Decision could boost use of popular weed killer

[Lodestar]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Faced with tougher and more resistant weeds, corn and soybean farmers are anxiously awaiting government decisions on a new version of a popular herbicide — and on genetically modified seeds to grow crops designed to resist it.
Critics say more study is needed on the effects of the herbicide and they are concerned it could endanger public health.

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to rule this fall on Dow AgroSciences' application to market Enlist, a new version of the 2,4-D herbicide that's been around since the 1940s. It's partly a game of catch-up for the agriculture industry, as many farmers are dealing with weeds that have become resistant to glyphosate, an herbicide commonly used on corn and soybeans now.
If approved, the 2,4-D would be used in combination with glyphosate.

An Agriculture Department decision on the company's genetically modified seeds also is expected this fall. In the department's final environmental review released last week, the USDA recommended approval. The agency said that if both the seeds and herbicide are approved, the use of 2,4-D could increase by an estimated 200 to 600 percent by the year 2020.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/decision-could-boost-popular-weed-killer-071141969--finance.html

[KurtNYC]

1. WWI never ended for the farms in America

Chemical warfare has replaced the hoe.

[jwirr]

2. As we drove through NW IA this summer my sister laughed and said, "Hey we can get a job while

we are here." She pointed at the soybean field - in the 60s we worked in the field pulling the weeds for $5 a day. We worked for that little because we treated it somewhat like a party - all our friends got together and had fun in the sun. I suspect both high school students and single mothers have gotten smarter.

But yes you could visibly see that the weeds were out of control.

[happyslug]

3. That is how you do traditional Hoeing with a "Hoe, Hoe, Hoe".

Running chickens through fields with knee high crops was another method to control weeds. There are alternatives to herbicides, but they are all much much labor intensive (Someone has to get the chickens back into the chicken coup at the end of the day).

[jwirr]

5. My dad used that one in our gardens.

[mopinko]

7. nah. they get themselves in.

they just have to know where it is. they do, indeed, come home to roost.

sad you couldnt even do that now with the shit that is in those soils. you would need sacrificial chickens.

[cosmicone]

4. We could outsmart the weeds

by starting to eat the weeds themselves. There must be some way to make them edible and delicious. Take THAT weeds!

[jwirr]

6. I know dandelions can be eaten. Not sure about others. It would be interesting to know.

[Trillo]

11. The oxalate content of plants is an issue

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalate

Oxylates bind with calcium, creating calcium oxylate kidney stones, and decreasing the amount of calcium otherwise available.

OTOH, promoting the consumption of more oxalates would probably be good money for the Industrial Health Complex.

[blackspade]

8. Not good news for the food supply....

or human/animal health.

[IDemo]

9. Enlist, or Agent Orange+

2,4-D was also an ingredient in the defoliant widely used in the Vietnam War. Now it looks like it's whats for breakfast.

[olddad56]

10. be better to boost the use of popular killer weed.

[klyon]

12. I don't understand, we know organic farming works

enough of this chemical bs
This is big agro business and they don't know anything else. They should be broken up just like the banks, the insurance companies, hospitals, media. They make it sound like farmers are waiting, big business is the one waiting this even worse alternative.

[Bossy Monkey]

13. Here I was thinking the AP was just printing a Monsanto press release, and it turns out to be Dow nt