Friday, August 18, 2006

The Grass Is Always Meaner...

Back in 2004, the ISW posted twice about the herbicide-resistant creeping bentgrass cultivar that was going to be the answer to everyone's perfect green lawn. Creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera) is already a weed in many places, so the news that this cultivar has been discovered growing in the wild is no big surprise. What *is* a surprise is that this discovery is not the end of the efforts to get the cultivar approved for use in the U.S. A spokesman for the Scotts Miracle-Gro company, one half of the collaboration that lead to the development of a turf grass resistant to Roundup (the other half is Monsanto) notes that "Eradicating it has not been a difficult issue" - guess that makes it okay to grow it. Stay tuned to the ISW in 2008, when there is sure to be a post about wild bentgrass picking up herbicide-resistance from its genetically engineered brethren.

Thanks to several ISW readers who sent in links to this story.

Update: Fox News notes that this grass was engineered specifically for use as golf course turf, making it even more evil! ;-)

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