Viewpoint: The remarkable interaction between glyphosate and soil

2023-04-19 08:09:39

Viewpoint: The remarkable interaction between glyphosate and soil

Jack DeWitt, AGDAILY*

The other day, I was browsing the Internet, looking for ideas to write an article. I came across an opinion written by a Canadian farmer who publishes in a Canadian newspaper, the Financial Post. The title was ” Organic farming gets all the hype, but it doesn’t feed the world (organic farming gets all the attention, but it doesn’t feed the world) by Toban Dyck. I agreed with his opinion, so I scrolled down to read the comments. That of NRN (Not Real Name) caught my attention. He says : ” Yesterday I was riding in the countryside of southern Saskatchewan. Miles and miles of chemical fallow with 3 inch high dead stubble. There was no life. Even insects have a hard time surviving it. There were no birds. I know organic farming can’t feed the world, but don’t try to convince me that factory farming is sustainable. »

I thought that a farmer’s point of view could be useful to NRN and those who share his point of view. So I wrote him an open letter:

NRN, I know your opinion is shared by many people a few generations away from the farm. But think about some things that are not apparent when you look at these fields while driving at 100 kilometers per hour. First of all, these holdings “industrial“probably belong to family farmers who can’t stand the term”industrial“, because they are very attached to the soils and the livestock that allow them to earn their living. The term “industrial” implies a mindset that does not care about the environment and only aims for profit. The attitude of family farmers is that of a way of life, with or without profit. Of course, they can cultivate big acreage with big machinery, but that’s what it takes to make a living these days, and that doesn’t mean they don’t take care of their land and livestock.

These fields”devoid of lifeare deceptive. Indeed, this 3-inch-tall thatch protects the soil from erosion by wind or water and provides food and shelter for insects and no doubt some birds that prefer open grassland. If you had stopped and walked through a field with a shovel, you would have found, under the straw cover, moist soil supporting billions of microbes at work, digesting organic matter and making nutrients available for the next crop. Earthworms may not be plentiful, but they are also hard at work.The straw cover will keep the soil cool and moist through much of the summer, and in the following fall or spring, the farmer will probably do direct seeding of rapeseed, wheat, peas or another crop.His machine will hardly disturb the soil and its hard-working inhabitants.You may also find that a crop is already sprouting, was directly sown a few weeks ago and is not yet tall enough to be visible from the road.

The fields were probably treated with Roundup, which may bother you. THE International Agency for Research on Cancer (CIRC) stated that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundupwas a carcinogen”probablefor the man, a decision that has sparked thousands of lawsuits. So far, three trials have been completed and juries have ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. This does not prove that the Roundup causes cancer: juries are generally not good judges of scientific arguments. Some studies claim to prove that glyphosate is carcinogenic, while nearly a thousand others claim the opposite. THE CIRC chose to classify the chemical in the same category”probable“than working at night, eating grilled meat and fries, and working in a beauty salon.

For a farmer, the Roundup is a marvelous chemical that has enabled the development of no-till agriculture. A farmer can spray Roundup on a weedy field or cover crop one day and sow the next without tilling. THE Roundup Slowly kills most green plants, but leaves no residue harmful to the newly sown crop. THE Roundup also does not harm soil biota, insects, birds and other animals that may inhabit the field. No other herbicide comes close to this portfolio of favorable attributes. By reducing tillage and encouraging perpetual soil cover, the Roundup has prevented the erosion of billions of tons of topsoil over the past 40 years.

Glyphosate kills plants by disrupting the shikimate pathway in plants. The shikimate pathway is part of the plant machinery that makes the amino acids phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan, all essential for the growth and maintenance of a plant. They are also essential for the growth and maintenance of animals, but animals, including humans, must obtain them from plants (beans, nuts) and products from animals that eat plants (eggs, milk, beef), because animals and invertebrates do not have the shikimate pathway and cannot manufacture these amino acids. This is why glyphosate is considered non-toxic to humans. If we consume it in very small amounts, it is quickly eliminated by the kidneys and liver.

Glyphosate droplets that hit the ground are quickly deactivated. The glyphosate molecule carries a negative charge and a positive charge: negative at both ends and positive in the center (these molecules are called zwitterions), as explained by Dr. Stephen Duke of the University of Mississippi. There deactivation is mainly due to chemical bonding with iron and aluminum oxides present in the soil, as well as other metal ions that may be available, such as copper. These bonds are quickly attacked by various soil bacteria and other organisms which tear apart the molecule to utilize the carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus it contains, completely destroying the molecule and recycling the nutrients for possible uptake by plants. Some of the glyphosate can also displace phosphorus anions bound to clay particles, a more permanent bond that can last for years in some cases.

A decade or two ago you would have walked through fields that had turned black or brown from tillage. There would have been no residue to protect the soil from erosion by wind or water. Birds would have had no shelter and surface insects would have been few to non-existent. Soil biota would have fed frenziedly on the buried residue, then collapsed when they had used it all up. THE Roundup has been a proponent of soil conservation like no other for the past 40 years. Banning it would be a huge setback for soil conservation, the sustainability of agriculture and food production in general.

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* Jack DeWitt is a farmer-agronomist whose farming experience spans decades, from the end of horse ranching through the age of GPS and precision farming. In his book ” World Food Unlimited he tells it all and predicts how we can have a future world with abundant food. A version of this article has been republished fromAgri-Times Northwest.

Source : Perspective: The remarkable interaction between glyphosate and soil | AGDAILY

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