Controlling Nature Leading the charge was Monsanto, a manufacturer of DDT and
Agent Orange, a defoliant used in Vietnam. Embroiled in lawsuits over
dioxin, a known carcinogen and highly toxic by-product from manu-
facturing Agent Orange, the company banked heavily on its new pes-
ticide, Roundup. Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate were
touted by some as safe enough to drink and fast became farmers’ go-
to pesticide. But the clock was ticking on Roundup’s profitability.
As glyphosate patents neared expiration, Monsanto sought USDA
approval to market Roundup-tolerant soybeans, the first of many geneti-
cally modified seeds in the pipeline to be coupled with chemicals. With
millions of dollars sunk into development, and desperately needing
approval, the company wrote in its application, “It is highly unlikely
that weed resistance to glyphosate will become a problem.”
Before Roundup, there had never been a pesticide that didn’t pro-
voke resistance. But Monsanto believed its products were different.
Besides Roundup, other seeds were genetically altered using a naturally
occurring species of bacteria called Bt, which was toxic for despised
insects. Company scientists, some in academia, government regulators,
financial investors, and many farmers had convinced themselves that
genetically modified seeds were new miracle elixirs capable of perma-
nently subverting nature.
With Roundup taking care of weeds, planting the same crops in
the same fields year after year promised to earn farmers higher returns.
Previously, as a measure of defense against damaging insects like
European corn borer and corn rootworm, farmers rotated soybean and
corn fields. Because Bt-engineered seeds would not kill every insect
pest, EPA proposed that one of every two acres be planted in a non–
genetically modified crop (known as a “refuge” crop). Planting the two
crops alongside each other was designed to ensure that Bt-resistant
insects did not come to dominate the population.
But with so much money on the line, Monsanto fought back, and
eventually EPA relented, settling on one of every five acres. Though
some farmers still rotated their crops and planted refuge crops, others
sought higher returns by planting the same crop each year, and reducing
or ignoring refuge-crops requirements.
So along with superbugs, say hello to “superpests” and “superweeds.”
Two decades went by before weed resistance from glyphosate was