SuperWeed

Superweeds menace GMOs. That’s the word from the latest news reports of Amaranthus palmeri (aka pigweed) crowding out crops of genetically modified cotton and soybeans.

Here’s how it works: Farmers buy both herbicides and seeds of crops that have been genetically modified to survive those herbicides and are thereby — at least in theory — able to drench their land in plant-killing poison without hurting the plants they want to grow. Specifically, farmers buy Roundup brand poison and “Roundup-Ready” seeds, both from Monsanto (the folks who brought us Agent Orange). The Roundup kills everything except the genetically modified plants and everybody (except the plants killed by the herbicide, the water poisoned by the herbicide, the animals who drink the water poisoned by the herbicide, the insects who come in contact with the pollen of the genetically modified cotton, the “livestock” fed by the genetically modified soy, and the ecosystems disrupted by by both the poisoning and the genetic meddling) is happy.

Except the farmers aren’t happy either anymore. As anybody with a basic understanding of evolution understood would happen, some “weed” plants survived the poison, propagated, and eventually evolved into Roundup-resistant varieties. Because the poison kills off all of the other “weed” species with which they would naturally compete for resources, these Roundup-resistant “weeds” run rampant, eventually choking out the genetically modified crops that the poison was supposed to protect.

This is resistance in it’s purest form.

Consider: Amaranth is native to the Americas, with many varieties offering nutritious grain and/or edible greens. During the conquest of the Americas, the cultivation of this and other native grains was deliberately suppressed in favor of wheat and cash crops. Much of the hunger and poverty we see in parts of the Americas today can be traced back, in part, to that disruption of sustainable agriculture and consequent destruction of local economies.

Thus, we might see the resurgence of pigweed as a sort of nightmare return of the repressed.

Let’s embrace the spirit of that, even as we see that fields full of Roundup-resistant pigweed are no more natural than fields of Roundup-resistant cotton. Let’s get rid of the Roundup, along with the Franken-plants engineered to withstand it. Let’s help farmers kick the Monsanto habit by supporting CSAs and directing state and federal agriculture subsidies to support projects like sustainable organic cotton cropping. Let’s go vegan so that we won’t need acres and acres of genetically identical corn and soybean plants grown as livestock feed. Let’s buy and grow a diverse array of food for people, including the native plants that are best-suited to our regions. Let’s grow edible amaranth in our backyard gardens and learn to recognize the beauty and utility of other “weeds” like dandelions, chicory, and plantain. Let’s all develop the superweed spirit of resistance.

Go, pigweed, go!

April 21st, 2009 | Tags: agriculture, farming, Gardening, Monsanto, pigweed, superweeds | Category: Flower Power | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL