"Roundup Ready"

[MexicoDoug at aol.com]

En un mensaje con fecha 08/12/2002 2:55:53 PM Central Daylight Time, 
SUNSOL at prodigy.net escribe:
> The above website references "Roundup Ready Soybeans." What does that phrase 
> mean? I know that the crop must be soy beans, and Roundup is an herbicide 
> IIRC. But "Roundup Ready?" Sally

Hi Sally, to see Monsanto's definition of "Roundup Ready", goto:
http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/products/popups/roundup_ready.html

Roundup ready means your soybeans can be sprayed with Roundup and they are 
ready - ie, can handle it while the other weeds can't.  They basically are 
soybean plants bred to resist application of 'glyphosphate', a probable 
carcinogen with a relatively short lifetime hanging around, unless it 
contacts herbs (non-woody stemmed plants).  Glyphosphate is an excellent 
broad spectrum herbicide if it has a chance to contact the weedy herbs.  
Monsanto developed and patented glyphosphate under the brand name Roundup.  
Monsanto's patents on the herbicide are about finished, so the business folk 
in that company came up with a way to maintain their market share for the 
brand name herbicide instead of losing it to cheaper generic glyphosphate 
competitive products(or see: BASF competitive product: ( 
http://www.farmsource.com/Product_Info/product_details.asp?Product_ID=12&
Product_Name=Roundup_Ready(R)_Soybeans&Rgn=2&ProductType=T )  In a paradigm 
shift they redefined their product as a system, simply breeding and patenting 
the soybean plant itself to be resistant to glyphosphate.  So they can sell 
the farmers the seeds and bundle the herbicide as part of the system, and 
maintain dominance selling branded Roundup glyphosphate.  The farmers are 
happy because they can drench their crops with Roundup if necessary and not 
lose them, but knock out all the weeds that provoke terrible yield.  But it 
is not as rosey as it seems for Monsanto's product nor is their great 
incentive to mindlessly drench with Roundup, as it costs and it stresses the 
plants anyway, also having an impact on yields.  But it is a great insurance 
policy especially on a bad weed season when a farmer sees his field getting 
taken over.  And some people object to the fact that some of the breeding to 
produce the novel soybeans was 'forced' in a petri dish (GMO) vs. done by 
crossing and backcrossing in the 'traditional' sense.
Hope that helps.
Doug Dawn
Monterrey, Mexico


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