Posted on 08/01/2011 1:45:40 PM PDT by opentalk
The proliferation of superweeds --weeds that have mutated to develop resistance to popular herbicides like Monsanto's Roundup formula --continues to rise. But the individual plants' overall size and strength is also increasing. According to a series of new studies published in the journal Weed Science, farmers are having more trouble than ever dealing with out-of-control superweeds in their fields, some of which grow up to three inches a day in size, and are so strong and thick that they are destroying farm equipment.
The studies reveal that there are currently at least 21 different weed species known to be resistant to Roundup, also known generically as glyphosate. These species include ragweed, pigweed, horseweed, waterhemp, and ryegrass. Since 2007, the total acreage of farmland known to be infested with superweeds has also jumped more than 450 percent, from 2.4 million acres to 11 million acres, which means that the problem is only going to get exponentially worse.
"Super-strains of plants like pigweed --which grows three inches a day and is tough enough to damage farm machinery --have emerged, which may dramatically reduce the options for farmers to control them,"
(Excerpt) Read more at naturalnews.com ...
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The source for this article has a definite agenda (as does everyone). I would like to see a few more facts.
Whatta load of nonsense.
BTW, you might want to check out “naturalnews.com” and the guy behind it, “Mike Adams.” He’s a marketing guru. He was involved in marketing Y2K hype when that was fashionable.
Are these proof of evolution? Is it “God’s will” that these super weeds become resistant to eradication measures?
(Not trying to be contentious or overly Darwinian, but hoping to expand the conversation a bit. No offense intended toward any group.)
Uh, oh. It’s the “Day of the Triffids”.
I just read Weed Science for the centerfolds.
Uh huh...
Hey, there should be a lot of commercial uses for a tougher than steel Plant fiber.\s
All I know is to NEVER buy organic top soil, esp. if it’s from out of state. I made that mistake this spring and am now battling some crazy strain of invasive stalk-like grass. Never had it before and it’s only in areas where I put the organic top soil.
Weeds develop resistance due to misuse of glyphosates, not because Monsanto developed RoundUp.
Well, technically, its all “Gods will” , but I don’t think he has any problem with natural selection ( He created the process actually, being the awesome designer he is) -
. Which this would be an example of.
If it was true ( which remains to be seen considering the source) -
Evolution is actually more like “ These plants turned into giraffes” -
I’ll ask God when I meet him. Hopefully, by that time, you’ll be there too and we can both listen and learn......
;-)
My neighbor got some topsoil from the municipality, which reclaimed it from compost. A couple of months later he was pulling radishes and potatos out of his lawn.
A pefect source material for biofuels!
This is HUGH.
First let’s clear up some BAD science in the first line:
“... mutated to develop resistance to popular herbicides”
Acquired traits are not inherited.
Organisms do not change their genes in response to environmental stress. For example, giraffes do not produce offspring with genes to grow longer necks to better reach increasingly higher leaves on taller trees. The truth is parents with genes for long necks pass along those genes to their offspring who then grow long necks— survive better and longer and produce more fertile offspring. The genes have to be present in the population to permit NATURAL SELECTION to occur due to environmental stress.
Mutations, which are almost always harmful in real life, UNLESS ENGINEERED, only become predominant in the population if they are ‘successful.’
In this instance **IF** a mutation occurred in a seed or seeds of SINGLE GROWTH of a strain of weeds in location A, this ‘super bug’ weed could arise from that and spread. And that takes a while. MRSA is an analogous example of that.
The mere presence of a herbicide does NOT cause mutations to arise that make the weed population resistant to the herbicide. Rather what happens is that only those specimens that ALREADY were resistant were able to live to maturity and produce fertile seeds with a genome akin to the parent(s).
**IF** the herbicide can be shown to be a mutagen, that is a different story. But keep in mind most often ‘random’ mutations result in stillborn, early-dead or infertile offspring.
There is NO willful act of mutation in nature. there is speciation, and there is mutation. Environmental stress (aka herbicides) WILL drive a shift in the gene prominence/population of surviving organisms. THAT is NOT mutation.
Now I will read the article ;-)
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