Weeds.

Throughout my J105 class, we have learned the importance of the who, what, when, where, why and how. One story that I believe was an excellent example of these was on the New York Times website, "Rise of the Superweeds". The first few paragraph talk about the farmer (the who) in the midwest (the where) who has started using herbicides because of recent growth of weeds (the why). This has started because of "drug resistant supergerms" and therefore weedkiller is being mixed with other toxic herbicides (the how), and will possibly lead to more expensive food prices (the what). This has changed dramatically in the past ten years (the when) and can be seen in an interactive graphic.

I really liked the interactive graphic because it shows where these superweeds have grown prevalent and resisting herbicides. Each year can be seen getting worse and spreading. According to the article at least 22 states have been infested with these Round-Up resistant weeds.

We have also discussed quotes in this class and what quotes are appropriate and what are just down right useless. This article has one quote that I think was very well placed. I think that it shows how impactful a quote can be, and that if it wasn't used and worded differently then it would not have the same impact.

"It is the single largest threat to production agriculture that we have ever seen," said Andrew Wargo III, the president of the Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts.

I really hope that they can find something else then harmful herbicides to help the crops, I think farmers often times get the short end of the stick and people take advantage of our fresh food that we consume.