Posted
5/04/2010 06:43:00 PM
by Douglas
When "Round-up" ready crops aren't. Really blows a
huge hole in Monsanto's plan since they lost the patent on Glyphosate and started patenting Glyphosate resistant
seeds:Roundup — originally made by Monsanto but now also sold by others under the generic name glyphosate — has been little short of a miracle chemical for farmers. It kills a broad spectrum of weeds, is easy and safe to work with, and breaks down quickly, reducing its environmental impact.
Sales took off in the late 1990s, after Monsanto created its brand of Roundup Ready crops that were genetically modified to tolerate the chemical, allowing farmers to spray their fields to kill the weeds while leaving the crop unharmed. Today, Roundup Ready crops account for about 90 percent of the soybeans and 70 percent of the corn and cotton grown in the United States.
Now, Roundup-resistant weeds like horseweed and giant ragweed are forcing farmers to go back to more expensive techniques that they had long ago abandoned.
This is the biggest kink in the armor to modern farming since the invention of the steel plow.