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Uhm, glyphosate doesn't affect pollinators.[1] It's an herbicide. And drift that reduces "critical forage"? That's not even part of the glyphosate controvers

Uhm, glyphosate doesn't affect pollinators.[1] It's an herbicide. And drift that reduces "critical forage"? That's not even part of the glyphosate controversy. Glyphosate either works on a plant or it doesn't. Where you're killing your neighbor's plants by drift, you're going to get a citation or sued or both. [1] https://goo.gl/lGpC1k https://goo.gl/lGpC1k

notadoc 9y ago
Many people confuse herbicides with pesticides as you have probably noticed. Both can be harmful or beneficial, depending on usage obviously.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  "Pesticides", at least in common usage, is inclusive of herbicides.
jly 9y ago
> Uhm, glyphosate doesn't affect pollinators. It does affect pollinators, show in some examples of recent research [1][2], and effects on other non-insect animal species like frogs [3] and fish [4][5]. We may not know why it does yet, but there is plenty of evidence. This is just a tiny sampling. > And drift that reduces "critical forage"? That's not even part of the glyphosate controversy. This is very much part of the controversy. As one example, glyphosate has been linked to decline of milkweed habitat, significantly impacting monarch butterflies. The NRDC petitioned the EPA in 2015 to restrict the use because of this [6]. Just because of the widespread application in agricultural and urban areas, drift and runoff contaminate large areas of habitat, impacting countless non-target species of both plant and animal. One could also draw the conclusion that glyphosate-tolerant corn and soy have been particularly responsible for the conversion of over 150 million acres of land (almost the size of Texas) into food or biofuel development in the last ~25 years. This land is no longer animal/pollinator friendly and is leading to a rapid decline in plant/pollinator relationships. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25063858 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25063858 [2] http://jeb.biologists.org/content/jexbio/218/17/2799.full.pdf http://jeb.biologists.org/content/jexbio/218/17/2799.full.pd... [3] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/11-0189.1/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/11-0189.1/abstrac... [4] http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es404258h http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es404258h [5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17933590 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17933590 [6] https://www.nrdc.org/media/2015/150624 https://www.nrdc.org/media/2015/150624
- hcurtiss 9y ago
  The milkweed concern isn't over drift. It's over monocultures, which is a different argument entirely. As for studies 1 and 2 below, I'll look into them more, but as cited above, there's also plenty of science indicating the opposite.

notadoc 9y ago

Many people confuse herbicides with pesticides as you have probably noticed. Both can be harmful or beneficial, depending on usage obviously.

maxerickson 9y ago
"Pesticides", at least in common usage, is inclusive of herbicides.

jly 9y ago

> Uhm, glyphosate doesn't affect pollinators. It does affect pollinators, show in some examples of recent research [1][2], and effects on other non-insect animal species like frogs [3] and fish [4][5]. We may not know why it does yet, but there is plenty of evidence. This is just a tiny sampling. > And drift that reduces "critical forage"? That's not even part of the glyphosate controversy. This is very much part of the controversy. As one example, glyphosate has been linked to decline of milkweed habitat, significantly impacting monarch butterflies. The NRDC petitioned the EPA in 2015 to restrict the use because of this [6]. Just because of the widespread application in agricultural and urban areas, drift and runoff contaminate large areas of habitat, impacting countless non-target species of both plant and animal. One could also draw the conclusion that glyphosate-tolerant corn and soy have been particularly responsible for the conversion of over 150 million acres of land (almost the size of Texas) into food or biofuel development in the last ~25 years. This land is no longer animal/pollinator friendly and is leading to a rapid decline in plant/pollinator relationships. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25063858 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25063858 [2] http://jeb.biologists.org/content/jexbio/218/17/2799.full.pdf http://jeb.biologists.org/content/jexbio/218/17/2799.full.pd... [3] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/11-0189.1/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/11-0189.1/abstrac... [4] http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es404258h http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es404258h [5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17933590 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17933590 [6] https://www.nrdc.org/media/2015/150624 https://www.nrdc.org/media/2015/150624

hcurtiss 9y ago
The milkweed concern isn't over drift. It's over monocultures, which is a different argument entirely. As for studies 1 and 2 below, I'll look into them more, but as cited above, there's also plenty of science indicating the opposite.