Effects of herbicides (HELP PLEASE!)

E

eddymrsci

Beware of the dark side
Registered Senior Member
Hi, I am doing this research essay about the long-term and short-term effects of herbicides. But I could not find very much information on 1)what herbicides are used for lawns (in front of houses, apartment buildings, or office buildings), 2)who uses these herbicides and how much is used, and 3) what other options are avilable.

Does anybody know any good source that has this kind of information?
Any help will be greatly appreciated
Thanks :)
 
I might try just going to a few local hardware stories and first noting what are the herbicides they are selling (going by active ingredient) and then asking them what they sell the most of.

Your local agricultural extension office might also be a good source of information.
 
Hi,

Well if your in the US, have a look at

http://www.epa.gov/ebtpages/pestpesticherbicides.html

…I was at a talk in the UK by Defra who were talking about the GM trials here (which wasn’t apparently about GM trials but about the impact of the different management of GM to traditional). Apparently there is a company in Ireland who are trying, through traditional breeding programs, to make golf course grass resistant to round up….there was also that study looking into why short dogs get a certain type of cancer –apparently because of the herbicide used on lawns…I'd guess that for human health herbicides on veg and fruit are more important than lawns.

Scotts looks like a major one.'The Scotts Company is the world's leading supplier and marketer of consumer products for do-it-yourself lawn and garden care. It also supplies a range of products for professional horticulture. Scotts owns the leading brands in every major category in virtually all of the countries where it has a significant presence.1

Scotts enjoys a de facto monopoly on lawn care and garden products in the US. In the year ending September 2002, the company enjoyed a market share of 52%, controlling 62% of the consumer market for lawn fertilisers, 59% of the market for growing media/plant food, 43% of the market for grass seed and 41% of the market for controls (i.e. herbicides and pesticides). In addition, Scotts LawnService has now become the 2nd largest competitor in the American lawn service industry.2
In 2002 the company's market share, for lawn care and garden products, in Europe was approximately 25 percent. The company also has a presence in Australia, the Far East, Latin America and South America.3'

http://www.corporatewatch.org/profiles/scotts/scotts.pdf
 
I dream of the day when we engineer crops that don’t need herbicide, pesticides and fertilizers, when meat grows off the vine… mmmmmah Ham Tree *drools*
 
hehehe ham tree? but we already have crops that don't need herbicide don't we? the genetically altered ones yay genetics. Do you read scientific america? if you do the June article from last year had an article on them.
 
Coluber I'd be interested in reading that, would you know which crop they were talking about?
 
yes I read SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, but I don't think I saw that one... hmm... I'll check
yeah because of biotechnology, we are now able to genetically engineering plants to create their own pesticide, but it may cause more problems, I think
we always cause problems and imbalances in the ecosystem when we mess with nature. ;)
 
From 1993...
'A new report from Dr. Charles Benbrook, director of the Northwest Science and Environmental Policy Center, Idaho, concludes that the 550 million acres of GM corn, soybeans and cotton planted in the US since 1996 has increased pesticide use (herbicides and insecticides) by about 50 million pounds. Benbrook is a respected agricultural economist and was Executive Director of the US National Academy of Sciences Board on Agriculture from 1984 to 1990. 'http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GMCIPU.php

If there has been an development of a GM crop which does not require herbicide or pesticides I’d be surprised, and it would likely give low yields. Generally GM crops which have a pesticide within them still need pesticides for other types of insects, and GM crops which are herbicide resistant or tolerant require that the herbicide to be used on the field to stop weeds…. :p
 
So some Gm products are not as useful as advertised, this is not a curse of all Gm foods. The potential problems with Gm food including super weeds, health side effects and environmental damage have all been done before repeatedly with normal breeding practices. Killer bees were not made in a lab but by conventional tried and true farming breading practices. Horny Toads a Purple Lucite have cause massive environmental damage and are not GM. GM is not a new scourge, but has advantages and disadvantages to conventional farming practices. One of its advantages is that GM foods can be made to be unable to live without human supervision, unable to breed with wild plant and create super weeds, actually preventing one of the most common problems cause by conventional farming practices. All the required is legislation to enforce this kind of engineering.
 
WellCookedFetus said:
So some Gm products are not as useful as advertised, this is not a curse of all Gm foods.
Click to expand...

Any examples? :D

ps 'The prospect of crops that can be irrigated with sea
water and grown in hostile environments such as deserts has been promised
by a group of American scientists whose genetic modification business was
quietly floated on the London stock market last week. FuturaGene claims to
be pursuing a new type of "eco-friendly" genetics which has allowed them
to develop prototype tomato and rice plants able to thrive in salt-rich
soils and hibernate in conditions of extreme cold or drought.'
www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,1221662,00.html
 
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My closest friend grows soybeans (and also usually has around a thousand head of cattle) and plants around a thousand acres. He, of course, uses the herbicide-resistant beans for planting. He usually has to have his beans sprayed (cropduster)
with a herbicide once or twice, depending on rainfall amount and when the rain falls
in the beans growth cycle. Herbicides are only necessary when the beans are younger
and their leaves are not yet large enough to block out the sun's rays to prevent
grasses from overtaking the beans. It is not necessary to spray herbicides when
they are getting larger, something like when the stalk is about half grown. As far as
pesticides go, he hasn't had to have his beans sprayed with them is years. Only when
some type of unusual infestation by insects happens, do they need to be sprayed.
An example was a few years ago when an infestation occured in the upper midwest
from some kind of foreign chinese beetle and it had to be contained and eradicated
by spraying with pesticides. Such a situation is very unusual though. Unless I am
mistaken, I believe my friend told me that beans sprayed with pesticides cannot be
sold for human comsumption or used for any products to be consumed by humans.
But herbicides are different, they kill grass and weeds by blocking photosynthesis
within the chlorophyll of grasses and weeds. 'Roundup Ready' and such planting seeds
are immune to such effects. Since humans and animals don't have chlorophyll in them,
they are unaffected. The actual agents used to produce the herbicide-resistant varieties is found in the soil, it is a naturally occuring chemical, not a totally artificial
one. I looked all this up at one time, but I have about forgotten the details of what
goes into herbicide production, but I was satisfied that neither the herbicides nor
the herbicide-resistant plants posed any threat to humans. Also, remember that
herbicides are sometimes called pesticides because they control 'pest' plants. I was
confused over that to start with! But the powder that is used to mix the herbicides
can be eaten raw with no ill effects.
 
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