Waterhemp: Herbicide Resistant Plant Created by Chemical-Intensive Farming Competes with Crops - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog (Beyond Pesticides, December 15, 2022) Industrial agriculture has both created and amplified the spread of the now highly problematic waterhemp (Amaranthus tuberculatus) plant, according to research published this month in the journal Science. Over the last 80 years, the push to increase monoculture plantings, expand cropland, and utilize chemical fertilizers and pesticides has changed waterhemp from a tame riparian wild plant into an aggressive, weedy intruder able to compete with row crops like corn and soybean. “The genetic variants that help the plant do well in modern agricultural settings have risen to high frequencies remarkably quickly since agricultural intensification in the 1960s,” said study author Julia Kreiner, PhD with the University of British Columbia’s Department of Botany. “The types of changes we’re imposing in agricultural environments are so strong that they have consequences in neighbouring habitats that we’d usually think were natural.” To better understand how this plant went from a waterside obscurity to North America’s most notorious “weed,” researchers tracked the shifts occurring within the plants genome. Using data from herbarium samples first collected in 1828 until 2011, scientists sought out alleles (genetic mutations) that corresponded with agricultural intensification and analyzed the frequency of their occurrence over the nearly […]

#Industrial#agriculture has both created and amplified the spread of the now highly problematic #waterhemp plant. #waterhemp #weedcontrol #pesticides #herbicides #EPAfail #herbicideresistance #organic4life #organic #farming #environmentalprotection

beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/…

With 40% of insects facing extinction, this could be one of the last #Thanksgivings you celebrate with apple pie. To save the #bees & apple pie, @Kroger must say NO to toxic #pesticides in its food supply chain! #SaveTheBees #Organic4all #organic4life #EPAfail #pesticide-free

Parks for a Sustainable Future Protecting people, pets and pollinators by transitioning community parks and playgrounds to organic!

Envision an #organic #community where local #parks, #playingfields, & #greenways are managed without toxic #pesticides. We'll help you make it happen!#pesticide-free #organiclandmanagement #organic4life #publicparks #kids #pets #ballfields #publichealth

beyondpesticides.org/programs/power…

Study Shows Organic Food Diet Reduces Residues of Glyphosate in Body - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog (Beyond Pesticides, August 13, 2020) Levels of the notorious herbicide compound glyphosate in the human body are reduced by 70% through a one-week switch to an organic diet, finds a new, peer-reviewed study published in August 2020 in the journal Environmental Research. This result emphasizes both the ubiquity of this compound in the human body, and diet as the primary source of exposure for most people. It also adds to the evidence for Beyond Pesticides’ assertions that: (1) chemical-intensive agriculture must be abandoned, for a variety of reasons that include human health, and (2) in the lead-up to a transition to organic and regenerative agriculture, consuming organic foods as much as is practicable is powerful protection from glyphosate, and from the assault of multiple chemical pesticides to which most people are exposed. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the popular weed killer RoundupTM, which has been used intensively in the U.S. and around the world, especially during the last couple of decades. It is very commonly used on crops grown from genetically engineered (GE) companion seeds for a variety of staple crops (e.g., soybeans, cotton, and corn). These GE seeds are glyphosate-tolerant, whose attribute has allowed growers to apply the herbicide and […]

#GoOrganic! Just a reminder that a one-week switch to an organic diet reduces levels of #glyphosate in the human body by 70%!#glyphosate #banglyphosate #organic #organicfood #EPAfail #EPA #cancer #publichealth #environmentalprotection #Organic4Life

beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/…