In 1996, the USDA allowed Monsanto to bring the first genetically engineered crop to market, unleashing a monsoon of poison into the American landscape. Monsanto’s glyphosate-tolerant GMO crops and its glyphosate-based weedkiller, Roundup, were adopted by conventional farmers across the country. Roundup Ready GMOs and glyphosate use quickly skyrocketed.
Today, hundreds of millions of pounds of this genotoxic carcinogen are lathered on American soil. Glyphosate has become so ubiquitous in our environment that recent studies show the toxic chemical is now falling down in the rain, contaminating everything, including us. It’s found in the urine of most Americans.
But Nature has outwitted Monsanto and the GMO/agrichemical industry at every turn. An army of weeds have developed resistance to Roundup, becoming “superweeds.” In an attempt to control the herbicide-resistant weed problem Monsanto caused, Bayer-Monsanto, and others in the industry, developed new GMO crops able to tolerate multiple toxic herbicides.
In recent years, Monsanto gained approval for GMO crops that are tolerant of both glyphosate and dicamba. Dow followed with GMO crops able to tolerate both glyphosate and 2,4-D. The agrichemical industry and their farmers are waging chemical warfare against Nature, putting farmers on what health experts have coined the “chemical treadmill,” a path of escalating, never-ending use of poisons.
As the herbicide-resistant weed problem continues to grow, so does conventional farmers’ chemical addiction.
Bayer-Monsanto created this superweed problem. And now, the company wants to throw the kitchen sink at it. Bayer wants the USDA to deregulate their MON-87429 corn, genetically engineered to tolerate five different herbicides. You heard that right. FIVE toxic herbicides! 2,4-D, dicamba, glufosinate, glyphosate, and quizalofop.
