Genetically Engineered Crops: the Grand and Failed Promise
July 5, 2016
Genetically Engineered Crops: the Grand and Failed Promise
by Jim Goodman
The endless miles of dead brown fields are finally gone. Spring in the Midwest should be announced by endless miles of green, but at best, a haphazard patchwork of winter wheat, rye, hayfields and the occasional bit of pasture are the only green that show up after snow-melt.
Most of the winter grains planted last fall have been sprayed and killed to make way for endless miles of corn and soybeans.
Corn, soy and alfalfa cover the Midwest, a mono-culture of Genetically Engineered crops (GE) that have mostly displaced the small dairy farms and their pastures, the fields of small grain and diverse mixes of clover and grass hay.
We are at least, partially, through the herbicide season. The first wave was last falls burn-down, the non-selective spray application (most notably Roundup®) that kills everything and gives the fields that lovely dead brown look in the spring.
The spring pre-emergence spray (killing weeds before the corn and soy emerge) is over and the third wave of post-emergence spraying is in progress and of course the forth and even fifth spray applications can come anytime during the summer to hopefully kill any weeds that escaped the first three attempts.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/05/genetically-engineered-crops-the-grand-and-failed-promise/
villager
(26,001 posts)For many dispatched posters, their favorite time of year!
Judi Lynn
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Or we are screwn.
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