by Micheal D. K. Owen
October 3 2007 - The report from
the second glyphosate stewardship forum
"National Glyphosate Stewardship
Forum II: A Call to Action" is now available. The National Glyphosate
Stewardship Forum II (NGSF II) was held on March 20 and 21, 2007 and was
attended by 46 participants and speakers representing the major commodity
groups, ag chem and seed industries, USDA, EPA and university weed scientists.
The goal of the NGSF II was to inform these key representatives on the current
status of glyphosate-resistant weeds and facilitate a planning process to
improve the stewardship of glyphosate. The first
National Glyphosate Stewardship
Forum was held in November 2004 and the consensus of the participants at
that time was that no major problems existed with glyphosate stewardship.
However, in the span of 2.5 years between the two forums, significant issues
have been reported with the evolution of glyphosate resistance in an number of
key weeds. Importantly, these glyphosate-resistant weed populations are
causing significant economic problems for growers of several important commodity
crops in a number of states. The result of the this ecological change in weed
populations was a consensus agreement by the attendees at the NGSF II that
problems as a result of poor glyphosate stewardship were escalating and a number
of important principle actions were recommended. It is hoped by the
organizers of the NGSF II that changes in the use of glyphosate will be adopted
by agriculture and growers will give serious consideration to establishing
better stewardship of glyphosate and glyphosate-resistant crops before the
evolution of glyphosate resistance dominates weed communities throughout the
major commodity crops in the United States. The NGSF II was financially
supported by the North Central Integrated Pest Management Center.