Skipping Pesticides, Farmers Control Weeds with Plants

A deep green field of rye swayed in a gentle breeze at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Beltsville, Maryland, research station last May, blissfully ignorant of its impending doom. Two-meter-tall stalks sported budding seed heads that would never ripen into amber waves of grain. With a rattle and a screech, a tractor rolled through the field, knocking the grass flat with a giant red rolling pin. Metal bars curving around the rolling pin crushed the rye and killed it. Left behind...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - vendredi 17 janvier 2014