Monsanto Supersizes Farmers’ Weed Problem, But Science Can Help

When Monsanto came up with its Roundup Ready system of genetically engineered seeds in the 1990s, designed for immunity to the herbicide glyphosate, the Big Ag giant seemed like a superhero to farmers looking for an effective way to fight weeds.

But alas, this was a superhero with a fatal flaw. Before they knew what hit them, farmers’ weed problems morphed into a national superweed crisis. Superweeds have now spread to more than 60 million acres of U.S. farmland, wreaking environmental and economic havoc along the way.

Monsanto and other Big Ag companies say they can fix this problem, but their solutions look awfully similar to the one that has already failed. Why consider this “let’s do it again” approach when there are real solutions available? A Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) briefing paper, The Rise of Superweeds, explains how this crisis developed—and outlines what can be done about it. UCS calls the solution healthy farms, which use practices grounded in the science of agroecology that are “sustainable and cost-effective, and more and more farmers are putting it into practice.” These practices make farms healthier, and recent research shows that they work.