Fighting off superweeds to put food on the table

You gotta eat! And that’s why an agricultural crisis that causes chronic problems for farmers ends up being a problem for you and me. And an expensive one. I imagine we will start seeing food prices skyrocket even higher.

The problem is superweeds — known as “pigweed” — more formally as “palmer amaranth.” As I’ve mentioned before, pigweed is a true monster. It grows very quickly, sometimes reaching a height of several feet, and its stalk is so sturdy that it can damage harvesting equipment.

In 2008, one weed specialist called an area of central Arkansas a “pigweed-infested hell.”

Four years later, the pigweed problem rages on. That’s why Bayer CropScience recently hosted the 2012 Ag Issues Forum to discuss solutions.

According to a press release, a “panel of thought leaders” shared advice such as this: “Farmers should get back to managing weed populations, not controlling them.”

Got that, farmers? Don’t “control” weeds — “manage” them. (Maybe you have to be a thought leader for that to make sense.)

Here’s another suggestion: “A proactive approach to weed management is critical.”

Hmmm… Could that be a thinly veiled reference to the herbicide glyphosate?

Here’s how one panel member described the glyphosate effect: “We’ve identified nine weed varieties resistant to glyphosate in the last 10 years, so if you look at that scorecard, we’re failing.”

If you’re not a farmer, you might not recognize glyphosate as the generic chemical name for Round-Up, the severely overused herbicide that promotes glyphosate-resistant superweeds.

If these thought leaders were real leaders, they would come right out and insist on a glyphosate ban. But they can’t do that because glyphosate is made by Monsanto, the big bad agri-biotech giant.

If you live and work in the agriculture world, everybody knows rule one: You do not kick the giant. (He’s got a nasty temper.)

That’s why farmers end up with vague advice about managing weeds instead of controlling them.

Thanks, thought leaders!

Sources:
“Expert Panel Offers Solutions to Weed Resistance Issues” Research Triangle Park, NC press release, 3/6/12, prweb.com