Resistance to herbicides has been a reality for several decades. In the past, products with new modes of action entered into the market and provided a ready fix for problems that arose. Beginning in the mid-to-late-1990s, crops containing genetically-engineered glyphosate resistance exploded onto the market and rapidly became the dominant and then the only weed control measure in the majority of American cotton, soybean, and corn crops. The number of alternative products used for weed control dropped significantly and resulted in a high level of selection pressure for resistance. With the advent of resistance to glyphosate in these crops, the effectiveness of this exceptional tool for weed control has been severely impacted. This development has, in some cases, rekindled the need for alternative weed control methods. For example, in Southern cotton fields, hand-hoeing is being implemented at considerable cost with the express purpose of reducing the contribution of single, escaping resistant weeds to the soil weed seed bank. Agriculture is at a crossroads with few new products in the pipeline and none with new modes of action foreseeable in the near future. Opportunities exist for new chemical weed control solutions, but they must pass ever higher hurdles for weed control and in their toxicological environmental profiles. Finding new solutions is not easy. We must preserve all the current tools while searching for new ones.

Herbicide resistance by weeds: Its effects on and off the field

246th National Meeting (2013)

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