HERBICIDE-RESISTANT CROPS - A WEED SCIENTISTS PERSPECTIVE

Herbicide-resistant crops offer a potentially valuable alternative str ategy for weed management. If used appropriately, they may promote the use of agrichemicals more environmentally benign than the herbicides they replace, and provide producers with additional tools for controll ing weeds. However, the controversy surrounding the development and us e of these cultivars may limit and eventually prevent their widespread adoption. Concerns include: overuse of herbicides, escape of herbicid e resistance genes from resistant cultivars into weedy relatives, gene tic modifications for resistance conferring weediness to the cultivar (i.e. volunteer plants in subsequent crops), potential pleiotropic eff ects of genetic modifications for resistance, and selection of new her bicide-resistant weeds in the new herbicide regime. Of these concerns, the potential for selecting new resistant weeds may have the highest likelihood of affecting the long-term success of herbicide-resistant c rops.