RoundupReady Resistant Weeds Plauge US
NGIN- GM WATCH daily: http://www.ngin.org.uk
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The US is being hit by Roundup Ready resistant weeds and an independent marketresearch study, which has been discreetly circulating and has been seen by GMWATCH, says Roundup Ready resistance is set to hit the economic value offarmland wiping around 17% off US land rentals. What's more, 46% of the farmmanagers surveyed in the study said weed resistance to glyphosate, the activeingredient in Monsanto's herbicide Roundup, is now their top weed-resistanceconcern.
The report warns, "Suddenly, glyphosate-resistant weeds have become morethan an in-season production and profitability issue. They can also affect thelong-term value of farmland". It also says, "These survey findingsshould make both farm managers and landowners take notice" because"The economic consequences are significant" and can represent forlandowners "a major loss of cash flow".
Glyphosate is being massively used in North America thanks to Monsanto's GMherbicide-resistant 'Roundup Ready' crops. But there is growing concern amongweed scientists and land owners about the emergence of glyphosate-resistance. Asthe report notes, "The high volume of glyphosate being used across thecountry as a result of RR technology adoption makes this a very real concern forgrowers, professional farm managers and the owners of farmland."
Glyphosate-resistant marestail has already been found in Delaware, Tennessee,Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. Marestail (horseweed) is a prolific seed producerand the seeds are easily blown around by the wind so this is a major problem.But the problem doesn't stop there. Glyphosate-resistant rigid ryegrass has beenreported in California. Weed scientists in Iowa and Missouri are already testingwaterhemp from fields that seem to be showing more tolerance to glyphosate.There are also complaints about marginal control of velvetleaf, ivyleafmorningglory and lambsquarters control with glyphosate. The latest bad news forMonsanto, which has always promoted Roundup as a way of simplifying farmmanagement issues, comes courtesy of its main rival, the world's largest biotechcompany, Syngenta, which commissioned the market research study report and hasbeen quietly circulating it to farmers and landowners via its PR company, Gibbs& Soell.
Syngenta hopes to profit from the wave of concern over Roundup resistance aspeople rush to use extra chemicals, and crop rotations not involving RR crops,to try and head off the build up of glyphosate resistance on their land.
But American famers using Roundup Ready crops could be headed up a cul-de-sac.
According to weed scientists, such as Iowa State University's Mike Owen, it'sdoubtful whether this kind of resistance management will be viewed aseconomically feasable at elast in the short term. As Owen told a packed-outmeeting of North Central Weed Science Society in St. Louis recently, he expectsgrowers to try and carry on using glyphosate in the same way to try and avoidthe extra expense of other chemicals until they are finally forced by resistanceto switch to something else. But an article reporting on the Weed ScienceSociety meeting concludes, "With few, if any, new blockbuster chemicals inthe pipeline, the question may become whether there will be alternative programsto switch
to if glyphosate loses its effectiveness." [see "Glyphosate resistancedominates weed science meetings", Mike Holmberg, Farm Chemicals Editor,Successful Farming December 6, 2002, http://www.biotech-info.net/dominating.html]
Among the CONCLUSIONS in the Syngenta report:
*Specific weed resistance can reduce a farmÃs rentable value by 17 percent
*The greatest weed-resistance concern is glyphosate tolerance in RR crops
*More than half of farm managers placed it ahead of their concerns about
weed resistance to atrazine, Pursuit, ALS herbicides or propanil
*Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of these professional farm managers
expect the importance of glyphosate tolerance to increase in the future
when determining rental values and land appraisals. "Given the
increasing adoption of RR technology in corn,soybeans and cotton,these
professional farm managers and rural appraisers felt the importance of
glyphosate-resistant weeds will increase in the future.Overall, 63
percent said it will become a bigger problem."
*Almost half (47 percent)now require practices to manage weed
resistance... This is expected to grow to 54 percent in the future
*Seventy percent said the use of weed resistance-management practices
already influence their tenant selection.
The report also looks at western Australia, where weed resistance to
herbicides is becoming a big problem for land productivity.