RoundUp Ready maize invades Brazilian soybean fields

(http://www.gmwatch.org) Brazilian soybean farmers have recently had to deal with a new kind of weed invading their fields: RoundUp Ready maize.

One of Monsanto's signature genetically modified organisms, RoundUp Ready maize has been engineered to be more resistant to glyphosate, the main ingredient in RoundUp pesticide. As Natural News readers probably already know, the cultivation of this crop has lead to increased pesticide resistance in both weeds and insects. Now, the corn variety is showing up unexpectedly on soybean plantations, raising the cost of production, leading to greater pesticide usage and threatening farmer's revenues.

The variety of soybean widely grown in Brazil has also been genetically modified to be resistant to RoundUp, so farmers would simply douse their fields with the poison to eliminate pests. But with invading RR maize, which competes with soybeans for nutrients, water and sunlight, farmers are having to apply other toxic chemicals, such as graminicides, or remove them by hand.

If the corn is left in the fields, it could threaten the soybean crop or be harvested along with it. If the corn and soybeans are harvested and mixed together, then trading companies could apply discounts to pay lower prices to the farmers.

The GM maize could have spread into the fields through a variety of ways, including cross pollination, left-over grains from previous corn crops and old farming equipment. This occurrence is just the latest incident illustrating the dangers of GMOs and the precautions that should be taken to preserve the environment, seed diversity and food security.