For those of you, who didn't know that Bayer AG now owns Monsanto

Yeah, but now Bayer has bought all of Monsanto's legal woes. Mine is a fervent hope that instant karma will get them. Right in the face.

-CK

I reads things like this and I really wonder about the future of our planet.  Our own country currently situation reminds me fall of the roman empire . Lets hope clearer heads and common sense prevail.

On the chemical ag culture:

It is ultimately a losing game, in my opinion. Glyphosate has been around for decades. The small percentage of target species that are resistant to this or any poison will eventually breed themselves up, passing along glyphosate immunity to their offspring. Any lacking the required traits are killed by the glyphosate, leaving only the strongest specimens to breed.

Sounds to me like a breeding program for RoundUp-Ready weed species.

It sounds flip, I know, but the US is has already started using older, more dangerous pesticides in places where the weed species are overtaking the RoundUp-Ready crops. I forget the name, but I read recently that there are lawsuits ongoing in the States regarding a newly reintroduced spray that vaporises in the summer heat and becomes mobile, so much so that people are suing over damage to crops and property.

And Bayer is just one company. There are many others, all doing similar things. The simple as-directed use of their products results in the breeding of weeds immune to their effects, and as I understand it, nobody had planned for just how rapidly they would adapt. I have heard that they are at least twenty years away from a viable glyphosate replacement, and are trying to make it more efficient to buy time by mixing in wetting agents, surfactants, and adjutants.

Well as I understand it, the US is about to have a serious surplus of soy beans on their hands. I wonder how much special seed and pesticide bankrupt farmers will be able to buy?

Of course, Bayer will probably let them have it on credit...

-CK