I farmed conventionally for 20 years before becoming an organic farmer.
I used all the "right" chemicals and put them on properly and carefully
recorded the results. I was poisoned by those chemicals and will NEVER
use them again! Fortunately we farm organically now. Experience has
shown that weeds don't pay any attention to herbicide labels. Follow-up
applications of herbicides are often needed when unusual weather occurs (
when is the weather ever normal anyway? ) Weeds will adapt to any new
chemical eventually either by developing resistance or by new species
coming that are already resistant. Roundup is no different. Because it
has no residual activity, any weed that comes up after a field is sprayed
with Roundup will be unaffected. If spraying is delayed too long,
serious yield loss will occur due to early competition from weeds.
Smaller weeds will be physically shielded from the Roundup by the canopy
of larger weeds and crop. We will see herbicide use increase steadily
with Roundup Ready crops every year they are used as the weed
populations adjust. Studies and data from the first few years of use are
irrelevant in predicting long-term herbicide performance. I have noticed
that whenever chemical weed control fails, it is blamed on the weather,
the timing, new weeds, the farmer etc. When organic weed control fails,
it's because it was organic.
About 60 years ago Dr. Bernard Rademacher said that:
" Cultural methods take the foremost place among the means of
controlling weeds
in arable land. Efforts must be made, by all kinds of measures which are
at the same
time beneficial to the crop plants, to keep the growth of weeds as small
as possible
from the very outset. Cultural measures form the basis of all weed
control, while
the various chemical means should be regarded as auxiliary only.
The necessary condition of any successful weed control is the
promotion of
growth in the crop plants. Vigorous plant stands are among the best means
of
eradicating weeds. "
I have found his statement to be as true today as it was then. In
general, our weed control is better now that we are farming organically
than it was when we used chemicals. We use various cultural weed control
techniques, supplemented with mechanical cultivation - and we are farming
over 1100 acres.
With the direct application of Roundup to crops and with second
applications becoming more common, Roundup residue levels in food are
sure to rise signifigantly. Research is already suggesting that Roundup
may not be as safe as we are being led to believe. Roundup has now been
linked to several types of cancer, including non-Hodgkins' Lymphoma. I
guess I wouldn't argue which herbicide is safer, I wouldn't use any
herbicide.
I'm sure better educated people than I can easily explain why I'm wrong
on all counts, but time will tell.
Klaas Martens
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