In a collaborative research project, a team of scientists have conducted a nationwide assessment of factors contributing to an epidemic of herbicide-resistant weeds in the United Kingdom (UK). Their paper was published in Nature: Evolution and Ecology this week. It paints a crystal-clear picture of rapidly rising weed resistance – and a clear correlation with […]
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A highly-respected farm magazine editor, Greg Horstmeier, has called a spade a spade re the unfolding, dicamba crop-damage train wreck occurring across corn-soybean country. This is a must-read piece, because of the important historical context it provides. Horstmeier’s play-by-play of how we got here is a chilling account of how badly farm industry leaders and […]
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A vote last week by the Arkansas Plant Board to impose an emergency ban on spraying dicamba herbicide is hot news in both the mainstream media and the ag community. Dicamba is used to battle the herbicide-resistant Palmer amaranth that plagues farmers in Arkansas, and the recent introduction of BASF’s Engenia brand dicamba herbicide, sold for use […]
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The Trump Administration started the process of re-negotiating NAFTA this week. One wonders if the rapidly spreading populations of U.S. born and bred glyphosate-resistant waterhemp in Ontario will be on the agenda. The first Canadian glyphosate-resistant (GR) waterhemp was discovered in 2014 in Lambton County, Ontario. In 2015, GR waterhemp was confirmed in 40 fields […]
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Andrew Kniss is a professor at the University Wyoming whose research is partially funded by the pesticide and biotech industry. My research over the last ~15 years has been substantially funded by organic food companies, and foundations that hope to support bio-based innovation in agriculture that leads to healthier food and a lighter environmental footprint. (For […]
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Farm magazines and rural, Midwestern airwaves are full of stories and advertising for the latest herbicide-based solutions for corn and soybean fields infested with multiple, herbicide-tolerant weeds. Perhaps the most challenging is glyphosate-resistant waterhemp. In a March 29, 2017 Farm Industry News story by Willie Vogt entitled “Taking on weed resistance”, weed management experts describe […]
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Chris DiFonzo, a Michigan State entomologist, has compiled with colleagues a farmer-friendly table of all GE corn traits and trade names. A special feature of the 2017 version of the table is getting a lot of attention – a column designating which insects, including the Southwestern corn borer larvae shown here, may be resistant to […]
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Farmers are bracing for a rough season contending with the spread of glyphosate-resistant weeds throughout the Heartland. The collapsing efficacy of genetically engineered (GE), herbicide-resistant (HR) technology coincides with a serious downturn in corn, soybean, and cotton prices. Rising costs for GE-HR seed, the need to markedly intensify herbicide use (driving production costs higher), and […]
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Historic posts are reprinted verbatim from their original source. Source: Editorial Desk, The New York Times, February 19, 2003 One of the most pervasive chemicals in modern agriculture is a herbicide called glyphosate, which is better known by its trade name, Roundup. When it was first introduced in 1974, by Monsanto, no one could have predicted […]
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