Diane Rehm Examines the Dangers of Monsanto's Roundup and Dow's Enlist Duo Herbicides

Yesterday on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, Diane Rehm and her guests discussed the race against pests and weeds, and the recent approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Dow AgroSciences' herbicide Enlist Duo, a new combination of 2,4-D and glyphosate meant to fight chemical-resistant "superweeds."
This new herbicide has many in the environmental and health communities concerned because of the dangerous impacts to human health and the environment. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other groups sued to block the EPA's approval because they don't think the EPA considered all of the environmental and health impacts of the new herbicide. Many have joined the NRDC in calling for a new approach to pest and weed control that doesn't wreak havoc on human health and the environment.
Rehm starts the discussion by talking about the most common herbicide, Monsanto's Roundup, which she says, "is steadily becoming less effective." Erik Olson, director of the health program for the NRDC explains why that is:
What we have is a chemical arms race between the pesticide companies, who are developing ever more powerful pesticides to kill bugs and to kill weeds, and the bugs and weeds that keep evolving and become more resistant to those pesticides. So another new generation of pesticides have to be invented. So we're on this treadmill.
During the process of deploying more and more pesticides to deal with pests and weeds that are resistant, we are killing non-target organisms, according to Olson. These non-target organisms are often beneficial insects—bees in particular—that help keep pest populations in check and pollinate crops.
How do these pests and weeds become resistant? "It's basic evolution," says Olson. A pesticide can wipe out 99.9 percent of pests or weeds but that 0.1 percent that survives is resistant and they produce offspring that are even more resistant, according to Olson.
That's why experts like Andy Dyer, professor of biology at the University of South Carolina, author of Chasing the Red Queen: The Evolutionary Race Between Agricultural Pests and Poisons and a guest on yesterday's show, say gigantic monocultures—one single crop in a field—are a huge problem. We've taken highly diversified ecosystems and reduced them to a single species, providing pests with an all-you-can-eat buffet, according to Dyer.
Dyer says he wrote his book because "the connection between pesticide resistance and the underlying principles of evolutionary biology—while they're understood—have not really been closely linked." Dyer says, we have to realize "each chemical pesticide has a lifespan and it will lose its effectiveness over time."
Les Glasgow of Syngenta said on yesterday's show that because herbicides like Roundup are so effective in the short term, they get overused to the point where they lose their effectiveness. "The future really is about diversity" for weed management, says Glasgow. "If we can introduce more diversity in the tactics that we use for weed control, then we can certainly avoid the resistance." Glasgow says products like Roundup and now Enlist Duo are not intended to be used on their own.
That's not common practice, though. Farmers of commodity crops like soy and corn, which tend to be genetically modified, use herbicides like Roundup "more or less indiscriminately" because "it's their one tool" in pest and weed control, says Dyer.
Aaron Hobbs, president of Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment, says pesticides are merely a part of the solution. He calls for integrated pest management, which is an approach to controlling pests that relies on a combination of best practices. Hobbs agrees with the other guests that we've completely overused Roundup, "dousing fields with it" and as a result we've killed off a lot of the milkweed, a plant that Monarch butterflies feed on. With milkweed wiped out, the Monarch butterfly population has collapsed as well. The increased reliance on chemical pesticides is effecting the entire food web.
Not only are these chemical pesticides destroying human health and the environment, but, according to Olson, it can cost millions of dollars to develop a new pesticide, and yet they can become obsolete within a few years. So we need to work with nature using "these more innovative tools of sustainable agriculture," Olson says.
Allen, a listener who called into the show is a former EPA employee, says 2,4-D should have been phased out years ago. "It was half of agent orange and it's just being brought back and it's a really bad idea." Olson and Dyer agree we're on a backwards trend: we're using dangerous chemicals on fewer and fewer crops with less and less genetic diversity. We need a wide variety of crops with high genetic diversity in order to move away from this chemical dependency. Olson says, "I think we can all agree in this room that taking an integrated approach to solve a pest problem is the way to go."
Listen to the full discussion on The Diane Rhem Show.
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While traditional investment in the ocean technology sector has been tentative, growth in Israeli maritime innovations has been exponential in the last few years, and environmental concern has come to the forefront.
theDOCK aims to innovate the Israeli maritime sector. Pexels
<p>The UN hopes that new investments in ocean science and technology will help turn the tide for the oceans. As such, this year kicked off the <a href="https://www.oceandecade.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)</a> to galvanize massive support for the blue economy.</p><p>According to the World Bank, the blue economy is the "sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem," <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019338255#b0245" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Science Direct</a> reported. It represents this new sector for investments and innovations that work in tandem with the oceans rather than in exploitation of them.</p><p>As recently as Aug. 2020, <a href="https://www.reutersevents.com/sustainability/esg-investors-slow-make-waves-25tn-ocean-economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters</a> noted that ESG Investors, those looking to invest in opportunities that have a positive impact in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, have been interested in "blue finance" but slow to invest.</p><p>"It is a hugely under-invested economic opportunity that is crucial to the way we have to address living on one planet," Simon Dent, director of blue investments at Mirova Natural Capital, told Reuters.</p><p>Even with slow investment, the blue economy is still expected to expand at twice the rate of the mainstream economy by 2030, Reuters reported. It already contributes $2.5tn a year in economic output, the report noted.</p><p>Current, upward <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/-innovation-blue-economy-2646147405.html" target="_self">shifts in blue economy investments are being driven by innovation</a>, a trend the UN hopes will continue globally for the benefit of all oceans and people.</p><p>In Israel, this push has successfully translated into investment in and innovation of global ports, shipping, logistics and offshore sectors. The "Startup Nation," as Israel is often called, has seen its maritime tech ecosystem grow "significantly" in recent years and expects that growth to "accelerate dramatically," <a href="https://itrade.gov.il/belgium-english/how-israel-is-becoming-a-port-of-call-for-maritime-innovation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">iTrade</a> reported.</p><p>Driving this wave of momentum has been rising Israeli venture capital hub <a href="https://www.thedockinnovation.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">theDOCK</a>. Founded by Israeli Navy veterans in 2017, theDOCK works with early-stage companies in the maritime space to bring their solutions to market. The hub's pioneering efforts ignited Israel's maritime technology sector, and now, with their new fund, theDOCK is motivating these high-tech solutions to also address ESG criteria.</p><p>"While ESG has always been on theDOCK's agenda, this theme has become even more of a priority," Nir Gartzman, theDOCK's managing partner, told EcoWatch. "80 percent of the startups in our portfolio (for theDOCK's Navigator II fund) will have a primary or secondary contribution to environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria."</p><p>In a company presentation, theDOCK called contribution to the ESG agenda a "hot discussion topic" for traditional players in the space and their boards, many of whom are looking to adopt new technologies with a positive impact on the planet. The focus is on reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment, the presentation outlines. As such, theDOCK also explicitly screens candidate investments by ESG criteria as well.</p><p>Within the maritime space, environmental innovations could include measures like increased fuel and energy efficiency, better monitoring of potential pollution sources, improved waste and air emissions management and processing of marine debris/trash into reusable materials, theDOCK's presentation noted.</p>theDOCK team includes (left to right) Michal Hendel-Sufa, Head of Alliances, Noa Schuman, CMO, Nir Gartzman, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, and Hannan Carmeli, Co-Founder & Managing Partner. Dudu Koren
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