Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Resistance? Whodathunkit?

A map of glyphosate usage:

Starting when it was first released in 1974, the herbicide Roundup became a great labor saver for us. Dad loved to spray it around the farm, killing all those weeds and grasses without ever once shaking out a root ball.
He thought Roundup was the best thing ever.
I also remember the time Dad sprayed too close to the corn east of the house on a windy day, killing off about half an acre. That's when he said if we could ever develop crops immune to Roundup, the farmer would have it made.
He died a year before Roundup Ready soybeans were released in 1994.
Dad always read the label, even if he didn't take it to heart. He used to say Roundup was so benign, you could eat it on your breakfast cereal. He also pointed out it made a great hand cleaner. That’s true, it did. Grease comes right off with Roundup. That may have been at least in part due to soapy chemicals that help the product coat plants evenly. But it’s also a characteristic of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.
According to my grandfather (so it has to be true), Roundup was developed as a soap which was intended for washing cars.   Monsanto washed some cars on a football field (why they would do that, I have no idea), and the wash water killed the grass.  Thus, Roundup as a herbicide. Yeah, I don't believe that, but I was reminded of it by the reference to Roundup as hand cleaner. 

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