Western European farmers and manufacturers are taking residue management more seriously than their counterparts in North America.

Meet Jim Bullock. This no-tiller from Worcestershire, England, who also works as a farm consultant, believes that no-tilling is no longer an idealistic conservation idea in Europe, it’s reality. His switch to no-tilling on land his family has farmed for more than 485 years reveals what’s been happening on the no-till scene in Europe.

Think back a few years to the first time you heard the words “mad cow disease” uttered by the media. What began as a strange phenomenon turned into a British disaster. We’re all familiar with the images of shaking cows, but should it concern us?

In late October, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a favorable re-registration for atrazine, which paves the way for its continued use by no-tillers. “This decision confirms what extensive scientific studies have shown — that atrazine meets the most stringent regulatory safety standards,’ says Mike Mack, president of Syngenta Crop Protection, an atrazine producer.

“There are no downsides to biotechnology,” maintains Jay Lehr. The only exception, says the senior scientist with Environmental Education Enterprises in Ostrander, Ohio, is the public’s lack of knowledge about this new phenomena.

For growers in the United States who are raising genetically modified crops, it’s not good news that the Europeans are suggesting new rules that would require the wider use of warning labels on foods along with a lot more red tape when importing our grains.