# Move over Monsanto **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 30, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-monsanto/626825 "2012-06-30T17:29:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shosy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Shosy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shosy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-monsanto/626825/1 "2012-06-30T17:29:56Z")
So RoundUp Ready Coca (Boliviana negra) Selectively bred or genetically modified? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-monsanto/626825/2 "2012-06-30T21:49:43Z")
What’s the difference? ---
**Author:** ![Shosy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Shosy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shosy)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-monsanto/626825/3 "2012-07-01T05:56:37Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > What’s the difference? 1. Some farmer, confronted by overflights of C-130s dumping round up on his coca crop, takes the ones which don’t die, breeds them, and eventually gets a plant which survives dumping round up on it 2. Narco cartel can’t get it’s hand on enough MANPADs to shoot down the C-130s, so they recruit geneticists and purchase lab equipment, reverse engineer what Monsanto and done and splice the genes into coca At least thats the difference in the context of my question. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-monsanto/626825/4 "2012-07-01T09:43:19Z")
What, exactly, is your question? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-monsanto/626825/5 "2012-07-01T14:02:27Z")
Are you saying that Roundup resistant coca now exists and is being grown? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-monsanto/626825/6 "2012-07-01T15:41:52Z")
Apparently lots of crops are intenionally bred to be [resistant to glyphosate](http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12804), the primary ingredient in RoundUp. This allows the use of the herbicide for weed control without affecting the crops. Looks like the weeds are getting used to it also. If there’s a lot of the stuff in the environment the wild plants will probably develop resistance on their own. ---
**Author:** ![Shosy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Shosy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shosy)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-monsanto/626825/7 "2012-07-01T17:18:29Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Are you saying that Roundup resistant coca now exists and is being grown? Yup, and cuttings apparently demand a premium price. Just the fact that it only seems to be distributed by cuttings seems odd to me (like monsanto corn) ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-monsanto/626825/8 "2012-07-01T22:56:16Z")
Why? I thought cuttings were the most popular propagation method for small shrubs? It especially makes sense if you’re trying to keep a rare characteristic rather than run the risk of losing it through the random mixing of genes involved in sexual reproduction. In answer to your original question, I’d go with selectively bred. The coca cultivators have had plenty of years to see which plants survive a dowsing in Roundup to pick the winners in each round. ---
**Author:** ![santorum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@santorum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/santorum)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-monsanto/626825/9 "2012-07-02T02:10:55Z")
Wired did an article on this a while ago and tested some samples. > **[The Mystery of the Coca Plant That Wouldn't Die](https://www.wired.com/2004/11/columbia/)** > > The war on Colombia's drug lords is losing ground to an herbicide-resistant supershrub. Is it a freak of nature - or a genetically modified secret weapon? it’s a long article, but they found it to be selectively bred ---
**Author:** ![Shosy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Shosy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shosy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-monsanto/626825/10 "2012-07-03T06:55:27Z")
> [@santorum](#): > > Wired did an article on this a while ago and tested some samples. > [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.11/columbia.html](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.11/columbia.html) > > it’s a long article, but they found it to be selectively bred That’s a really nice article…thank you!