# Genetic crops breed superweeds.



## muleman RIP

Genetically Manipulated Crops: The GMO Catastrophe in the USA.  A Lesson for the World 

By  F. William  Engdahl

      URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20675

Global Research, August 18, 2010



_Recently  the unelected potentates of the EU Commission in Brussels have sought  to override what has repeatedly been shown to be the overwhelming  opposition of the European Union population to the spread of Genetically  Modified Organisms (GMO) in EU agriculture. EU Commission President now  has a Maltese accountant as health and enviromnent Commissioner to  rubber stamp the adoption of GMO. The former EU Environment Commissioner  from Greece was a ferocious GMO opponent. As well, the Chinese  government has indicated it may approve a variety of GMO rice. Before  things get too far along, they would do well to take a closer look at  the world GMO test lab, the USA. There GMO crops are anything but  beneficial. Just the opposite. _

 What  is carefully kept out of the Monsanto and other agribusiness propaganda  in promoting genetically manipulated crops as an alternative to  conventional is the fact that in the entire world until the present, all  GMO crops have been manipulated and patented for only two things—to be  resistant or “tolerant” to the patented highly toxic herbicide  glyphosate chemicals that Monsanto and the others force farmers to buy  as condition for buying their patented GMO seeds. The second trait is  GMO seeds that have been engineered genetically to resist specific  insects. Contrary to public relations myths promoted by the agribusiness  giants in their own self-interest, there exists not oné single GMO seed  that provides a greater harvest yield than conventional, nor one that  requires less toxic chemical herbicides. That is for the simple reason  there is no profit to be made in such.  

*Giant super-weeds plague*

As prominent GMO opponent and biologist, Dr Mae-Wan Ho of the  Institute of Science in  London has noted, companies such as Monsanto build into their seeds herbicide-tolerance  (HT) due to glyphosate-insensitive form of the gene coding for the  enzyme targeted by the herbicide. The enzyme is derived from soil  bacterium _Agrobacterium tumefaciens_. Insect-resistance is due to one or more toxin genes derived from the soil bacterium Bt (_Bacillus thuringiensis_).  The United States began large scale commercial planting of GMO plants,  mainly soybeans and corn and cotton around 1997. By now, GM crops have  taken over between 85 percent to 91 percent of the areas planted with  the three major crops, soybean, corn and cotton in the US, on nearly 171  million acres.

The  ecological time-bomb that came with the GMO according to Ho, is about  to explode. Over several years of constant application of patented  glyphosate herbicides such as Monsanto’s famous and highly Roundup, new  herbicide-resistant “super-weeds” have evolved, nature’s response to  man-made attempts to violate it. The super-weeds require significantly *more not less* herbicide to control. 


ABC  Television, a major US national network, made a recent documentary  about the super-weeds under the rubric, “super weeds that can’t be  killed.”[1]

They  interviewed farmers and scientists across Arkansas who described fields  overrun with giant pigweed plants that can withstand as much glyphosate  as farmers are able to spray. They interviewed one farmer who spent  almost 400000 euro in only three months in a failed attempt to kill the  new super-weeds. 

The  new super-weeds are so robust that harvester combines are unable to  harvest the fields and hand tools break trying to cut them down. At  least 400000 hectares of soybean and cotton in Arkansas alone have  become invested with this new mutant biological plague. Detailed data on  other agricultural regions is not available but believed similar. The  pro-GMO and pro-agribusiness US Department of Agriculture has been  reported lying about the true state of US crop harvest partly to hide  the grim reality and to prevent an explosive revolt against GMO in the  world’s largest GMO market. 





Superweed

One  variety of super-weed, palmer pigweed can grow up to 2.4 meters high,  withstands severe heat and prolonged droughts, and produces thousands of  seeds with a root system that drains nutrients away from crops. If left  unchecked, it takes over an entire field in a year. Some farmers have  been forced to abandon their land. To date palmer pigweed infestation in  GMO crop regions has been identified in addition to Arkansas, also in  Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, New  Mexico, Mississippi and most recently, Alabama and Missouri.

Weed  scientists at the University of Georgia estimate that just two palmer  pigweed plants in every 6 meter length of cotton row can reduce yield by  at least 23 percent. A single weed plant can produce 450 000 seeds. [2]
*
Roundup toxic danger being covered-up*

Glyphosate  is the most widely used herbicide in the US and the world at large.  Patented and sold by Monsanto since the 1970s under the trade name  Roundup, it is a mandatory component of buying GMO seeds from Monsanto.  Just go to your local garden store and ask for it and read the label  carefully.  






As I detail in my book, *Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation*,  GMO crops and patented seeds were developed in the 1970’s with  significant financial support from the pro-eugenics Rockefeller  Foundation, by what were essentially chemical companies—Monsanto  Chemicals, DuPont and Dow Chemicals. All three were involved in the  scandal of the highly toxic Agent Orange used in Vietnam, as well as  Dioxin in the 1970’s, and lied to cover up the true damage to its own  employees as well as to civilian and military populations exposed. 

Their  patented GMO seeds were seen as a clever way to force increased  purchase of their agricultural chemicals such as Roundup. Farmers must  sign a legal contract with Monsanto in which it stipulates that only  Monsanto Roundup pesticide may be used. Farmers are thus trapped both in  buying new seeds from Monsanto each harvest and buying the toxic  glyphosate.
 France’s University of  Caen, in a team led by molecular biologist, Gilles-Eric Seralini, did a  study that showed Roundup contained one specific inert ingredient,  polyethoxylated tallowamine, or POEA. Seralini’s team demonstrated that  POEA in Roundup was more deadly to human embryonic, placental and  umbilical cord cells than even the glyphosate itself. Monsanto refuses  to release details of the contents of its Roundup other than glyphosate,  calling it “proprietary.” [3] 
 The Seralini study found  that Roundup’s inert ingredients amplified the toxic effect on human  cells—even at concentrations much more diluted than those used on farms  and lawns! The French team studied multiple concentrations of Roundup,  from the typical agricultural or lawn dose down to concentrations  100,000 times more dilute than the products sold on shelves. The  researchers saw cell damage at all concentrations.
 Glyphosate  and Roundup are advertised as “less toxic to us than table salt” in a  pamphlet from the Biotechnology Institute promoting GMO crops as ‘Weed  Warrior.’ Thirteen years of GMO crops in the USA has increased overall  pesticide use by 318 million pounds, not decreased as promised by the  Four Horsemen of the GMO Apocalypse. The extra disease burden on the  nation from that alone is considerable.


Nonetheless  after introduction of Monsanto GMO seeds commercially in the USA, use  of glyphosate has risen more than 1500% between 1994 and 2005. In the  USA some 100 million pounds of glyphosate are used on lawns and farms  every year, and over the last 13 years, it has been applied to more than  a billion acres. When questioned, Monsanto’s technical development  manager, Rick Cole, reportedly said the problems were “manageable.” He  advised farmers to alternate crops and use different makes of herbicides  produced by Monsanto. Monsanto is encouraging farmers to mix glyphosate  with its older herbicides such as 2,4-D, banned in Sweden, Denmark and  Norway for links to cancer and reproductive and neurological damage.  2,4-D is a component of Agent Orange, produced by Monsanto for use in  Vietnam in the 1960s. 
*
US Farmers turn to organics*

Farmers  across the United States are reported to be going back to conventional  non-GMO crops instead. According to a new report from the US Department  of Agriculture, retail sales of organic food went up to $21.1 billion in  2008 from $3.6 billion in 1997.[4]  The market is so active that organic farms have struggled at times to  produce sufficient supply to keep up with the rapid growth in consumer  demand, leading to periodic shortages of organic products.

The  new UK Conservative-Liberal coalition government is strongly backing  lifting a de facto ban on GMO in that country. UK Chief Scientific  Adviser, Prof. John Beddington, recently wrote an article in which he  misleadingly claimed “The next decade will see the development of  combinations of desirable traits and the introduction of new traits such  as drought tolerance. By mid-century much more radical options  involving highly polygenic traits may be feasible.” He went on to  promise “cloned animals with engineered innate immunity to diseases” and  more. I think we can pass that one up, thank you. 

A  recent study by Iowa State University and the US Department of  Agriculture assessing the performance of farms during the three-year  transition it takes to switch from conventional to certified organic  production showed notable advantages of organic farming over GMO or even  conventional non-GMO crops. In an experiment lasting four years—three  years transition and first year organic—the study showed that although  yields dropped initially, they equalized in the third year, and by the  fourth year, the organic yields were ahead of the conventional for both  soybean and corn. 

As  well, the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science  and Technology for Development (IAASTD) has recently been published, the  result of three-year deliberation by 400 participating scientists and  non-government representatives from 110 countries around the world. It  came to the conclusion that small scale organic agriculture is the way  ahead for coping with hunger, social inequities and environmental  disasters. [5]  As Dr Ho argues, a fundamental shift in farming practice is needed  urgently, before the agricultural catastrophe spreads further across  Germany and the EU to the rest of the world.[6]



*Endnotes:*


[1] Super weed can’t be killed, abc news, 6 October 2009. See also,Jeff Hampton,  N.C. farmers battle herbicide-resistant weeds, The Virginian-Pilot, 19 July 2009, http://hamptonroads.com/2009/07/nc-farmers-battle-herbicideresistant-weeds

[2] Clea Caulcutt, ‘Superweed’ explosion threatens Monsanto heartlands, Clea Caulcutt, 19 April 2009, http://www.france24.com/en/20090418-superweed-explosion-threatens-monsanto-heartlands-genetically-modified-US-crops

[3]  N. Benachour and G-E. Seralini, Glyphosate Formulations Induce  Apoptosis and Necrosis in Human Umbilical, Embryonic, and Placental  Cells, Chem. Res. Toxicol., Article DOI: 10.1021/tx800218n 
 Publication Date (Web): December 23, 2008.

[4] Carolyn Dimitri and Lydia Oberholtzer, Marketing U.S. organic foods: recent trends from farms to consumers, USDA Economic Research Service, September 2009, http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EIB58/
[5] International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development, IAASTD, 2008, http://www.agassessment.org/index.cfm?Page=Press_Materials&ItemID=11 
[6] Ho MW.UK Food Standards Agency study proves organic food is better. Science in Society 44, 32-33, 2009. 

_*F. William Engdahl*  is the author of Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation_


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## darroll

OMG,

Now those pop weeds might blow the back off of the shed.


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