06/27/06 herbicides and labor

Thanks the efforts of "bonnie Prince Charles" and other celebrities whose passion for organic, even archaic agriculture continues to capture the spot light. 21 century herbicides get a bum rap. While a prince can advocate hand weeding I doubt his royal highness has ever garnered dirt under his fingernails like migrant workers who painfully hand pick weeds from organic acreage. Why revisit the middle when responsible herbicide use in the US alone has preempted the need for 7 million additional migrant workers that would be required if all farming was organic simply to pull weeds by hand. A new study released by Crop Life reported that farmers spray 215 million crop acres with herbicides every year, significantly reducing US reliance on migrant labor. The report concluded that there could be very limited future for organic crops in the US considering the high cost and difficulty of controlling weeds without herbicides." Source: The study, The Value of Herbicides in U.S. Crop Production, is available at http://www.croplifefoundation.org/cpri_benefits_herbicides.htm