| Roundup in city-dwellers' urine Studies have already found Monsanto's toxic herbicide Roundup in groundwater, in streams, and even in the rain and air of US agricultural areas. It's been found in our blood and even crosses the placental barrier to enter our unborn fetuses. So are we surprised that a German university study has now found significant concentrations of Roundup's main ingredient glyphosate in the urine of city dwellers? Perhaps we should be surprised at the amount: all the samples had concentrations of glyphosate at 5 to 20 times the limit for drinking water. Roundup is used on railway lines, urban pavements, and roadsides. It's used to dry down grain crops before harvest. But the single greatest use of Roundup is on genetically engineered "Roundup Ready" crops - designed not to die when sprayed with the poison. Wouldn't it be good if we too were Roundup Ready, so we wouldn't get sick or die due to the virtually omnipresent toxin? After all, studies now link it to birth defects, endocrine disruption, cancer, and abnormal sperm. As Roundup is a best-selling product worldwide and there are massive profits hanging on its continued use, the new testing initiative has fallen prey to the usual attempts at disinformation, distortion, and intimidation. Note the excerpt from the story: "The address of the university labs, which did the research, the data and the evaluation of the research method is known to the editors. Because of significant pressure by agrochemical representatives and the fear that the work of the lab could be influenced, the complete analytical data will only be published in the course of this year." [Read the Article]
Adverse effects in pigs fed GM corn "disappear" They're at it again - hoping that no one actually reads their GMO studies, just the fanciful headlines and press releases. If someone does read about a short-term (31-day) study with pigs fed Monsanto's Bt corn, they would have seen for themselves that had intestinal changes, heavier kidneys, and gained less weight per pound of feed consumed - oops! The authors admit right in the summary abstract that these differences deserve a follow up for further clarification. [Read the Article] But if you were like most people who let headlines tell you what studies reported, you would get a totally different version. The story title in Science Daily boldly proclaimed: "Genetically modified food safe, animal study suggests." [Read the Article] The author of the Science Daily piece wrote, "no adverse health effects" were found in three feeding studies on pigs fed GM corn. Perhaps the author should have read the studies, instead of taking dictation from Monsanto. Come to think of it, so should the government.
USDA greenlights useless GM corn Former US Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman characterized the hype around GMOs. They were "going to solve the problems of the human race and feed the hungry and clothe the naked." That was during the Clinton Administration! We're still waiting. Finally, Monsanto has rolled out something that doesn't just drink their poisonous herbicide or produce poisonous pesticides. The biotech industry finally has their long sought after poster child - a corn genetically engineered to survive better in drought conditions. Or does it? In fact, Monsanto's hi-tech, uber-expensive corn only works in "moderate" drought conditions and doesn't even outperform the natural non-GMO drought-tolerant varieties. So after more then a decade in development, this much touted corn is a total failure. It gives nothing positive to farmers. And it exposes consumers to a long list of possible health dangers - which are not evaluated by Monsanto or the government. So what did our US Department of Agriculture do? They approved it!
[Read the Article]
GM crops work against sustainable farming - study GMOs are a lot of things, but they're not "sustainable agriculture." According to an article published in the journal BioScience, weeds are having a field day (so to speak). Excessive reliance on Roundup caused the spread of many harmful "herbicide tolerant" weeds that now infest millions of acres of farmland the US, resulting in greater herbicide use. But the article goes beyond other similar ones by concluding that the development of GM herbicide-tolerant crops, especially 2,4-D and dicamba-tolerant crops, contributes to the decline of sustainable weed management and of sustainable agriculture generally, as former US EPA biotech adviser Dr. Doug Gurian-Sherman explains in his blog. [Read the Article] | 
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.