PEORIA - Despite rising claims of weed resistance, Roundup Ready soybeans will continue to be a staple in fields across Illinois and the rest of the country, a weed specialist said.
"My guess is that 90 percent plus of the soybeans planted in Illinois will be the glyphosate-resistant variety," said Aaron Hager, a weed specialist with University of Illinois Extension, referring to Roundup Ready's chief ingredient.
Starting in the mid-1990s, when it was developed by the St. Louis-based Monsanto Co., Roundup Ready soybeans found immediate acceptance from farmers who only had to apply Roundup herbicide on their fields to control weeds.
But that has changed, said Hager.
"Glyphosate worked by itself for a while but we've seen a shift in the spectrum," he said. Now additional herbicides are being used to ward off weeds - such as water hemp - that have grown resistant to glyphosate, said Hager.
There's been no major shift away from the Roundup Ready soybean among producers, said Brad Glenn, a Stanford farmer. "We're not moving away from it because for a vast majority of people, it works. Now we use it in conjunction with other products," he said.
"There's been an increase in non-GMO (genetically modified organism) soybeans but it's still a very small segment of the market," said Glenn.
Roundup was also the recent subject of a warning from Don Huber, a retired Purdue University researcher. In a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack earlier this year, Huber charged that a pathogen linked to glyphosate could pose a health hazard to plants and animals.
The National Plant Disease Recovery System, the agency charged with dealing with severe plant disease outbreaks, was unfamiliar with information or research about the alleged pathogen and had not been contacted by Huber regarding the discovery.
Monsanto issued a statement that indicated the company "is not aware of any reliable studies that demonstrate Roundup Ready crops are more susceptible to certain diseases or that the application of glyphosate to Roundup Ready crops increases a plant's susceptibility to diseases."
But it hasn't been all bad news for the biotech seed industry. Rising food prices may result in greater acceptance of genetically modified seed in emerging markets, noted the Financial Times.
An official with DuPont Co. said countries such as Indonesia are now encouraging companies to apply for approval of biotech seeds.
Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant said there have been "significant policy shifts" by countries regarding biotech seeds in the past two years.
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