Aaron Peretz

I am not really an expert on this but I'll give you my sort of broken understanding of it. Essentially there is some part of the glyphosate compound that is readily available as nutrients or energy to certain soil microorganisms (I believe several types of bacteria) and so they will somewhat quickly break off that piece and use it. The result of this break down is Aminomethylphosphonic Acid or AMPA and so it is the first step in the degradation of glyphosate. I think when people say 50-100 days half life of glyphosate in the soil it means that in that amount of time half the glyphosate is turned into AMPA. I am not sure how long it takes for this compound to break down and I have heard of people having some concerns about the negative effects of AMPA although again I am not sure what these are supposed to be.

Sorry I don't have more information hope this is sort of helpful. Anyone who knows any better please correct me if I've written anything completely false.

I think that bacteria are supposed to be responsible for breaking down glyphosate. I have people say half life ranges from 50-100 days although I'm sure it varies pretty significantly depending temperature and what your soil life looks like and possibly who is doing the study. Also some people are considered about the AMPA that it degrades into.

Aaron Festa wrote:This is an old article that I remember reading a few years back. Toby Hemenway has some responses in the comment section that are definitely worth the read. I thought Eric Toesnmeier also responded in the comment section but perhaps they have since been deleted. Not sure whether that was his choice or the authors.

Wow I just spent an hour reading some of Toby's responses and overall discussion happening in the comment section that is the real gem of this article fascinating discussion happening down there.