Brent Cornell

    
Glyphosate-resistant soybeans can tolerate exposure to glyphosate – which is used in agriculture to eliminate weeds (herbicide)

• Consequently, these transgenic crops have been widely adopted in a number of countries around the world

There are several potential environmental benefits and risks associated with the use of glyphosate-tolerant soybeans

• These include the impact of tillage, effects on biodiversity and the potential for unintended transfer of glyphosate resistance
  
  

Impact of Tillage

• Spraying crops with glyphosate reduces the need for tillage, which removes topsoil and increases soil erosion
• Reducing the amount of tillage will also reduce the associated use of fossil fuels, limiting the impact of pollution
  
  

Effects on Biodiversity

• Glyphosate has very low levels of toxicity in animal species and so is unlikely to impact population numbers in an ecosystem
• It is also rapidly degraded by soil microbes and so is unlikely to accumulate to dangerous levels within the environment
• However, the effect of sublethal exposure glysophate has not been well studied in most plant and animal models
• The removal of native weed species by glysophate treatment could also adversely effect food chains – reducing biodiversity

Cross Contamination

• Glyphosate tolerance can potentially be transferred to native species – producing weeds that are resistant to the herbicide
• This impact can be reduced by targeting the resistance gene to chlorophyll – preventing its spread in pollen granules
• Several species of glyphosate-resistant weeds have already been identified in the wild

Potential Environmental Consequences of the Use of Glyphosate-Tolerant Soybeans