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and insect, with potentially more detriment to the because their presence disturbed the homogenous tableaux of turf grasses
rest of nature. in suburban lawns even while many of them benefitted lawns, gardens,
and pastures, such as the clover family, which fixes nitrogen, attracts pol-
NEXT GENERATION HERBICIDES linators, and supports the soil food web. Many of them are also beneficial
When the inevitable end of the “miracle” of to us, nutritionally speaking. Some so-called weeds contain ten to one
glyphosate and Bt-genetically engineered traits hundred times the nutrition of modern lettuces and green vegetables.
and chemicals arrived, agro-death dealers im- By re-christening these plants as “weeds,” lawn care and chemical
mediately began working on the next generation companies got a two-for-the-price-of-one deal. First, they charge custom-
of herbicides and herbicide-resistant GM strains ers to kill off said “weeds” and then again to apply chemical concoctions
of common commodity crops. Government to replace what the weeds naturally provided to the soil food web and
agency lapdogs EPA and FDA will waste tens ecosystem. A sinister arrangement based on ignorance and greed.
of thousands of dollars assailing small, honest, Further, aminopyralid is of concern to vegetable growers, as it can
and integrity-driven businesses like Wilderness enter the food chain via manure, which contains long-lasting residues of
Family Naturals and essential oil companies, the herbicide. Its sale has been suspended in various parts of the world, but
while speedily rubber-stamping Big Ag science that has not stopped instances of contamination from continuing to crop
and chemical concoctions safety reports. up in those countries. Such suspensions have generally been short-lived,
One of the new herbicides is aminopyralid, as regulatory bodies merely impose a “strict program of stewardship,”
first registered for use in 2005 in the U.S. under which theoretically protects the public from these poisons.
the brand name Milestone, among many others.
From Dow Agro-Sciences's own product report: DEADLY DUO
“Aminopyralid is a recently introduced herbicide One of the main ingredients of Agent Orange, the defoliant used by
developed by Dow AgroSciences to help con- the U.S. during the Vietnam War, was 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid,
trol noxious, poisonous and invasive broadleaf more commonly known as 2,4-D. This herbicide, associated with many
weeds. . . [and] was accepted for review by the health problems, is now making a reprise in concert with glyphosate in
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a very recent product debut, again by Dow AgroSciences. Using a trade
under its Reduced Risk Pesticide Initiative and name with decidedly military flavor, Enlist, this latest cocktail of poisons
met all guidelines for the registration of an her- was registered by the EPA in October 2014 for restricted use in Illinois,
bicide in the U.S..” Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. In 2013, the product
There is a lot that could be said about this was approved by Canada for the same uses, namely as a replacement for
slick piece of PR. It is instructive to note, first of the original Roundup-Ready system that is now losing ground to the rise
all, that most broadleaf plants are neither weeds of “super weeds.”
nor noxious. This castigation befell many of them Already environmental groups predict a new wave of resistant weeds

SURELY ORGANIC GROWERS ARE FREE FROM THIS PLAGUE?
The main focus of this article is the new wave of herbicides spilling over into sustainable growers' gardens and growing
systems, with sometimes catastrophic results. Imagine an herbicide that has a half-life of three to five years, damages and
destroys plants at one part per billion, breaks down only very slowly in compost systems and healthy soils, and passes
through ruminant animals' digestive tracts and into their manures unmolested. Say hello to aminopyralid, a grower's worst
nightmare.
With four different ways it can end up in gardens—manure, compost (municipal or farm-made), straw and hay—
aminopyralid and several others are some of the worst of a host of the next-generation herbicides. But aminopyralid so
far leaves them all in the dust in terms of danger and damage, though all must be avoided.
If aminopyralid makes it into a grower's soil, for the next three to five years the only crop they can hope to grow is
. . . corn. Yes, there is some real irony that one of the two main crops responsible for the development of this herbicide is
the only thing you can grow if it gets into your ground. If a grower is certified organic, his certification is immediately lost
for three or more years. If you have limited space, your only option is to pay to have all your dirt removed, regardless of
how thick, healthy and happy your humus is. That dirt is now death, and there is nothing you can do to resurrect it quickly.
In the northeast U.S., thousands of backyard and organic growers, thinking they were doing the "green thing," picked
up municipal compost or composted animal manures for use in fertility building, only to find out later that their choice
was fatal. In England, legions of gardens now lie fallow following exposure. Yet use is continuing to increase and spread
for this herbicide from hell and others like it.

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