WASHINGTON, D.C. — Despite farmers’ best intentions, the declining monarch butterfly population, waters’ “dead zones” and a herbicide-resistant weed situation are, to at least one researcher, symptoms of an unsustainable agriculture system.

“From my perspective we need to give farming in the United States kudos for being efficient, but it is not very sustainable,” said Doug Gurian-Sherman, senior scientist, sustainable agriculture, for the Center for Food Safety.

“We have this wonderful productivity, but we have over 400 dead zones in coastal waters. The nitrate that ends up in the Mississippi River basin and flows into the Gulf of Mexico – folks in Iowa and Indiana don’t have to worry as much about that, but the folks in Louisiana that have their shrimping industries impacted do have to worry about it.

“Because Roundup has been so effective, there is a huge problem with weeds that have become resistant to Roundup,” he said. “It is worst in the Southeast where it is putting some cotton farmers out of business. It is clearly moving into the Midwest, Indiana and other states.”

Roundup is a great herbicide, he said, but with its use has come a perspective that the only good weed is a dead weed. At low levels, however, he said most pests don’t cause enough damage to crops. The crops can compensate.

“What is needed is a change of mentality. Weeds need to be managed rather than eliminated.” he said. “Unfortunately the history has been that because of the convenience of these kinds of crops (Roundup-Ready), farmers are not going to use them that way. The alternative is some kind of mandatory regulatory system that restricts their use.”

Historically, what has happened with insect and weed resistance is there had always been an alternative, some new type of chemical, Gurian-Sherman said. Now, weed scientists say – and he said the chemical companies have not refuted this – when the herbicides being used currently are burned out because of widespread weed resistance, there aren’t going to be many good alternatives.

There are solutions and much of the information about them comes from land grant universities, he said, opining that policies need to be developed over time that help farmers transition to more sustainable forms of farming. With longer crop rotations, they can grow more productively, with more resilience and comparable levels of net profit, than with the classic corn-on-corn or corn and soybean rotation. This will require more labor.

“There need to be incentives,” he said. “Farmers have to learn how to do that. We have to try to develop markets for third- or fourth-rotation crops. It is a challenge, but we know that it works; it helps cut down on weed and insect problems. It is good for the soil.”

Cover crops are another sustainable way of farming and he said they don’t rely on other markets. They help with herbicide-resistant weeds and nitrogen pollution.

“If we want U.S. agriculture to remain sustainable and resilient, we’re going to have to make these changes,” Gurian-Sherman said.