Monsanto Files Suit Against California; A New Organic Weapon to Control Weeds

Monsanto is taking legal action to prevent what the company calls a flawed listing of the herbicide glyphosate under California’s Proposition 65. Prop 65 requires the state to maintain a “list of chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer.” The listing of glyphosate, according to Monsanto, would be flawed and baseless because glyphosate does not cause cancer, as determined by the EPA, the European Food Safety Authority and pesticide regulators around the world. Monsanto claims the listing would violate the California and U.S. Constitutions.

Organic growers now have a new tool to control weeds: abrasive weeding, or “weed blasting,” which uses an air compressor to blast organic grit at weed seedlings during vulnerable growth stages. The method is surprisingly effective.  In conjunction with plastic mulch, abrasive weeding reduced final weed biomass by 69 to 97 percent compared to non-weeded control plots.  Researchers say blasted grit does not discriminate between weed and crop seedlings.