• Invasive ’super weed’ spreads through Iowa
    http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/2016/12/15/invasive-super-weed-spreads-through-iowa/95037406

    “I’m concerned about how it got there. Who’s responsible? Who’s liable?” said Bortz, who hired the local Natural Resources Conservation Service to plant his family’s pollinator acres. “They say it’s not a noxious weed, so they’re not liable.”

    Iowa and U.S. farmland owners get paid to take cropland out of production under the federal Conservation Reserve Program. Pollinator programs encourage farmers to plant flowers and grasses that will attract bees, butterflies and other pollinators that support $25 billion in fruits, vegetables and other ag production. Landowners get annual rental payments, and are paid part of the cost to plant pollinator mixes and manage the fields.

    Tom Vilsack, the U.S. agriculture secretary who was in Iowa recently, called the accidental introduction of Palmer amaranth in conservation seed mixes an “isolated incident.”

    “There are issues that crop up from time to time, and we’re going to adjust and deal with them,” Vilsack said.

    Farm income tumbles as crop, livestock prices stumble

    #Glyphosate
    https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate

    De nombreuses espèces de #plantes, notamment des dicotylédones sur lesquels le glyphosate est en général moyennement efficace, développent des #résistances au glyphosate, dont par exemple l’evil pigweed (#Amaranthus_palmeri de la famille des #amarantes) qui pousse à une vitesse telle qu’elle force des agriculteurs du Sud des États-Unis à abandonner leurs champs[5]. L’apparition de cette espèce de plante résistante est considérée comme une véritable menace pour l’#agriculture par l’Université de Géorgie[6].