Can we PLEASE stop using the term “superweed”?

Andrew Kniss at Control Freaks:

In the latest issue of Nature, Natasha Gilbert takes “A hard look at GM crops.” Ms. Gilbert states:

“it can be hard to see where scientific evidence ends and dogma and speculation begin.”
“Researchers, farmers, activists and GM seed companies all stridently promote their views, but the scientific data are often inconclusive or contradictory. Complicated truths have long been obscured by the fierce rhetoric.”

I agree wholeheartedly. Especially when browsing the internet, there is a lot of misinformation, half-truths, and outright lies about GM crops. I’m always glad to see this topic approached with scientific rigor, and I expected an outlet like Nature to do just that. The point of Ms. Gilbert’s article was to separate fact from fiction with respect to some often heard claims about genetically modified (GM) crops. One of the three issues Ms. Gilbert chose to tackle in her article is the claim that “GM crops have bred superweeds,” and she considers this statement “True.”

I was a little disappointed to see the term “superweeds” in any type of scientific publication. I have repeatedly expressed my displeasure with this term, and my graduate students know better than to ever use the word around me. To see it in a publication as reputable as Nature is exceptionally frustrating. But at least this article would be approached with some “scientific evidence” rather than “dogma and speculation”, right? But as I read through the section on superweeds, I saw very little that resembled scientific evidence; rather, lots of opinions, anecdotes, interesting tidbits, some facts and figures, and a fairly compelling narrative. But no “scientific evidence.”

The lack of any scientific evidence in the article probably relates to my biggest beef with the termsuperweed: nobody seems to know what the hell a superweed is. To determine whether “GM crops have bred superweeds” at least two things are needed:

1. a definition of the term superweed, and
2. data that relate use of GM crops to development of superweeds.

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