Round-Up is Terrifying

Studies show that factory farms produce less food. Many of these farms are using Monsanto's Roundup Ready plants and of course, Roundup with them.

While I'm the first to admit that I'm no expert on the science of Roundup - no, I just have a blog about human ecology that someday, god willing, more than one other person will read - I did just find an article that explains part of why that is.

I do recommend the article, which has lots of links in it to other interesting articles, but if you're not in the mood to read it, the connection to lower crop productivity is this:

Glysophate (the main ingredient in Roundup) interacts with soil by damaging beneficial microbes in it. As I understand it, those microbes are pretty darn important for the health of anything growing in the soil. Like the healthy bacteria in our digestive tracts: if it's killed, then all sorts of nasty yeasts and angry bacteria get in there and just start chomping away. When that happens to a human, nutrient absorption goes down: you can eat and eat, but your body is unable to access the vitamins before they leave your system.

When Roundup kills beneficial microbes in the soil, the same thing happens to plants: nutrient uptake is 'interfered with' and nitrogen fixing is reduced. Nitrogen fixing is how some plants can grow in 'bad' soil (ie, everywhere): they dig up nutrients with their long roots and 'fix' them into the top soil, where successive generations of plants can benefit from them. As they said in the Lion King, it's the circle of life.

Which is of course stunted when Roundup is applied, resulting in "overall lower-than-expected plant productivity"