Over the past decade and a half, as Monsanto built up its globe-spanning, multi-billion-dollar genetically modified seed empire, it made two major pitches to farmers.<\/p>\n
The first involved weeds. Leave the weed management to us, Monsanto insisted. We\u2019ve engineered plants that can survive our very own herbicide. Just pay up for our patented, premium-priced seeds, spray your fields with our Roundup herbicide whenever the fancy strikes, and\u2014voil\u00e0!\u2014no more weeds.<\/p>\n
The second involved crop-eating insects. We\u2019ve isolated the toxic gene of a commonly used bacterial pesticide called Bt, Monsanto announced, and spliced it directly into crops. Along with corn and soy, you will literally be growing the pesticide that protects them. Plant our seeds, and watch your crops thrive while their pests shrivel and die.<\/p>\n
Monsanto focused its technology on three widely planted, highly subsidized crops: corn, soy, and cotton. Large-scale farmers of these commodities, always operating on razor-thin profit margins, lunged at the chance to streamline their operations by essentially outsourcing their pest management to Monsanto. And so Monsanto\u2019s high-tech crops essentially took over the corn\/soy- and cotton-growing regions of the country.<\/p>\n
But now the pitches are wearing thin. Dumping a single herbicide onto millions of acres of farmland has, predictably enough, given rise to weeds resistant to that herbicide. Such \u201csuperweeds\u201d are now galloping through cotton and corn country, forcing farmers to resort to highly toxic herbicide cocktails and even hand-weeding. More than 11 million acres are infested with Roundup-resistant weeds, up from 2.4 million acres in 2007, reckons Penn State University weed expert David Mortensen.<\/p>\n
And now insects are developing resistance to Monsanto\u2019s insecticide-infused crops, reports the Wall Street Journal. Fields planted in Monsanto\u2019s Bt corn in some areas of the Midwest are showing damage from the corn rootworm\u2014the very species targeted by Monsanto\u2019s engineered trait. An Iowa State University scientist has conclusively identified Bt-resistant root worms in four Iowa fields, the Journal reports. http:\/\/cryptogon.com\/?p=24554<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the past decade and a half, as Monsanto built up its globe-spanning, multi-billion-dollar genetically modified seed empire, it made two major pitches to farmers. The first involved weeds. Leave the weed management to us, Monsanto insisted. We\u2019ve engineered plants that can survive our very own herbicide. Just pay up for our patented, premium-priced seeds, … <\/p>\n