Monsanto invented the herbicide glyphosate and brought it to market
under the trade name Roundup in 1974, after DDT was banned. But it
wasn’t until the late 1990s that the use of Roundup surged, thanks to
Monsanto's ingenious marketing strategy. The strategy? Genetically
engineer seeds to grow food crops that could tolerate high doses of
Roundup. With the introduction of these new GE seeds, farmers could
now easily control weeds on their corn, soy, cotton, canola, sugar beets
and alfalfa crops--crops that thrived while the weeds around them were
wiped out by Roundup.
Eager to sell more of its flagship herbicide, Monsanto also encouraged farmers to use Roundup as a dessicant, to dry out all of their crops so they could harvest them faster. So Roundup is now routinely sprayed
directly on a host of non-GMO crops, including wheat, barley, oats,
canola, flax, peas, lentils, soybeans, dry beans and sugar cane.
Between 1996 - 2011, the widespread use of Roundup Ready GMO crops increased herbicide use in the U.S. by 527 million pounds - even though Monsanto claimed its GMO crops would reduce pesticide and herbicide use.
Monsanto has falsified data
on Roundup’s safety, and marketed it to parks departments and consumers
as “environmentally friendly” and “biodegradable," to encourage its use
it on roadsides, playgrounds, golf courses, schoolyards, lawns and home
gardens. A French court ruled those marketing claims amounted to false advertising.
In the nearly 20 years of intensifying exposure, scientists have been
documenting the health consequences of Roundup and glyphosate in our
food, in the water we drink, in the air we breathe and where our children play.
They've found that people who are sick have higher levels of glyphosate in their bodies than healthy people.
They've also found the following health problems which they attribute to exposure to Roundup and/or glyphosate:
ADHD: In farming communities, there’s a strong correlation between Roundup exposure and attention deficit disorder (ADHD), likely due to glyphosate’s capacity to disrupt thyroid hormone functions.
Alzheimer’s disease: In the lab, Roundup causes the same type of oxidative stress and neural cell death observed in Alzheimer’s disease. And it affects CaMKII, an enzyme whose dysregulation has also been linked to the disease.
Anencephaly (birth defect): An investigation into neural tube defects among babies born to women living within 1,000 meters of pesticide applications showed
an association for glyphosate with anencephaly, the absence of a major
portion of the brain, skull and scalp that forms during embryonic
development.
Autism: Glyphosate has a number of known biological
effects that align with the known pathologies associated with autism.
One of these parallels is the gut dysbiosis observed in autistic
children and the toxicity of glyphosate
to beneficial bacteria that suppress pathogenic bacteria, along with
pathogenic bacteria’s high resistance to glyphosate. In addition,
glyphosate’s capacity to promote aluminum accumulation in the brain may make it the principal cause of autism in the U.S.
Birth defects: Roundup and glyphosate can disrupt
the Vitamin A (retinoic acid) signaling pathway, which is crucial for
normal fetal development. The babies of women living within one
kilometer of fields sprayed with glyphosate were more than twice as
likely to have birth defects according to a study from Paraguay. Congenital defects quadrupled
in the decade after Roundup Ready crops arrived in Chaco, a province in
Argentina where glyphosate is used roughly eight to ten times more per
acre than in the U.S. A study
of one farming family in the U.S. documented elevated levels of
glyphosate and birth defects in the children, including an imperforate
anus, growth hormone deficiency, hypospadias (an abnormally placed
urinary hole), a heart defect and a micro penis.
Brain cancer: In a study
of children with brain cancer compared with healthy children,
researchers found that if either parent had been exposed to Roundup
during the two years before the child's birth, the chances of the child
developing brain cancer doubled.
Breast cancer: Glyphosate induces human breast cancer cells growth via estrogen receptors. The only long-term animal study of glyphosate exposure produced rats with mammary tumors and shortened life-spans.
Cancer: House-to-house surveys of 65,000 people in
farming communities in Argentina where Roundup is used, known there as
the fumigated towns, found cancer rates two to four times higher than the national average, with increases in breast, prostate and lung cancers. In a comparison
of two villages, in the one where Roundup was sprayed, 31 percent of
residents had a family member with cancer, while only 3 percent of
residents in a ranching village without spraying had one. The high
cancer rates among people exposed to Roundup likely stem from
glyphosate’s known capacity to induce DNA damage, which has been
demonstrated in numerous lab tests.
Celiac disease and gluten intolerance: Fish exposed to glyphosate develop
digestive problems that are reminiscent of celiac disease. There are
parallels between the characteristics of celiac disease and the known
effects of glyphosate. These include imbalances in gut bacteria,
impairment in enzymes involved with detoxifying environmental toxins,
mineral deficiencies and amino acid depletion.
Chronic kidney disease: Increases in the use of glyphosate may explain
the recent surge in kidney failure among agricultural workers in
Central America, Sri Lanka and India. Scientists have concluded,
“Although glyphosate alone does not cause an epidemic of chronic kidney
disease, it seems to have acquired the ability to destroy the renal
tissues of thousands of farmers when it forms complexes with [hard
water] and nephrotoxic metals.”
Colitis: The toxicity
of glyphosate to beneficial bacteria that suppress clostridia, along
with clostridia’s high resistance to glyphosate, could be a significant
predisposing factor in the overgrowth of clostridia. Overgrowth of
clostridia, specifically C. difficile, is a well-established causal
factor in colitis.
Depression: Glyphosate disrupts chemical processes that impact
the production of serotonin, an important neurotransmitter that
regulates mood, appetite and sleep. Serotonin impairment has been linked
to depression.
Diabetes: Low levels of testosterone are a risk
factor for Type 2 diabetes. Rats fed environmentally relevant doses of
Roundup over a period of 30 days spanning the onset of puberty had reduced testosterone production sufficient to alter testicular cell morphology and to delay the onset of puberty.
Heart disease: Glyphosate can disrupt the body’s enzymes, causing lysosomal dysfunction, a major factor in cardiovascular disease and heart failure.
Hypothyroidism: House-to-house surveys of 65,000
people in farming communities in Argentina where Roundup is used, known
there as the fumigated towns, found higher rates of hypothyroidism.
Inflammatory Bowl Disease (“Leaky Gut Syndrome”): Glyphosate can induce
severe tryptophan deficiency, which can lead to an extreme inflammatory
bowel disease that severely impairs the ability to absorb nutrients
through the gut, due to inflammation, bleeding and diarrhea.
Liver disease: Very low doses of Roundup can disrupt human liver cell function, according to a 2009 study published in Toxicology.
Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS): Sulfate deficiency in the brain has been associated with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Glyphosate disrupts
sulfate transport from the gut to the liver, and may lead over time to
severe sulfate deficiency throughout all the tissues, including the
brain.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS): An increased incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBS) has been found in association with MS. Glyphosate may be a causal factor. The hypothesis
is that glyphosate-induced IBS causes gut bacteria to leak into the
vasculature, triggering an immune reaction and consequently an
autoimmune disorder resulting in destruction of the myelin sheath.
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma: A systematic review
and a series of meta-analyses of nearly three decades worth of
epidemiologic research on the relationship between non-Hodgkin lymphoma
(NHL) and occupational exposure to agricultural pesticides found that B
cell lymphoma was positively associated with glyphosate.
Parkinson’s disease: The brain-damaging effects of
herbicides have been recognized as the main environmental factor
associated with neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson's
disease. The onset of Parkinson’s following exposure to glyphosate has
been well documented and lab studies show that glyphosate induces the cell death characteristic of the disease.
Pregnancy problems (infertility, miscarriages, stillbirths): Glyphosate is toxic to human placental cells, which, scientists say, explains the pregnancy problems of agricultural workers exposed to the herbicide.
Obesity: An experiment involving the transfer of a
strain of endotoxin-producing bacteria from the gut of an obese human to
the guts of mice caused the mice to become obese. Since glyphosate
induces a shift in gut bacteria towards endotoxin-producers, glyphosate
exposure may contribute to obesity in this way.
Reproductive problems: Studies
of laboratory animals have found that male rats exposed to high levels
of glyphosate, either during prenatal or pubertal development, suffer
from reproductive problems, including delayed puberty, decreased sperm
production, and decreased testosterone production.
Respiratory illnesses: House-to-house surveys of
65,000 people in farming communities in Argentina where Roundup is used,
known there as the fumigated towns, found higher rates of chronic respiratory illnesses.
from here with multiple reference links
Make of this what you will. My only question is 'who benefits?'
No comments:
Post a Comment