It turns out that what Montsanto thought was a win-win, it use of genes to create Roundup resistant crops, allowing it to make money on both the crops, and on the increased sales of its popular herbicide has had a not-unexpected side effect.<\/p>\n
It seems that with Roundup Ready\u00ae<\/sup> ready crops, farmers soak their fields in the herbicide, and so now we are seeing an explosion of herbicide resistant weeds<\/a>:\u201cSuperweeds\u201d are plaguing high-tech Monsanto crops in southern US states, driving farmers to use more herbicides, return to conventional crops or even abandon their farms. <\/p>\n
How has this happened? Farmers over-relied on Monsanto\u2019s revolutionary and controversial combination of a single \u201cround up\u201d herbicide and a high-tech seed with a built-in resistance to glyphosate, scientists say. <\/p>\n
Today, 100,000 acres in Georgia are severely infested with pigweed and 29 counties have now confirmed resistance to glyphosate, according to weed specialist Stanley Culpepper<\/a> from the University of Georgia. <\/p>\n
\u201cFarmers are taking this threat very seriously. It took us two years to make them understand how serious it was. But once they understood, they started taking a very aggressive approach to the weed,\u201d Culpepper told FRANCE 24. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust to illustrate how aggressive we are, last year we hand-weeded 45% of our severely infested fields,\u201d said Culpepper, adding that the fight involved \u201cspending a lot of money.\u201d <\/p>\n