As a young man, I was managing a wholesale nursery in the 1970s on Long Island. The number one cost to management was weed control. At the time there were a limited number of approved herbicides to control the pests. Hand and machine cultivation, including mule powered implements were the go to methods until the advent of Roundup. Targeted application enabled control of perennial weeds such as quackgrass that spready by underground rhizomes.
Simultaneously, corn and soybean growers across the country were planting so called "Roundup ready" seeds which provided genetic resistance to Roundup. Farmers merely waited until the weeds sprouted, sprayed their fields and waited for the weeds to die. Roundup took over the market because it was cheap and effective on commodity crops.
The corollary was chemical companies quit trying to develop new chemicals due to the cheapness and effectiveness of Roundup. An article in today's NYT chronicles the rise of weeds resistant to Roundup and older, more problematic chemicals such as dicamba. So called "no till" farming depends on herbicides to control weeds and provide cheap animal feed which allows us to indulge our taste for beef, pork, and chicken. Now, with the rise of "superweeds", our entire agricultural economy teeters on the brink of disaster and most of us don't realize how close we are to $20.00/lb. hamburger.
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