As we emerged from the worst economic downturn in U.S. agriculture since the Great Depression, new tools were being murmured about in the industry. What if we could spray our fields with nonselective herbicides and only the weeds died? How cool would that be?

By mid- decade, Roundup Ready soybeans were ready to hit the market for farmers to try. In the first couple of years, seed supplies were tight, and there were limits on how many bags a grower could purchase. Seed-use agreements, no saved seed and technology fees were all new to us but would become the law of the land. The genetically modified organism (GMO) revolution was upon us.

Roundup Ready corn followed a couple of years later, and the buzz was to spray Roundup twice a growing season and all your weed problems would disappear. Sounds too good to be true, huh? Well, it was. With no residuals down and many growers trying to see just how low a rate would still kill weeds, things went south fast.

Natural selection is a funny thing – Roundup showed us which weeds would survive the revolution. Where we had huge problems with lambsquarter, giant ragweed, johnsongrass and others under older herbicide technology, Roundup hammered the problem. But by eliminating the competition between weed species, we made room for marestail, kochia and the amaranth species to flourish. Waterhemp and Palmer amaranth exploded onto the scene, and we still struggle to control them today.

I’m not trying to bash GMOs; I believe the technology has made it possible to grow food in places that were too challenging before their advent. We have greatly improved our ability to feed ourselves worldwide using these products.

As with every revolution, there are bad consequences along with the good. In the big picture, resistance exploded with excessive glyphosate use, but we also saw ripple effects throughout the industry. Ag retailers struggled with lost revenue from residual herbicides. There we a few hiccups with GM seeds being used before full worldwide approval, which led to issues in the grain shipping pipeline. Misinformation on the safety of GM food sources also created consumer confidence issues in food safety. Predatory advertising by special interest groups compounded the problem. We are still dealing with some of that today.

One clear positive is that we can produce food, fiber and fuel using these technologies in ways that were not possible before their emergence. Yields of broad acre crops have skyrocketed in the last 25 years, leading to a more stable food supply worldwide. Natural disasters such as drought have less of an effect because we are able to produce crops on many acres globally that 30 years ago were not suited for crop production. This trend will continue as we work to feed an ever-growing world population. Innovation must continue for us to be able to feed ourselves.

The days of people producing their own food are largely gone. We rely on an ever-shrinking population of farmers and ranchers to keep us fed. They need all the tools available to do what they do best – produce a safe, abundant, readily available food supply in a manner that sustains the environment, our communities and themselves. Remember: no farmers, no food.

Mike Wilson CCA 4R NMS/ RMS/ PASp