Corn

Corn is America’s biggest crop, and atrazine helps us grow it economically by controlling weeds that compete with the crop for water and nutrients. Why is that important? Because corn is used not only for feed and food, but also for fuel. While uses for corn continue to grow, the land available to grow corn does not. That’s why farmers strive to produce as much corn per acre as possible.

Corn yields continue to increase because farmers have effective tools like atrazine. Modern farming practices allow them to use these tools precisely. It’s important too because food products that feature corn or its derivatives can be produced economically, as well, helping to keep even more grocery prices affordable for people.

Atrazine is really gentle but controls weeds longer than many other herbicides.

Farmers who raise corn particularly benefit from this, because using atrazine enables them to use conservation-tillage, or no-till practices, where they leave their cornstalks in the ground after harvest, rather than plowing them up.

This helps hold moisture and nutrients in the soil and keeps down soil erosion, which means less silt muddying up our waterways (Read more about conservation and no-till farming in the Value of Atrazine section of this site.)