Monsanto and DuPont Partner Up in Powerful Herbicide Launch to Combat ‘Superweeds’
The Monsanto Company and DuPont, two of the leading manufacturers of agricultural chemicals and genetically modified seeds, have announced a multi-year partnership to sell a dicamba-based herbicide throughout the U.S. and Canada.
The herbicide, manufactured by DuPont, will be licensed by Monsanto and sold as DuPont™ FeXapan™ herbicide plus VaporGrip™ Technology. The herbicide will target “superweeds” that have become resistant to Monsanto’s best-selling glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup, commonly used on GMO soybeans.
“For several years, DuPont has been testing a solutions-based approach to optimizing weed control using this novel soybean trait and dicamba formulation technology,” Tim Glenn, president, DuPont Crop Protection, told AgWeb. “We are seeing excellent results in improved control of weed populations, including those resistant to a number of herbicide modes of action. This advance will help farmers manage weed competition while improving crop safety as they work to increase production to meet global food demand.”
According to the Pesticide Action Network, dicamba poses serious human health risks including neurological toxicity, reproductive issues, and an increased risk of cancer.
Genetically modified crops, including Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soybeans, are at the center of a national debate over transparency in the food system. While more than 60 countries have GMO labeling laws or bans in effect, U.S. regulatory agencies have found no discernable health threat in GMO crops, and therefore no reason to distinguish them from conventionally grown crops. But consumers say that even if that’s true—and there’s ample research that says otherwise—its no reason not to label foods that contain GMOs, and give consumers an informed choice in their purchases.
Just last week, the Senate passed a controversial GMO labeling law, one that Gary Hirshberg, founder of Stonyfield Yogurt and the GMO pro-labeling organization Just Label It, says “falls short of what consumers rightly expect.”
For more information on how the VaporGrip Technology works, you can watch the Monsanto-produced video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWW4scEgpuU
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Soybean spraying image via Shutterstock
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