http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/03/11/148290731/why-monsanto-thought-weeds-would-never-defeat-roundup

Why Monsanto Thought Weeds Would Never Defeat Roundup

EDITED

Why didn't Monsanto's scientists foresee that weeds would become resistant to glyphosate, the weed-killing chemical in their Roundup?

In 1993, when Monsanto asked the USDA to approve RR soybeans, it dispensed with the issue of potential resistant weeds. It told the agency that "glyphosate is considered to be a herbicide with low risk for weed resistance."

The company also wrote that several scientists agreed "that it is highly unlikely that weed resistance to glyphosate will become a problem as a result of the commercialization of glyphosate-tolerant soybeans."

Oops. Since then, resistance to glyphosate has emerged in 20 different weed species.
 

I called up several Monsanto [employees]. Why didn't people there think resistance would happen?

The company's scientists had just spent more than a decade, and many millions of dollars, trying to create the RR plants that they desperately wanted - soybeans and cotton and corn.  Considering how hard it had been to create those [Roundup-tolerant] crops, "the thinking was, it would be really difficult for weeds to become tolerant" to Roundup.

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