Quote:
Originally Posted by Cali Flames Fan
You may be right, but we are not there right now and I can tell you that doctors, and especially hospitals, are becoming very concerned about antibiotic resistant strains. Heck, even prisons, schools, and other institutions are increasingly worried about these strains as they have had some very serious infections in their population spread through the most innocuous of means, a dirty towel and a scrape/cut. The technology might evolve but only after we have an epidemic of infections that are not treatable with any known antibiotic and a lot of people die.
It's a very real problem that puts us back about 100 years in terms of fighting infection. I wish people weren't so blithe about it.
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I wasn't meaning to sound like I believe resistance is a non-issue. That's not the case at all... it's a huge problem in my line of work. It's arguably the single largest issue I face day-to-day, agronomically speaking.
The point I was making was that this resistance is not a result of genetic modification... It's a result of our own
over-use. Bacteria is developing resistance because we over-use anti-biotics, not because scientists created a genetically modified strain (has this ever been done?)... much like weeds are developing resistance because we over-use herbicides, not because scientists created a genetically modified crop.
Being that herbicide use is in no way exclusive to GMO crops, people need to stop blaming GMOs for herbicide resistant weeds ("super weeds"). That is my argument.
An example of a common crop rotation here in Western Canada would be:
Year 1 - Oilseed (ex: Canola/Mustard)
Year 2 - Pulse (ex: Pea/Lentil)
Year 3 - Cereal (ex: Wheat/Barley)
Year 4 - Chemfallow
Using this rotation, I'll show glyphosate (Roundup) use over that 4yr period, for both GMO canola and Conventional canola:
Year 1 -
RoundupReady Canola = 1L/ac Pre-seed, .75L/ac In-crop, 1L/ac Post-harvest = 2.75L/ac
Year 2 - Lentil = 1L/ac Pre-seed, 1L/ac Dessicant
or Post-seed = 2L/ac
Year 3 - Durum = 1L/ac Pre-seed, 1L/ac Dessicant
or Post-seed = 2L/ac
Year 4 - Chemfallow = 1L/ac x 4 applications = 4L/ac
Total = 10.75L/ac glyphosate over 4 year rotation (GMO included)
Year 1 -
Conventional Canola = 1L/ac Pre-seed, 1L/ac Post-harvest = 2L/ac
Year 2 - Lentil = 1L/ac Pre-seed, 1L/ac Dessicant
or Post-seed = 2L/ac
Year 3 - Durum = 1L/ac Pre-seed, 1L/ac Dessicant
or Post-seed = 2L/ac
Year 4 - Chemfallow = 1L/ac x 4 applications = 4L/ac
Total = 10L/ac glyphosate over 4 year rotation (Non-GMO)
You can see in the total numbers, very little of the glyphosate use across the prairies is being applied on RR crops. It's a chemical that we use liberally in a variety of different situations. It's this over-use that is causing the glyphosate resistant weeds, and so eliminating RR GMO crops from the rotation will do little to nothing in regards to slowing down the rise in glyphosate resistant weeds.
To rid ourselves of the resistant weeds, and prevent future resistance, farmers need to be more responsible in their herbicide selection and herbicide group rotation.