So much of Monsanto's poison was spread in the past decade that
weeds naturally developed a resistance to it.
June 5, 2012
Rather than find ways to cooperate with the natural world,
America's agribusiness giants reach for the next quick fix in a
futile effort to overpower nature. Their attitude is that if brute
force isn't working, they're probably not using enough of it.
Monsanto, for example, has
banked a fortune by selling a corn seed that it genetically
manipulated to produce corn plants that won't die when sprayed with
the Roundup toxic weedkiller. Not coincidentally, Monsanto also
happens to manufacture Roundup. It profits from the seed and from
the huge jump in Roundup sales that the seed generates. Slick.
But Mother Nature, darn it, has
rebelled. So much of Monsanto's poison was spread in the past decade
that weeds naturally began to resist it. As a Dow Chemical
agronomist explained, "The real need here is to diversify our weed
management systems."
Exactly right! We need
non-chemical, sustainable systems that work with nature and without
genetically altered crops.
But, no, the Dow man didn't
mean that at all. He was calling for more brute force in the form of
Dow's new genetically altered corn seed that can absorb Dow's
super-potent 2,4-D weedkiller, which it markets under the "Enlist"
brand name. Use this stuff, he says, and nature will be defeated.
Wrong. Nature doesn't quit. The
weeds will keep evolving and will adapt to Dow's high-tech fix, too.
By pushing the same old thing relentlessly, says an independent crop
scientist, agribusiness interests "ratchet up [America's] dependence
on the use of herbicides, which is very much a treadmill."
It's time to start listening to
the weeds — and cooperating with Mother Nature. To advance this
common sense approach, a national coalition is backing a California
"Right to Know" initiative requiring the labeling of genetically
altered foods. To help, go to the Organic Consumers Association at
www.OrganicConsumers.org.
Jim Hightower is a
national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author
of the new book, "
Swim
Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow."
(Wiley, March 2008) He publishes the monthly "
Hightower
Lowdown," co-edited by Phillip Frazer.
http://blogs.alternet.org