Roundup Pro™
Q: How does Roundup Pro® herbicide work?
A: The active ingredient in Roundup Pro herbicide is glyphosate, the common name for N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine. It inhibits an enzyme that is essential to formation of specific essential amino acids in plants. Roundup Pro is absorbed into green leaves or green stems of treated vegetation. Once there, glyphosate moves or "translocates" throughout the plant. Obvious signs of treatment may not be visible for one to four days in annual weeds and up to seven days or more in perennials. Visible effects include gradual wilting, yellowing - followed by complete browning, deterioration of plant tissue and ultimate decomposition of the underground roots and rhizomes. Since Roundup works only on plants that have emerged through the soil, it will not affect seeds below the soil surface that have not yet sprouted.
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Q: How is Roundup Pro® herbicide registered in the U.S.?
A: All pesticides in the U.S., including Roundup Pro, must be registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before they can be sold. Before the agency can approve registration, a variety of stringent toxicity, crop residue and environmental fate studies must be conducted by the company and reviewed by the EPA. Only when the EPA finds the studies to be scientifically sound and accepts them can the pesticide be registered and sold in the U.S. In addition, many state agencies carefully review these studies, examine product uses for specific geographies, and apply their own strict registration to pesticides. Monsanto's glyphosate-based herbicides certainly have one of the most extensive worldwide human health, occupational safety and environmental databases ever completed on a pesticide product. The study of glyphosate continues today as new requirements come into existence or as Monsanto evaluates possible questions on its own.
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Q: How are Monsanto's glyphosate-based herbicides registered outside the United States?
A: Monsanto's glyphosate-based herbicides are registered in more than 130 countries throughout the world. Most countries have a governmental equivalent of the U.S. EPA that reviews data from environmental and toxicological tests before registration is granted. In addition to these studies, many countries require that food crop residue studies be conducted in that country. Many require and maintain extensive databases on the performance of products to ensure that manufacturers' claims and application rates are fully justified. Consequently, glyphosate, with its extensive global registrations, is one of the most thoroughly evaluated herbicides in the world.
Monsanto maintains regulatory experts in each of its world areas who oversee the registration process and make sure that data submissions are high quality, thorough and complete. This extensive and comprehensive testing, combined with years of successful use around the world, means that Monsanto's glyphosate herbicide brands can be used with confidence anywhere they are registered. When used according to label instructions, Roundup Pro herbicide provides effective, dependable control of problem weeds without unreasonable adverse effects on the environment or human health.
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Q: How does the use of Roundup® branded herbicides benefit the environment?
A: Roundup® brand herbicide contributes to the success of conservation tillage, an important part of the solution to soil erosion. In conservation tillage, enough crop residue is left on the soil surface to protect it from water or wind erosion. Without traditional tilling, however, weeds emerge that interfere with planting or compete with growing seedlings for sun and nutrients. When Roundup® brand herbicides are sprayed on the field before planting, the competing weeds are killed while the residual vegetation continues to protect the soil surface from erosion and moisture loss. And crops can be planted soon after Roundup has been applied. Additionally, conservation tillage programs conserve energy. Fewer trips over the field are required, so farmers can significantly reduce their fossil fuel use. In fact, they can save 50 to 80 percent of the fuel they would have used for conventional farming practices. Conservation tillage also reduces water run-off and soil particles moving into water - and thus reduces herbicide run-off.
Wildlife habitat specialists also use Roundup Pro for restoring and protecting habitats, especially those that have been taken over by foreign species of plants or weeds that threaten the area's wildlife. Many of these species of plants are so aggressive and fast-growing that they can crowd out the native plants and the wildlife that depends upon them. A growing number of independent organizations are using Monsanto's glyphosate-based herbicides to eradicate the unwanted plants, to allow replanting with native grasses and flowering plants.
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Q: Where has Roundup Pro®herbicide been used to protect wildlife habitats?
A: In Canada, Ducks Unlimited has used Roundup Pro herbicide to eliminate quackgrass in upland prairies. Quackgrass had reduced the area's nesting sites for mallards and pintail ducks. The Parks Department in California has used Roundup Pro to control and eradicate an infestation of ice plant in Asilomar State Beach. The ice plant, imported to control erosion on the sand dunes, had taken over and was threatening the existence of already endangered plants and a unique legless lizard. In Kenya, officials at Nakuru National Park used Roundup Pro to create a weed-free zone around the electric fence protecting the endangered black rhino. Wild grasses growing up against the fence would short-circuit it, allowing poachers access to the rhinos. There are many other examples as well.
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Q: What is AquaMaster® herbicide?
A: AquaMaster® herbicide, which is made up of glyphosate, its active ingredient, and water, controls undesirable aquatic vegetation in wildlife habitat and refuge areas, lakes, ponds, canals, and other aquatic sites. Vegetation management professionals can apply AquaMaster® according to label directions with minimal risk of unreasonable adverse effects on the environment or human health. This gives applicators vast flexibility for controlling more than 170 weeds in aquatic uses in residential, commercial, public and wildlife refuges - nearly anywhere weeds and water coexist.
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