Bayer Confirms End of Sale of Glyphosate-Based Herbicides for US Lawn & Garden Market

[Politicub]

25. Smart move by Bayer to direct attention away from Roundup's use in agriculture.

Most of the corn and soybeans crops are genetically modified to be resistant to Roundup (Google RoundUp Ready gene for more info). I’m guessing home use of RoundUp is a small portion of the overall market.

Bayer will continue to sell RoundUp to farmers, who use it to control weeds in their fields. They do this by spraying RoundUp on the plant and and ground. Crops with the RoundUp Ready gene are immune to RoundUp’s effects, so (most) weeds die from the herbicide drench while the crop stays alive.

Because RoundUp’s use in agriculture has been in wide use over many years, a handful of weeds are not affected by it — evolution at work. So more modification is done to the genes in seeds to make them immune to other herbicides. The new herbicides get sprayed on plants in addition to RoundUp.

Someone below mentioned bees. Bees are mainly affected by pesticides, especially nicotine-based ones that are taken up by the tissues of the plan. Imidacloprid is the liquid version, and is used heavily in agriculture, too. Because it is a systemic pesticide (it becomes part of the tissues of the plant), it kills insects when they bite into the plant. Bees die from pollen and nectar from Imdicloprid-treated plants.