On Wed, 19 Sep 2012 17:49:35 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

"Fuschia" wrote ..

This is what happens when you rely on GM crops and glyphosate

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19585341


Very interesting article and like bacteria becoming resistant to drugs I
suppose it was obviously going to happen. Hardly affects us gardeners though
when we just use it on Bindweed or whatever only when necessary.

With respect, Bob, that's a little "head in the sand". Some gardeners
use herbicides and pesticides indiscriminately. In agriculture,
intensive methodologies often involve heavy use of chemicals, hence,
for example, the decrease in bee populations. Anyone who has ever been
prescribed a course of anti-biotics but got better and didn't complete
the course has contributed to the development of resistant bacteria.
If herbicide resistant weeds develop on the farm next door, they'll be
in your garden soon and will gradually seed down the road, around the
bend, into the next town ......

And of course, the first whiff of a single glyphosate resistant plant
and the EU will ban glyphosate in a forlorn effort to stop the
"problem" getting worse.

I worry about genetic modification. No-one (yet) knows how tall a
Leylandii will eventually grow! No-one knows how future generations
spawned from today's genetically modified plants will evolve.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.