Farmers defend commonly used herbicide

Large-scale farmers from Delaware County are defending the game-changing herbicide Roundup after recent news that the EPA is reviewing the chemical.

Dale Lee, a corn and soybean farmer, uses Roundup on all of the 2,000 acres he farms.

"Roundup has been out for years," Dale Lee said. "It's hard for me to imagine that if there was something bad with the chemical, we wouldn't have known about it 20 years ago."

Reuters news service reported last week that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its Canadian counterpart are reviewing the safety and effectiveness of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. The EPA has set a 2015 deadline for a decision on whether or not the chemical can continue to be sold or should be restricted in some way.

In January, retired Purdue University professor Don Huber raised concerns that glyphosate might be a contributor to spontaneous abortions and infertility in livestock.

Roundup manufacturer Monsanto, the seed and chemical giant, has long insisted the chemical is safe. Spokesman Janice Person said the EPA review is a standard review conducted on agricultural chemicals every 15 years and was not in response to any new criticism.

"What we've seen through data and on-farm experience is that the product is very safe for both farmers and our environment," she said.

Introduced in 1974, Roundup is the best selling herbicide worldwide. Its influence in agriculture skyrocketed as Monsanto developed Roundup-resistant beans and corn, meaning farmers could spray fields and kill off all vegetation except their crops.

Previous herbicides were more selective in the weeds they killed, forcing farmers to rely on a spectrum of chemicals throughout the growing season.

"Roundup is probably the most significant herbicide in the history of herbicides," said farmer Joe Russell, who sells Monsanto seeds.

Reuters reported that Roundup earned Monsanto more than $2 billion in 2010 alone.

Lee and two other large-scale farmers who spoke with The Star Press said eliminating Roundup would force farmers to resort to more and older chemicals, some of them more toxic than Roundup, and might even affect their ability to continue using the more environmentally friendly no-till method of farming.

The effect on consumers would be higher food prices, they said.

Farming without chemicals, they said, was not an option because production would decrease and the agriculture industry would no longer be able to meet the global demand for food.

"We have to use something," Terry Reynard said.

Dave Ring, an organic produce farmer, disagreed. He criticized the agricultural industry for diverting crops away from the food supply and into products such as ethanol.

Furthermore, Ring believes weeds can be controlled through cover crops and other chemical-free methods.

"The less herbicides that are sprayed the better, and right now, we are using more than ever," Ring said.

Russell and others said they weren't concerned that the EPA would ban Roundup.

"I'd probably compare it to Atrazine (an older herbicide)," Russell said. "People have been questioning its safety for 50 years, and it's still deemed to be a safe and effective herbicide."