GM soya 'miracle' turns sour in Argentina | Environment | The Guardian: "Now researchers fear that the heavy reliance on one crop may bring economic ruin.
The GM soya, grown and sold by Monsanto, is the company's great success story. Programmed to be resistant to Roundup, Monsanto's patented glyphosate herbicide, soya's production increased by 75% over five years to 2002 and yields increased by 173%, raising £3bn profits for farmers hard-hit financially.
However, a report in New Scientist magazine says that because of problems with the crops, farmers are now using twice as much herbicide as in conventional systems.
Soya is so successful it can be viewed as a weed itself: soya "volunteer" plants, from seed split during harvesting, appear in the wrong place and at the wrong time and need to be controlled with powerful herbicides since they are already resistant to glyphosate.
The control of rogue soya has led to a number of disasters for neighbouring small farmers who have lost their own crops and livestock to the drift of herbicide spray."
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