest, 126–48.

Ibid., 42.

Ibid., 68.

Diane Re and Stephen Padgette, “Petition for Determination of Nonregulated Status: Soybeans with a Roundup Ready™ Gene,” USDA Plant and Animal Inspection Services Documents www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/aphisdocs/93_25801p.pdf, accessed March 28, 2014; A. McHughen and S. Smyth, “US Regulatory System for Genetically Modified [Genetically Modified Organism (GMO), rDNA or Transgenic] Crop Cultivars,” Plant Biotechnology Journal 6 (2008): 2–12.

Ibid., 3.

Jonathan Gressel, “Evolving Understanding of the Evolution of Herbicide Resistance,” Pest Management Science 65 (2009): 1171.

Ian Heap, “International Survey of Resistant Weeds,” www.weedscience.com/summary/home.aspx, accessed March 31, 2014.

Gressel, “Evolving Understanding,” 1166.

Robert Gordon Harvey, letter to Diane Re, February 1993, www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/aphisdocs/93_25801p.pdf, accessed March 31, 2014.

Laura Bradshaw et al., “Perspectives on Glyphosate,” Weed Technology 11 (1997): 189.

Michael Owen, letter to Diane Re, February 8, 1993, www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/aphisdocs/93_25801p.pdf, accessed March 31, 2014.

Charles Benbrook, “Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use in the U.S.—The First Sixteen Years,” Environmental Sciences Europe 24 (2012): 4, doi:10.1186/2190-4715-24-24.

For sales figures, see: Unites States Environmental Protection Agency, “2006–2007 Pesticide Market Estimates,” www.epa.gov/opp00001/pestsales/07pestsales/table_of_contents2007.htm, accessed March 31, 2014; “Global Glyphosate Market to Reach 1.35 Million Metric Tons by 2017,” PRWeb.com, www.prweb.com/releases/glyphosate_agrochemical/technical_glyphosate/prweb8857231.htm, accessed March 31, 2014.

“Roundup Ready System, Overview,” Monsanto, www.monsanto.com/weedmanagement/Pages/roundup-ready-system.aspx, accessed March 31, 2014.

Charles Arntzen, Welcome Message, in Proceedings of the National Summit on Strategies to Manage Herbicide-Resistant Weeds (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2012), 2.

Vijay Nandula et al., “Glyphosate-Resistant Weeds: Current Status and Future Outlook,” Outlooks on Pest Management (August 2005): 183–87, doi:10.1564/16aug11.

Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST), “Herbicide-Resistant Weeds Threatens Soil Conservation Gains: Finding a Balance for Soil and Farm Sustainability,” Issue Paper 49 (February 2012), 13.

Owen, discussion with author.

“We prefer to educate rather than regulate,” says Rick Cole, Monsanto’s technology application director, as quoted as by Harry Cline in “Too Many Stacked Crop Trait Genes?” Western Farm Press, April 2010, http://westernfarmpress.com/management/too-many-stacked-crop-trait-genes, accessed May 2014.

Greg Jaffe (Biotechnology Project Director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest), in discussion with the author, June 2013.

Ibid.

David Mortensen et al., “Navigating a Critical Juncture for Sustainable Weed Management,” BioScience 62 (2012): 82, doi:10.1525/bio.2012.62.1.12.

For more, see: Mortensen et al., “Navigating a Critical Juncture,” 75–84; see also: Heap, “International Survey.”

Mortensen et al., “Navigating a Critical Juncture,” 75.

Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Notice [Docket] No. APHIS-2013-0042, Federal Register 78 (Thursday, March 16, 2013): 28798–800, www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-05-16/html/2013-11579.htm, accessed March 31, 2014.

United States Environmental Protection Agency, “EPA Seeks Comment on Proposed Decision to Register Enlist,” www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/2-4-d-glyphosate.html#weeds, accessed June 6, 2014.

Title: Defiance: Rounding Up Resistance
Author: Dr. Emily Monosson
Publisher: Island Press/Center for Resource Economics
Book: Unnatural Selection
Print ISBN: 978-1-59726-645-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-61091-500-7

Copyright Year: 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-500-7_5