Environmental stewardship refers to responsible use and protection of thenatural environment through conservation and sustainable practices. AldoLeopold (1887 to 1948) championed environmental stewardship based on a landethic “dealing with man's relation to land and to the animals and plantsthat grow upon it.” Environmental stewardship as it relates to weed sciencehas taken on varying roles as chemical weed control took hold in managingcrops as a general practice soon after World War II, and became a well-knownissue during the Vietnam War, with the extensive use of Agent Orange. Astechnologies in both chemistry and genetics have evolved, chemical weedcontrol became safer with the advent of less toxicologically damagingmaterials. Combining toxicologically safe herbicides with geneticmanipulation made it possible to apply chemicals that previously would havecaused plant death, seemingly providing a magic bullet that simplified weedcontrol for many producers during the mid to late 1990s. Universityscientists were guarded during the introduction of this technology; manyunderstood that the magic bullet had flaws. By using predominately POSTapplications on weed species, genetic selection has given rise tosubstantial resistance, therefore presenting weed scientists with a grandchallenge for the future. As new genetic technology is introduced forexisting and future weed management problems, how will environmentalstewardship be addressed and how can this technology be preserved? How can aproducer afford it and how can they afford not to use it? When we have weedspresent that used to be managed by herbicides and genetic technology, thensociety will be forced to deal with the same social, economic, agronomic,and environmental issues they dealt with prior to such technology.Herbicide-resistance technology and the concomitant herbicide-resistantweeds have provided a perfect case study to learn from if those in academia,extension, and industry will pay attention. Continuing education of theproducer will be perhaps the biggest key in meeting the challenge to producea safe and plentiful food supply for a growing population with minimaladverse effects of weeds while providing a desirable degree of environmentalstewardship.