Weeds Are Taking Over!

Continuing research is demonstrating that farmers in the Great Plains of the United States—America’s “bread basket”—are losing the battle against weeds (Reuters, January 16, 2024). Once-powerful herbicides are increasingly less effective. Twenty-one weed species globally are already “showing resistance to dicamba, the most recent major U.S. [weed-killing] chemical, which launched in 2017,” and even the active chemical in the “all powerful” Roundup is losing its effectiveness. The large herbicide producers have reduced their research and development in recent years—coming out with fewer new products. One relatively new weed, kochia, can spread up to 30,000 seeds per plant, cutting crop yields “by up to 70% if left unchecked.” All of this is occurring at a time when fertilizers are becoming more expensive and weather is becoming more erratic.

While many factors influence the advance of weeds among farm crops, one factor is consistently overlooked by scientists and most farmers too. The God of the Bible once warned the Israelite peoples that “it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you” (Deuteronomy 28:15). Those curses included “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country” and “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land” (vv. 16–18). Today, as the predominantly Israelite-descended nations of the world reject God’s laws and ways, they are reaping the curses that God prophesied would come. To learn more about what lies ahead for our backsliding nations, read or listen to “The Third Horseman: Unprecedented Famine Ahead.”