Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Menace from superweeds
The Growing Menace From Superweeds
By Jerry Adler
ScientificAmerican.com
May 2011
Chemical herbicides keep nature at bay for only so long: weeds inevitably develop resistance to the chemicals. Indeed, weeds have begun to become resistant to glyphosate, the key ingredient in the widely used Roundup and a chemical that the biggest cash crops have been genetically engineered to withstand. Agricultural scientists must now seek out new strategies to protect plantings. Meanwhile some critics argue that reliance on genetic engineering should be reassessed.