HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0491.102 2020-2022 P/ pp PP
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Support for Bill 91 re.glyphosate
for Hawaii County Council,9 AM Wednesday, December 22, 2021
from Cory Harden, Sierra Club, Hawaii Island Group
I will be summarizing information from a recent New York Times Magazine article: "Attack of the
Superweeds: Herbicides are losing the war— and agriculture might never be the same again."
https:/jwww.nytimes.com/2021108/18/mogozineAuperweeds-monsonto html
The Bayer company has set aside up to nine and a half billion dollars("billion"with a "b") to settle about
125,000 claims that Roundup caused non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. And Bayer will phase glyphosate out of
US lawn and garden products. But the change has no connection to safety concerns...says Bayer.
Meanwhile,some people worry that banning glyphosate in parks puts us on a slippery slope towa
further bans. But continuing to use glyphosate puts us on a slippery slope in an opposite and very '
worrisome direction.
Weeds develop resistance to glyphosate,so people start using other herbicides that are more t'
dangerous.There's 2,4-D,which may cause health issues. Or dicamba,which drifts onto neighbors'
crops and damages them. Or paraquat,which can kill a person from just one sip. No matter--one d
developed resistance to all of these herbicides, plus a couple more. CID
Monsanto worked for ten years to develop crop seeds resistant to both glyphosate and dicamba.Then
one weed developed resistance to dicamba--in only five years.
Over 250 species in over 70 countries have become resistant to herbicides, including almost all major
classes of weed killers.
"It's hard to estimate exactly how much damage has already been wrought by herbicide resistance;the
weeds are gaining ground faster than scientists can survey them."One scientist thinks herbicides will no
longer work on some weeds five to ten years from now.
It's probably a really good idea to start developing new ways of dealing with weeds now,while we still
have some wiggle room.
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