> despite the fact that the use of Roundup year after year is unsustainable, it has allowed no-till farming to be practiced at large scale, which has indeed improved soil structure, organic matter, and carbon sequestration.
But at the very heavy cost of putting massive amounts of herbicide into the ground, the groundwater, and the surrounding aquifers and streams, with collateral damage that is still being assessed, but clearly is not minor:
"...there is a strong correlation between Glyphosate and Glyphosate formulations and serious health and environmental hazards, including disruption of hormonal systems and beneficial gut bacteria, damage to DNA, developmental and reproductive toxicity, birth defects, cancer and neurotoxicity. Glyphosate-based herbicides can harm all facets of an ecosystem, including the soil biology and composition, water, and non-target plants, aquatic organisms, amphibians, reptiles, invertebrates, animals, and humans. Glyphosate use could foster herbicide-resistant super weeds. Glyphosate is a patented desiccant (a drying agent) and could greatly increase the risk of fire. Glyphosate’s effect on the soil composition could lead to greater risk of runoff and erosion. Glyphosate and its metabolites can be highly active and mobile and persist for many years in the environment, depending on conditions. Using toxic Glyphosate and Glyphosate formulations could not only harm beneficial vegetation and wildlife but could also jeopardize public health and safety."
["The Unintended Consequences of Using Glyphosate" Rushton, Spake, Chariton, January, 2016]
And for what? Not for food! Four cash crops- soy, corn, cotton and canola make up almost 100% of GM crops planted. Most are used to make biofuels, processed foods, animal feed, and vegetable oils. These are not crops with which to feed people healthy food, they all make the world just that much worse. (Biofuels create greenhouse gasses, animal feed results in meat-induced heart disease, processed foods are good for no one, and vegetable oils are to be used sparing, if at all.) How does "soil structure" matter if it is saturated with herbicide? Can organic matter feed plants in such a toxic swill?
> No-till is more difficult without Roundup.
Until the herbicide-resistant weeds make no-till impossible for everyone, forever. What happens then? What kills an massively herbicide-resistant plant, but leaves everything else unharmed? Did I mention that there are at least 56 known extremely herbicide-resistant weeds already?
But these things are just bad for business - the 2009 UN Report "Agriculture at a Crossroads" "https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/8590" had this to say:
"After the adoption of GM varieties, Canadian farmers lost their market for $300 million of canola (oilseed rape) to GMO-free markets in Europe (Freese and Schubert, 2004; Shiva et al., 2004). Likewise, after leading US food allergists judged Bt-corn to be a potential health hazard (Freese, 2001), US$1 billion worth of product recalls followed the discovery of animal feed Bt-corn in products for human consumption (Shiva et al., 2004). Maize exports from USA to Europe have also declined from 3.3 million tonnes in 1995 to 25,000 tonnes in 2002 due to fears about GMOs (Shiva et al., 2004). The American Farm Bureau estimates this loss has cost US farmers $300 million per year (Center for Food Safety, 2006)."
And they summarized the UN report in a paper in the journal "Science": "The assessment found GM crops appropriate in some contexts, unpromising in others, and unproven in many more. No conclusive evidence was found that GM crops have so far offered solutions to the broader socioeconomic dilemmas faced by developing countries.”
http://doi.rg/10.1126/science.1158390
So, when one grows something people don't want, one loses sales, and the poor do not benefit, the starving are not fed, the planet is not made a better place
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|