As farmers wage war on a worsening weed problem, they are being forced to enlist the aid of chemicals they once virtually abandoned.
Since 1996, Monsanto's Roundup weed-killing system has become the dominant approach in agriculture, changing the way American farmers grow commodity crops. In the past several years, though, American farmers have increasingly reported that glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup, isn't killing weeds. So once-popular chemicals such as "2, 4-D" and "dicamba" again have been called to duty.
"It's really ironic that in this day and age of genetic engineering we're going back to a herbicide from the 1940s," said Dean Riechers, an associate professor of weed physiology at the University of Illinois, referring to the chemical "2, 4-D." "It's the oldest herbicide we have, and it's going to become really popular again."
The ineffectiveness of glyphosate has left companies scrambling to come up with other options, but some farmers and environmentalists are concerned about health and environmental risks.
"There's a big push to come up with something new, and it's necessary," said Steve Smith, director of agriculture for Red Gold, an Indiana-based tomato grower and processor. "Monsanto did a terrible job with (stewardship of) glyphosate. They said: That's the only thing you need, on soybeans, on corn. It was cheap and easy, and that's all anyone used."
Smith, who testified in Congress, warning against 2, 4-D and its related weed killer, dicamba, is launching a nationwide campaign against the industry's efforts. His company, he claims, lost $1 million in revenue because of dicamba contamination.
"It's an entire fiasco," Smith said. "But now that it's here, we have to figure out how to fix it."
The industry is counting on that fix.
"The glyphosate system revolutionized agriculture," said Kenda Resler-Friend, of Dow AgroSciences, a Monsanto competitor. "But anything that's been used that much, it puts a lot of pressure on it."
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