The Danger of Synthetic Herbicides and Safer Alternatives

Humans have had a hate/hate relationship with weeds since the Garden of Eden. We hate how they take over our gardens, fields, and lawns. What we hate even more is dealing with them by hand. Cultivating with a hoe and hand pulling means bending or crawling in the heat of summer, and is highly motivating to find an easier way. For centuries, people daydreamed of a way to make weeds disappear by magic.

Herbicides are that magic. Stroll around your yard or garden and squirt the magic on weeds and watch them disappear. What we found is that we overused herbicides, and there are many different drawbacks to that practice. There are different types of herbicides for different purposes, and there are ways to reduce and eliminate the use of herbicides. Some plants elicit the excessive use of herbicides, but every crop or garden has an herbicide developed specifically for its management.

Why Hebicide Use Exploded

Lawns cover 63,000 square miles of the United States, which is roughly the size of Texas. Lawns are a monoculture, meaning there is only 1 species in the area. I reviewed how lawns and gardens become weed-infected in my last Blog Post – “How Weeds Heal Our Soil.” Monocultures are prone to weeds because it is difficult to get all the conditions right at the same time. Soil quality, light, heat, and water vary quite a bit over a yard. Weeds pop up wherever grass isn’t at the top of its game. Too dry and hot, and you get crabgrass. Soil compaction yields dandelions. Nitrogen deficiency and clover appear. Thin grass in shade welcomes creeping Charlie. All this weed pressure causes people to reach for herbicides. It’s also why herbicides are applied to lawns at a rate about 4 times more than farmers use them for corn and other ag crops.

Conventional agriculture demands the use of herbicides for financial reasons. Too many weeds reduce the quality and quantity of a crop’s yield. This not only has an immediate effect on profits, but it creates an even bigger weed problem the following season. As anyone who has pulled weeds knows, you need to stay ahead of weeds or they will take over. Types and quantities of weeds are actually listed on farm assessments for financing or selling because of the impact weeds have on profitability and the value of both crops and land. This is why herbicides are used so extensively in agriculture.

There are several types of herbicides in use today. 

1. Pre-emergent herbicides prevent weed seeds from germinating. There are synthetic and organic versions of this type.

2. Post-emergent kills weeds after they germinate.

3. Selective herbicides go after weeds but not the desired plant. Lawn herbicides kill broadleaf weeds but not grass. This is true for every type of crop.

4. Non-selective products kill everything on which it is applied. Roundup is the best-known product for this use. It is used in ecological restoration to get rid of heavy infestations of invasive plants like buckthorn. It is also used to prep an area for seeding prairies, woodland natives, and anywhere there is a need to remove weedy vegetation before planting. It is often used to establish lawns or manage weeds in orchards and vineyards.

5. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are crops that have had their genetics modified for desired characteristics or traits. The majority of these crops have been altered to tolerate non-selective herbicides like Roundup. 

This science bloomed when certain weeds survived applications of Roundup with no ill effects. The DNA from these plants was transferred to crops like corn, soybeans, lawn grass, canola, cotton, and sugar beets, to name just a few. 

The way it works is that a farmer plants the GMO corn (called Roundup Ready corn). Then they can spray the entire field with Roundup and kill everything but the corn. No more weeds, but all this herbicide comes with a cost.

The True Cost of Herbicides

The primary danger of synthetic herbicides is how they affect the health of people, soil, food, water, air, pollinators, and birds. In fact, the entire ecosystem suffers from the repeated and prolonged use of these products.

Human health is affected because some of the products contain chemicals that can cause cancer, infertility, asthma, and other health problems.

Soil health is affected because the chemicals kill beneficial soil microbiology. Oddly enough, the loss of these microbes is a major cause of weeds in lawns and other plantings.

Food is affected because the same die-off of beneficial microbes causes food to not only pick up toxic chemicals, but to lose nutritional density. Water quality suffers because of runoff and erosion. The herbicides and soil runoff into lakes and streams result in algae blooms and sediment building up in bodies of water. This sediment can suffocate lakes, and the excess nutrients in the water cause oxygen to be used up, resulting in dead lakes.

Air quality tracks with water quality. Wind-blown chemicals and soil degrade air quality to dangerous levels, especially in spring when most herbicides are applied.

Wildlife, especially Insects and birds, experience a huge detrimental effect of herbicides. Some weeds are the plants that certain insects need to reproduce. When these weeds are reduced over large areas, those insects virtually disappear from that area. Birds feed their babies the larvae of these insects, and their numbers plummet. It’s all connected. Plants, insects, weeds. It is referred to as a cascade degradation of an ecosystem.

Natural Solutions for a Healthy Ecosystem

Ecosystems are exactly what we have been talking about. Air, water, soil, plants, and wildlife are all so intimately connected that what affects one affects all. All of this ecological turmoil affects climate change and vice versa. It can be discouraging, but there is reason for hope. It lies in alternatives that have existed since before herbicides and newly developed products and methods.

Organic food production has been the way we have fed ourselves for all but the last 80 years of human existence. We understand it better in modern times because of applied research and a passion to do things in a healthier manner.

Good Soil health practices greatly reduce the need for herbicides. In a nutshell, healthy soil creates a healthy lawn, crop, pasture, or garden. Weed pressure is reduced with new approaches like cover crops, which are used to increase soil health and fertility while reducing weeds at the same time. These plant-centric approaches to growing are being applied to veggie gardens, perennial beds, native plantings, orchards, vineyards, and about any crop you can imagine.

Putting lots of different plants in a small area is a good way to suppress weeds. Matrix planting methods place plants with similar cultural needs in layered groups so that they will knit together above and below ground, forming a cooperative ecosystem that conserves water and discourages weeds. A matrix planting is designed to emulate the look and function of a natural ecosystem found in the wild native areas.

There are also exciting new herbicides available that replace the toxic, synthetic herbicides commonly used today. Demize is an organic, non-selective herbicide that kills everything that is treated. This is wonderful! It is used in Ecological Restoration work to get rid of weedy, competing vegetation. It makes installing an alternative turf like a bee lawn, pollinator turf, and native plantings much easier and affordable. Maintenance is also easier because you can spot treat weeds in existing beds.

There is a very low-toxicity herbicide for lawns called Fiesta. The active ingredient is chelated iron, which grass likes but broadleaf weeds can't tolerate. It may take a few applications to get a reasonable level of control, but it can be done if other organic lawn care practices are followed. Yard and farm management without synthetic herbicides is not only possible, but it’s also affordable.

We’ve talked about the different types of herbicides, their often negative impact on the health of everything, and ways to do this work in a less toxic manner. This world with less toxicity in the ecosystem is encouraging and exciting. I can show you how to do all of this and more. Reach out to me to get your consultation today!