By Mark Jones
Technology has come a long way since 1974, but some products introduced that year have had lasting impacts. Consumer pagers were introduced by Motorola, starting the march to the cellphones of today. The Intel 8080 and the Altair 8800 both came that year. Both figure prominently in the history of computing. And 1974 was also the year Monsanto gave us Roundup. Computers and cellular communications have changed dramatically; Roundup, unchanged since 1974, is now the most used agricultural chemical in the world. As a consumer, the Roundup I can purchase isn’t Roundup anymore.
Roundup used to mean glyphosate, the active herbicide ingredient. Back in ’74, it introduced a new mode of action that effectively killed almost all vegetation. It was also far less toxic and persistent than the common herbicides of the day.
Years have passed since I sat in a tractor tilling a field, but in the early 1970s, I did. Soil conservation was becoming a concern, and no-till methods were beginning to be used. They relied on herbicides to prepare the fields. Competition from weeds reduces yields. Every pass across a field costs, and herbicides reduce passes across the field. The herbicides in the quiver when Roundup came to market in 1974 were things like Diquat, Paraquat, 2,4-D, and Dicamba. The acute toxicity of those herbicides made Roundup seem like a godsend.
Let’s shoot the elephant in the room before we go on. Debate about no-till agriculture is ongoing. Some tout the advantages of no-till techniques reliant upon herbicides as better for the land and producing increased yields. The counterpoint, exemplified by recent reporting from Friends of the Earth, concludes that the chemical impacts on soil and human health outweigh the benefits. Farmers are decidedly in the first camp, as evidenced by the markets for the herbicides used in no-till farming. The debate will continue, but many of the academic articles I find are lucky to reproduce yields possible with no-till. The advantages I experienced firsthand seem to be advantages still.
The development of Roundup-Ready crops pushed Roundup — glyphosate — to become the most used agricultural chemical ever. The most recent data, now a couple of years old, is that 280 million pounds are being used on 298 million acres of U.S. cropland. Whether for farm use or in the white jugs sold at garden centers, if it said Roundup on the label, it meant glyphosate, at least until recently. Lawsuits alleging Roundup caused cancer led to the shift. The scientific data and the actions of regulatory bodies are not consistent and not fully aligned with legal judgments. Bayer pulled all glyphosate off the consumer market in 2023 while still selling it for farm use. The minor market was scrapped while the major market remained.
Jugs labeled Roundup at the garden center no longer contain glyphosate. Instead, they are mixtures of herbicides with completely different modes of action, with many of the problems Roundup addressed at its introduction. They harken back to some of the earliest classes of herbicides. One class of herbicides now used in Roundup formulations are the auxin inhibitors. One of the oldest continually used herbicides is 2,4-D. It is in this class. First commercialized in the 1940s, 2,4-D led to many others in the same class, notably Dicamba and Trichlpyr, with many of the same problems. These are used today in Roundup formulations, as is Diquat. Diquat’s toxicity led to bans in the EU, UK, China, and others, yet it is now in consumer Roundup in the U.S. Mixtures attempt to address some of the shortcomings and equal glyphosate’s broad spectrum efficacy. The shortcomings that led to glyphosate replacing them. Drift, acute toxicity, and even chronic impacts remain.
The Roundup story is the biggest technology rollback of all time. After 50 years of use, consumers are now forced to use technology that predates Roundup’s introduction, technology Roundup replaced because it was superior. Rolling back other technologies we use to 1974 seems laughable. Giving up my laptop for an Altair 8800? Giving up my iPhone for a pager? Unimaginable.
Filed Under: Commentaries • insights • Technical thinking
