Surprise, Surprise

Could've seen this one coming from a mile away.

From the NYT...

Just as the heavy use of antibiotics contributed to the rise of drug-resistant supergerms, American farmers’ near-ubiquitous use of the weedkiller Roundup has led to the rapid growth of tenacious new superweeds.

Today, Roundup Ready crops account for about 90 percent of the soybeans and 70 percent of the corn and cotton grown in the United States. But farmers sprayed so much Roundup that weeds quickly evolved to survive it. “What we’re talking about here is Darwinian evolution in fast-forward,” Mike Owen, a weed scientist at Iowa State University, said.

“It is the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen,” said Andrew Wargo III, president of the Arkansas Assn of Conservation Districts. The superweeds could temper American agriculture’s enthusiasm for some genetically modified crops. If Roundup doesn’t kill the weeds, farmers have little incentive to spend the extra money for the special seeds.

Fine by me. Adios Roundup.