Glifosanto - Glyphosanto

Abstract

In Mexico, in the 1940s, an American agronomist named Norman Borlaug developed a variety of wheat resistant to a fungus that infects wheat and corn crops, thus managing to double crop production and leading Mexico to become an exporting country of grains. Then, with the aim of reducing mass famine on a global scale, scientists improved the yields of a few crops (such as corn, wheat, rice, and potatoes) to efficiently provide food for the growing population. However, relying on so few crops left us highly vulnerable to attack by pests including unwanted herbs, insects, and fungi. Thus, it became increasingly clear that the only way to keep a huge field grown with only one species (such as corn) pest-free was by applying synthetic pesticides, such as DDT and glyphosate. This is their story. This article was previously published in El Gato y La Caja on March 12, 2019