Glyphosate

The herbicide glyphosate is a broad-spectrum the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup—used in millions of home yards, school yards, public landscapes, golf courses, farms of all sizes, and intensive industrial agriculture.

Since its introduction in 1974 by Monsanto, according to National Geographic, Roundup has been applied to more land area on the planet, and more tons of it have been spread worldwide than any other chemical.

Roundup use grew sharply in 1996, when Monsanto started selling Roundup Ready seeds genetically modified to produce crops resistant to the herbicide’s attack on weeds.

According to a report in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe, in the U.S. and globally “no pesticide has come remotely close to such intensive and widespread use.” The report goes on to predict that glyphosate will likely remain the most widely applied pesticide worldwide for years to come.

However, the environmental and public health costs of glyphosate are becoming increasingly apparent. Problems include its impact on bees, damage to soil and soil dwellers, damage to non-target plant root systems, the development of monster Roundup resistant weeds, and the dangerous exposure of farm and landscape workers to harmful chemicals. In addition, glyphosate has penetrated the food system because it is used as a crop desiccant, sprayed onto many crops such as oats and wheat shortly before harvest in order to dry them quickly for storage. As a result, glyphosate is found in many common foods such as breakfast cereals.

The report of the ‘GMO Myths and Truths’ project by Dr. John Fagan, Dr. Michael Antoniou, et al, asserted, “Roundup has never been tested or assessed for long-term safety for regulatory purposes but independent studies show it is highly toxic to animals and humans.”

Widespread restrictions or bans on glyphosate exist throughout the world, but not in the United States. Most of these restrictions were introduced following the United Nations 2015 IARC report on glyphosate which concluded that glyphosate is a “probable human carcinogen.”

Today, 94 percent of soybean crops and roughly 90 percent of cotton and corn in the United States are grown with Roundup resistant seeds. According to estimates of the United States Geological Survey, 287 million pounds of glyphosate, were sprayed nationwide in 2016, 20 times as much as was used in 1992.

Because it does not kill bees on contact, and it biodegrades quickly, glyphosate passed as harmless to bees for years. Independent studies of glyphosate have begun to identify its significant sublethal effects. Recent studies at the University of Texas and University of Hawaii demonstrated glyphosate damages the guts of bees, potentially weakening their immune capability. A 2015 study of the effects of glyphosate on honeybees in the Journal of Experimental Biology showed that Roundup interferes with bees’ ability to navigate and prevents many honey bees from finding food. The result, reports Glyphosate News, is bees starve and die.

For many years glyphosate use has been a commonly reported cause of pesticide illness among landscape and agricultural workers. Courts have recently accepted evidence of plaintiffs that Roundup caused their non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), a cancer of the white blood cells. Twenty thousand additional plaintiffs have not yet had their day in court.

Yet Bayer, who purchased Monsanto in 2017, reports that Roundup sales have not been impacted by the court cases. Roundup continues to be seen by many farmers as needed for their profitability—and as harmless to bees, and themselves. Bayer remains confident that Roundup will continue to be a major money maker for them.

Roundup Weedkiller Is Blamed for Cancers, but Farmers Say It’s Not Going Away

NYTimes Sept 20, 2019

“The EPA has got it wrong on glyphosate. We have study after study after study showing that it in fact, does cause a specific type of cancer called lymphoma. And we see it happening in thousands and thousands of people across the country. Currently, this Administration and this EPA will not take action against Monsanto. We’ve seen the internal documents, the text messages, the emails between senior EPA officials and Monsanto employees. And the simple fact is they know that this EPA will not take adverse action against them. It is a travesty that this truth about it causing cancer and this awareness that we are trying to raise has to be done in the context of litigation. We only exist, these lawsuits only exist, because the EPA has failed the American public for 45 years and Monsanto is allowed to get away with reckless conduct with, essentially, impunity…this agency essentially does not work for the American public but works for industry. The fact that the White House is telling Monsanto, ‘We have your back.’ I mean this just tells us that we are going to have to keep fighting this fight and that we are not going to get any support or help from the public agencies that, ironically, are supposed to be protecting the public health.”
– Brent Wisner, Roundup Cancer Attorney