O avanço imparável de ervas daninhas resistentes aos pesticidas (superweeds) nos campos agrícolas transgénicos nos EUA

May 6, 2010, 6:12 pm

Invasion of the Superweeds By NY Times

Graphic: Where Weedkiller Won’t Work (clica no link para veres a infografia)

American farmers’ broad use of the weedkiller glyphosphate — particularly Roundup, which was originally made by Monsanto — has led to the rapid growth in recent years of herbicide-resistant weeds. To fight them, farmers are being forced to spray fields with more toxic herbicides, pull weeds by hand and return to more labor-intensive methods like regular plowing.

What should farmers do about these superweeds? What does the problem mean for agriculture in the U.S.? Will it temper American agriculture’s enthusiasm for genetically modified crops that are engineered to survive spraying with Roundup?

Palmer amaranth, or pigweed, is a particularly tenacious Roundup-resistant pest that has been known to damage harvesting equipment.

Lê atentamente as intervenções de 6 pesquisadores acerca desta tragédia (previsível?) que se abateu sobre a agricultura nos EUA (e não só):

• Michael Pollan, author, “Food Rules”
• Stephen Powles, plant biologist and grain farmer
• Blake Hurst, farmer
• Anna Lappé, Small Planet Institute
• Scott M. Swinton, agriculture economist
• Micheal D.K. Owen, professor of agronomy