3-1 FB Herbicide Danger

 Tim Prather is a Professor of weed ecology at the University of Idaho and doubles as the UI Extension scientist responsible for sharing the newest weed-fighting strategies statewide with weed associations and public agencies. There is a very long and drawn out argument presented by organic growers that the public should not consume traditionally produced foods for reasons that include the fact that they are exposed to chemicals such as herbicides. I called up Dr. Prather and chatted about  the dangers of herbicides to human consumers and he had a fascinating  response.  “What will happen is a lot of these new herbicides will attack a specific enzyme and these enzymes are unique to plants and that is one of the reasons why they are very safe with respect to toxicity to humans, mammals and other vertebrates. So those are some reasons why they are so desirable. They have low toxicity to other organisms.”