By James Hoorman, Hoorman Soil Health Services

Farmers first used cultivation to mechanically kill weeds: hand hoeing, pulling weeds, then horse- and tractor-driven cultivators. Then they started using chemicals, starting with 2-4D, to chemically kill broadleaf weeds. New chemicals were developed, and then glyphosate (Roundup) emerged as the most popular herbicide, especially after the introduction of glyphosate-resistant genes into many crops. But like all innovations, they will be replaced sooner or later due to limitations.

Cultivation disturbs the soil and takes a lot of fuel and time. Every time you disturb the soil, you replant weed seeds and lose carbon in the form of soil organic matter. There can be as many as several hundred thousand weed seeds per square yard in soil. This wee

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