John Nalewaja                                                                             Homer LeBaron

For most people, weeds are usually regarded as innocuous. Controlling weeds with herbicides is practiced on a large-scale every year, largely unnoticed and unappreciated by most people. Scientists who have spent their careers studying weeds (weed scientists) know the potential risks of NOT using herbicides. Two prominent weed scientists have written eloquently about weeds and the importance of herbicides.

“Weeds are the silent, malignant, massive natural force which invades agricultural fields and paddies, spreads to deplete the soil moisture, devours the plant nutrients, and deprives crops of sunlight with severe devastation to crop yields. Weeds endanger the quantity of our food, feed, and fiber and enslave millions of men, women, and children in emerging nations to a laborious life of weeding with primitive methods and tools—machete, sickle, and hoe—just to escape starvation from day to day.”
-Nalewaja, J.D. 1972 [1]

“I maintain that never in history have so few done so much for so many in providing food and improved standard of living as weed scientists.  We have enjoyed a phenomenal success in providing the only consistent, dependable, efficient and economical means of weed control the world has ever known, even leading to surplus production on fewer acres…. We must educate the public and policy makers on the risks of not using herbicides.”
-LeBaron, H.M. 1990 [2]

Authors: [1] Nalewaja, J. D. [2] LeBaron, H. M.
Affiliations: [1] North Dakota State University [2] Syngenta.
Titles: [1] Weeds: coexistence or control. [2] Weed science in the 1990s: will it be forward or in reverse?
Sources: [1] Journal of Environmental Quality. 1972. 1(4):344-349. [2] Weed Technology. 1990. 4:671-689.