2021 Fall Farm

2021 Logan County Fall Farm Outlook Lincoln Daily News Oct. - Nov. 2021 Page 29 considered to be a nuisance. Pesticides contain active and inert ingredients to control crop irritants. Inert ingredients are chemicals, compounds, or other substances intentionally added to the pesticide for product performance and usability. The gene pool of a pest can change to protect the pest from the chemical. Pesticides are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency before manufacture, transport, and sale to protect human health and the environment. It takes years of testing before a pesticide is approved for use in the open market in the United States. A GMO, or genetically modified organism, is a plant that has been genetically altered in a laboratory. It allows individual genes to be transferred from one variety of plant to another. This creates combinations of plants that do not occur in nature and/or speedier than traditional crossbreeding methods. One advantage to planting pest resistant GMOs is improved crop production. But the pests are even adapting to GMOs. Seed diversity is of value in keeping pests from adapting. There is some concern that chemical companies may eventually have control of the seed market and a reduced variety of seeds would be available. Resistance describes the decreased responsiveness of a pest population to the pesticide or GMO that was previously effective at controlling the pest. The most resistant specimens survive and pass on their changed traits to their offspring. Resistance is increasing across the United States even though pesticides and GMOs are being used. There are multiple factors for resistance: 1. Pest species produce offspring with mutations that ensure the rapid expansion of resistance. 2. Pesticides that fail to break down quickly contribute to resistant strains. 3. Increasing pesticide quantity and frequency intensifies the problem. 4. Pests with faster reproduction rates develop resistance more quickly. Weeds and insects are adaptable organisms that develop resistance against herbicides and insecticides over time, both metabolic and genetic. Through mutations a weed’s DNA changes interfering with the way the herbicide works. If an herbicide can no longer bind to a weed’s DNA, it stops being effective. The more farmers that use the same herbicide to Continue 4