Good point, Carole. Anything you read about farmers spraying before planting "to prevent weed growth" is probably some journalist simply not understanding what actually happens. The spray is simply to kill weeds, even tiny very young ones, which of course eliminates those weeds themselves but also prevents them setting seed which could also compete with the crop. So the crop is sown or planted into a clean field. It's easy to see that someone could misunderstand, and think that the process was inhibiting subsequent weed growth. I wish glyphosate did do that, but it doesn't! We grow a lot of fruit and vegetables, for ourselves, friends, our weekend "fresh and free" roadside stand, and an autumn charity pumpkin sale that raises quite a lot of money. Though like you we're pretty "green" and virtually never use chemical pesticides etc, we'd be absolutely lost without glyphosate.