weeds – A Plant Out of Place

Palmer amaranth – current state-level distribution in the US

August 28, 2018 - by Andrew Kniss

Palmer amaranth is native to the southwestern United States, and has been recognized as a problematic weed in the southwest and southeastern US for many years. Each year, this species seems to move further north. I’ve been trying to keep an accurate state-level distribution map for this weed, and thought I’d post it here for anyone else who might be interested. Data sources: PLANTS database (https://plants.usda.gov) California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona , Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin, …

The “failure” of biotechnology to increase crop yield

February 26, 2014February 15, 2018 - by Andrew Kniss

For some reason, over the last few days I’ve heard a lot of people criticizing GMOs for not increasing crop yields. This criticism certainly isn’t new. I don’t really understand the reason for the sudden resurgence of this claim, but it does provide an excuse to address the topic with some actual data. GMOs can claim some successes, but a widespread quantum leap in the yield of important food crops is not one of them. – Jonathan Foley If you take a …