SocraticGadfly: Monsanto reaps profits from bad Roundup

May 05, 2010

Monsanto reaps profits from bad Roundup

Big Ag, which wants to offer us herbicide-resistant crops, or genetically-modified organisms without adequate testing, is ultimately interested in the big bottom line and little else.

No surprise that overuse of Roundup herbicide, a BIG Monsanto money-maker, in combo with its own Roundup-resistant soybeans (which, unlike the weeds, don't stay around to develop resistance) has badly backfired.
“What we’re talking about here is Darwinian evolution in fast-forward,” Mike Owen, a weed scientist at Iowa State University, said.
The result? Low- and no-till farming are going by the wayside again. That means more soil erosion.

Farmers are reverting to other herbicides, which may in turn be even more toxic than Roundup.

If Monsanto really cared about the environment rather than profits, it would have taught farmers low-spray techniques to go along with low-till plowing.

Meanwhile, Monsanto is now genetically engineering crops to be resistant to Roundup AND other herbicides.

Until weeds become multiple-resistant, too? Anyone see where this is headed? Monsanto wants you, the farmer, to overspray so it can engineer a new crop.

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