Tilling, or plowing, a field prepares the soil for planting and destroys weeds, but a Roundup-ready crop doesn't require extensive tillage.

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The enabling technology of Zero or No Tillage was first developed in Brazil by a team of agronomists and engineers under ICI in 1972.

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Greater fertilizer application, improved response to fertilizer, better tractor technology, better tillage practices, old-fashioned genetic selection, and new-fashioned genetic engineering all conspire to raise yields, year after year.

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That tillage would release carbon dioxide and methane.

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"The issue is that dumping impoverished peasants on geometrically-plotted patches of virgin non-arable land, without any infrastructure, tillage equipment, venture capital, housing, water supplies, or training will result quite simply in an ecological disaster, " says Professor du Toit.

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They also mean less tillage.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Benbrook also fails to mention that by improving weed control and reducing the need for ploughing, genetically engineered herbicide-tolerant crops enable many farmers in North and South America to adopt and maintain no- or reduced-tillage production systems, which results in important reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

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