Glyphosate | GMO SCIENCE https://gmoscience.org A public platform where genetically engineered (GE) crop and food impacts are openly discussed and thoughtfully analyzed. Wed, 29 Nov 2023 23:40:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 https://gmoscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/cropped-fav-icon-32x32.png Glyphosate | GMO SCIENCE https://gmoscience.org 32 32 Guest blog: Glyphosate/AMPA and Asthma in Argentina https://gmoscience.org/2023/11/29/guest-blog-glyphosate-ampa-and-asthma-in-argentina/ Wed, 29 Nov 2023 23:36:42 +0000 https://gmoscience.org/?p=1581 Note from GMOScience: Chuck Benbrook, PhD in agricultural economics, (https://hygeia-analytics.com/about/who-we-are/) writes about the publication of a recent shocking study from Argentina exposing the explosion of asthma in the Argentinian city of Monte Maiz from pesticides (1). 
Glyphosate/AMPA and Asthma in Argentina; reflections on a concerning new study 
This is why glyphosate joins a relatively few pesticides as an essentially unavoidable, ubiquitous global pollutant of the human body and human genome.” Chuck Benbrook, PhD 
 
 
Thisis an important study, with some novel findings. They report much higher levels of GLY and AMPA in the soils/dust inside the small town of Monte Maiz, which is surrounded by ~100,000 hectares of GMO corn+beans, and some wheat. Sources of GLY/AMPA in the city are drift from applications, drifting dust, grain storage facilities, pesticide storage and application equipmentsites, and use in the city. But why higher levels in the city soils, compared to surrounding farm fields? 
 
Might it be faster breakdown in farm fields because of cultivation, increasing levels? The patterns of GLY/AMPA levels across the town suggest blowing dust, the grain handling/storage facility (GLY on husks), and pesticide storage/handling sitesare primary sources. 
 
Reported average rate of GLY per hectare of GE corn+beans =10 kg or almost 9 pounds a.i. per acre. This is about 6.9-times higher than average GLY application rates on soybeans in 2018 in the Heartland USA.(2) Access all GLY application rate and use data in USA via the interactivetables on Hygeia Analytics athttps://hygeia-analytics.com/tools/puds/by-crop/ 
 
Sorting out the impact of GBHs on adverse health outcomes across South America is made more complicated by the fact that heavy GBH use is accompaniedby heavy use of several other high-risk pesticides, e.g., endosulfan, chlorpyrifos, 2,4-D, paraquat, dicamba. Still, based on my knowledge of the literature, there is compelling evidence that GBH use and exposures have emerged, worldwide, as among the most damaging pesticide public health threats ever, despite the indisputably favorable toxicity-to-efficacy ratio for GBHs compared to almost all other herbicides. 
 
it is clear to me that the public health toll triggered bycurrent GBH use patterns and reliance is exposure driven (multiple routes, millions of people receiving high or very high doses daily). High exposures are, in turn, inevitably brought about by use so extensive, for so long, that now soil, water, air, and fire (smoke) are all contaminated to one degree or another,and all move around and come into contact with the human community, essentially everywhere. 
 
This is why GLY joins a relatively few pesticides as an essentially unavoidable, ubiquitous global pollutant of the human body and human genome. 
 
I ask the above questions re levels in the soil in Monte Maiz because the Heartland Study team is tackling the same basic question — where is the GLY coming from that is exposing pregnant women in the Heartland? We have a pretty good sense of dietary exposures (daily, but generally low), and some data to estimate drinking water-related exposures, but we have to figure out a way to quantify likely inhalation exposures and dermal exposures, both to direct sprays and volatilized herbicides, and GLY/AMPA bound to blowing soil and grain dust. 
 

  1. Medardo Avila-Vázquez, Flavia Difilippo, Bryan Mac Lean, et al.Risk of asthma and environmental exposure to glyphosate in an ecological study.Authorea.August 13, 2020.DOI:10.22541/au.159734524.47178780
  2. https://heartlandstudy.org/; The Heartland Study is presently enrolling 2,000 mother-infant pairs living in the Midwest measuring herbicide levels in moms and babies.  Pregnancy outcomes and the health and development of the infants will be tracked for the first three years of life.  Dr. Benbrook is a founding member of the study and Science Advisor.  Dr. Perro, EDGMOScience, is also an Advisory Board Member for the study. 
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Exposure to Imidacloprid and Glyphosate: Effects on Vertebrates https://gmoscience.org/2023/08/11/exposure-to-imidacloprid-and-glyphosate-effects-on-vertebrates/ https://gmoscience.org/2023/08/11/exposure-to-imidacloprid-and-glyphosate-effects-on-vertebrates/#respond Fri, 11 Aug 2023 21:47:52 +0000 https://gmoscience.org/?p=4713

Judy Hoy is a scientist, wildlife biologist, and educator, who taught elementary school for 12 years, rehabilitated wildlife for 50 years, continuously documented the birth defects that began occurring on wildlife in spring of 1995 and has co-authored several scientific papers on animals and plants.

Specific birth defects are relatively high in prevalence on both wild and domestic animals, and even more concerning, on newborn children. Newborn children are approximately the same size as newborn deer fawns. White-tailed deer fawns have been a main study subject for over twenty years regarding specific birth defects and other effects of exposure to imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide and likely simultaneous exposure to glyphosate, an extensively used herbicide.

Nearly all white-tailed deer tested recently in Minnesota had neonicotinoid pesticides in their spleens. Those are the same pesticides that are causing birds and bees to get lost or quickly die when exposed, especially the insecticide called imidacloprid. [5] Scientists reported three years ago that a high prevalence of tested white-tailed deer in Minnesota had neonicotinoid pesticides in their spleens. [1] In 2021, 94% of the deer spleens tested positive for neonicotinoids, again especially imidacloprid. [2] Neonicotinoids or neonics are insecticides that are toxic to vertebrates [4] and invertebrates. [6] In North Dakota, harvested wild deer tested had an average of 3.5 times more imidacloprid in their spleens [3] than the captive deer used in the SDSU study [4], who were intentionally given the pesticide.

The expanding use of neonicotinoid insecticides is contaminating the food and water ingested by all animals because it falls in rain and snow on foliage and into surface water everywhere.

Exposure can lead to organ damage, birth defects, lethargy, and mortality in vertebrates, as well as mortality in most invertebrates necessary for human and other vertebrate survival. [3][5]

This extensive testing and research on white-tailed deer happened because the birth defects were brought to the attention of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MDFWP) in 1996 by biologists who worked for MDFWP. Those birth defects were subsequently reported in studies and have prompted a much wider concern and larger amount of testing and research in other states than they did locally in Montana [7][8].

Most concerning for people and particularly pregnant mothers, a new study was published that shows neonicotinoid insecticides and their metabolites are able to pass through the human placenta to expose the fetus whenever the mother is exposed. [9]. Consider if imidacloprid can do that on a pregnant human, it certainly can do the same on other pregnant mammals.

An even more recent and extremely concerning study was done on infants to determine neonicotinoid exposure levels in newborn humans. [16] The study found significant levels of neonicotinoids, especially imidacloprid, in breast milk (0.27 ng/mL), infant formula (0.22), and tap water (0.028). A higher median concentration of neonicotinoids were in infants’ blood samples than in urine samples. [16]

All recent testing shows alarming levels of imidacloprid in white-tailed deer, in human mothers to be, and in newborn children. In addition, thousands of studies show imidacloprid has dire effects on developing young, newborns and adults of other vertebrates, and most invertebrates. One group of vertebrate species that has received little attention until recently are avian pollinators, especially hummingbirds. Within 2 hours after deliberate imidacloprid exposure, wild-caught Ruby-throated Hummingbirds exhibited a significant depression in energy expenditure (up to 25%±11%) [17]. Therefore, changes in their metabolism following exposures to imidacloprid, “…could significantly influence survivorship” for hummingbirds and other avian pollinators, especially hatchlings.

Since birth defects and mortality was shown to be in direct correlation with the imidacloprid levels in the spleens of white-tailed deer [4], it is highly likely that imidacloprid exposure is having similar effects on human fetuses and newborns. Newborn humans were observed to be born with the same or very similar birth defects found on deliberately exposed white-tailed deer. Most importantly, in the same time period as wild deer were born with those distinctive defects, the young of many other vertebrate species were born with the exact same developmental malformations. [11]

Thus, the research strongly suggests neonicotinoids should never have been used, should no longer be used anywhere and should be banned immediately.         

The experts quoted in an article by Kenny Stancil on May 05, 2023, “EPA Report on Neonics Proves US Has ‘Five-Alarm Fire’ on Its Hands, Green Groups Say” strongly support this. [18]  Quoted, “…A newly published assessment from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warns that three of the most commonly used neonicotinoid insecticides threaten the continued existence of more than 200 endangered plant and animal species.”  And “…there’s now no question that neoicotioids play an outsized role in our heartbreaking extinction crisis.”

Another concerning new study regarding human mothers and babies who are exposed to the world’s most used herbicide, glyphosate, was also published recently.[10] This was stated by the researchers about the study; “…This groundbreaking study builds on growing research that has linked glyphosate to birth defects, miscarriage, and infertility in animal studies. Yet the EPA still allows more than 250 million pounds of glyphosate to be sprayed on American farmlands each year!” This new study indicates that researchers are seeing very similar health issues and mortality in human newborns to those reported on wildlife and human newborns in our 2015 study. [11]

We hypothesize that the imidacloprid and glyphosate are working synergistically in exposed animals to cause far greater cellular damage than either toxicant alone.

The phosphonate, N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine, known as glyphosate, is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide and crop desiccant. A 2015 study implicated glyphosate in causing prion diseases, including Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) because glyphosate is a mineral chelator and disrupts the mineral balance. [12] Originally patented as a metal chelator, glyphosate binds to essential minerals in the soils, thereby reducing their uptake by plants, which is how it kills plants.

Glyphosate falling in rain and snow on all the plants that wild ungulates eat reduces the minerals in the plants ingested [13], simultaneously resulting in exposure to glyphosate and compounding mineral deficiency in the exposed grazing animals. [11] Ironically, if the animal does receive adequate manganese in its diet, exposure to the glyphosate disrupts bile acid homeostasis promoting a toxic accumulation of manganese in the brainstem. [12] This can result in animals developing prion diseases like CWD and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), which are serious health concerns for wildlife, domestic livestock, and humans. [12]

Below, note other important facts regarding glyphosate:

  • Nearly 1 lb. of glyphosate for every person in the US is sprayed per year.
  • It’s water soluble, so our rain and groundwater are also contaminated.
  • It’s a patented antibiotic by Monsanto/Bayer, killing off the beneficial microbes and promoting the growth of the pathogens.
  • It binds crucial biologically important metals, such as zinc, magnesium, and manganese.
  • It’s used off-label as a crop desiccant (drying agent), which means at harvest, crops like oats, wheat, and legumes take up whopping amounts of glyphosate.
  • Roundup-Ready crops are GMO and do not die when sprayed.

Glyphosate was also patented by Monsanto in 2010 as an antibiotic, which stimulates populations of oxidant microorganisms and suppresses reducing microorganisms in the soil. This is another mechanism for decreasing the availability of manganese, iron, zinc, and other essential micronutrients to plants and to the animals that eat the plants. [12]  The resulting mineral imbalance causes numerous health issues, birth defects [11] and likely prion diseases. [12]

In the mid-1980s, autism was extremely uncommon. Now autism prevalence is approximately 1 of every 30 babies born and increasing each year, varying by sex and location.

(Editor note: GMOScience.org has been reporting on the relationship between autism and glyphosate, here.  For more information regarding the effects of glyphosate, GMOs and children’s health, read, What’s Making our Children Sick? by Drs. Perro and Adams.)

Glyphosate has been shown to cause autism-like symptoms in exposed study animals [14] and seriously disrupt the microbiota in invertebrates and vertebrates. [15]  In March of 2023, a study showed that exposure to glyphosate and its break down product aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) is responsible for the high prevalence of liver inflammation and metabolic syndrome in young humans, increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. [19]

In 2020, a very important review was published by Cerrizuela et al. [20], which listed the top chemicals that are serious teratogens; conditions or toxicants, which cause disrupted fetal development in vertebrate species. The authors have 6 pesticides in their list of top teratogens shown by studies to disrupt neural crest development, which results in multiple birth defects on newborns, especially mammals. One, chlorpyrifos, was used long before certain definitive birth defects began on wildlife, domestic animals, and human babies in spring of 1995. Two other pesticides, triazole derivatives and carendazim are not widely used. That left three highly teratogenic pesticides, glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH), the neonicotinoid insecticide, imidacloprid, and the fungicide, chlorothalonil, which are also the three most widely used pesticides in the US.

Those are the three pesticides that my colleagues and I have implicated by timing and new types of exposure effects to be working synergistically to cause the definitive developmental defects on vertebrate species since spring of 1995. As stated above, imidacloprid has been shown to cause mortality to adults and young of ruminant species, birds, and many kinds of invertebrates, especially pollinators. [4, 5]

In addition, large applications of chlorothalonil began being used for potato blight the same year that imidacloprid was first used in spring of 1994. [7] High applications of GBH were already being used beginning in the 1970s, but the definitive birth defects did not begin until the spring after large amounts of all three of those teratogenic pesticides began being used at the same time in spring and summer of 1994. It was not likely a coincidence that the high prevalence of several uncommon and one new to science birth defects began occurring simultaneously on vertebrate species, since all experience neural crest development in the egg or womb.

If you are interested in seeing photos of the birth defects that are happening to wildlife, especially mammals and birds, I have a website with photo documents showing photos of the birth defects on multiple vertebrate species. To access, scroll down to the PDFs, download, and click to find the photo documents comparing birth defects to normals. Our studies are also discoverable there, as well as the SD study that was published in Nature.

References:

  1. Dan Gunderson, “Data show increasing insecticide levels in Minnesota deer,”MPR News, Moorhead, Minn. August 23, 2022. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/08/23/data-show-increasing-insecticide-levels-in-minnesota-deer
  2. Paul Richards, “Biologists in Minnesota are Finding More Insecticides in Whitetail Deer Than Ever Before,” Field & Stream, August 29, 2022. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/08/23/data-show-increasing-insecticide-levels-in-minnesota-deer
  3. Rob Beer, “Study shows widespread neonicotinoid exposure in Minnesota white-tailed deer,” Twin Cities, March 1, 2021. https://www.twincities.com/2021/03/01/study-shows-widespread-neonicotinoid-exposure-in-minnesota-white-tailed-deer/amp/
  4. E. H. Berheim, et al. “Effects of Neonicotinoid Insecticides on Physology and Reproductive Characteristics of Captive Female and Fawn White-tailed Deer, March 14, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40994-9
  5. Mia Rabson, “No doubt that neonicotinoids are killing birds, bees, scientists say,”CBC News, September 17, 2019. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/pesticide-bee-bird-deaths-neonicotinoids-1.4296357
  6. Lauren Aratani, “Pesticide widely used in US particularly harmful to bees, study finds,” The Guardian, August 6, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/06/us-pesticide-neonics-toxic-harmful-bees-study
  7. Hoy, J.A., Hoy, R.D., Seba, D., Kerstetter, T.H., 2002. Genital abnormalities in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in west-central Montana: Pesticide exposure as a possible cause. J. Environ. Biol. 23, 189–97. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12602857.
  8. Hoy, J.A., Haas, G.T., Hoy, R.D., Hallock, P., 2011. Observations of brachygnathia superior in wild ruminants in western Montana, USA. Wildl. Biol. Pract. 7(2), 15–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.2461/wbp.2011.7.13.
  9. Zhang H, Bai X, Zhang T, Song S, Zhu H, Lu S, Kannan K, Sun H. Neonicotinoid Insecticides and Their Metabolites Can Pass through the Human Placenta Unimpeded. Environ Sci Technol. 2022 Nov 28. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c06091. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36441562.
  10. Gerona, R.R., Reiter, J.L., Zakharevich, I. et al., 2022. Glyphosate exposure in early pregnancy and reduced fetal growth: a prospective observational study of high-risk pregnancies. Environ Health 21, 95. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-022-00906-3 https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-022-00906-3
  11. Hoy, J., Swanson, N., Seneff, S., 2015. The high cost of pesticides: Human and animal diseases. Poult. Fish Wildl. Sci. 3,132. https://doi: 10.4172/2375-446X.1000132.
  12. Samsel, A., Seneff, S., 2015. Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases III: Manganese, neurological diseases, and associated pathologies. Surg. Neurol. Int. 6:45. doi: 10.4103/2152-7806.153876
  13. Huber, D.M., 2007. Strategies to ameliorate glyphosate immobilization of Mn and its impact on disease. Phytopathology 97, S168. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHYTO.2007.97.7.S166
  14. Pu, Y., Yang, J., Chang, L., Qu, Y., Wang, S., Zhang, K., Xiong, Z., Zhang, J., Tan, Y., Wang, X., Fujita. Y., Ishima, T., Wang, D., Hwang, S.H., Hammock, B.D., Hashimoto, K, 2020. Maternal glyphosate exposure causes autism-like behaviors in offspring through increased expression of soluble epoxide hydrolase. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 May 26;117(21):11753-11759. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1922287117. Epub 2020 May 12. Erratum in: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Feb 2;118(5): PMID: 32398374; PMCID: PMC7260984.
  15. https://www.ehn.org/monsanto-glyphosate-impacts-wildlife-2631750527.html
  16. Zhang, H., Wang, Y., Zhu H., Lu S., Wang, Y., Xue, J., Zhang, T., Kannan, K., Sun, H., 2023. Infantile internal and external exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides: a comparison of levels across various sources. 16. Infantile Internal and External Exposure to Neonicotinoid Insecticides: A Comparison of Levels across Various Sources. Environmental Science and Technology 2023 57 (13), 5358-5367 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c09538
  17. English, S.G., Sandoval-Herrera, N.I., Bishop, C.A., Cartwright, M., Maisonneuve, F., Elliott, J.E., Welch, K.C. Jr., 2021. Neonicotinoid pesticides exert metabolic effects on avian pollinators. Sci Rep. Feb 3;11(1):2914. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-82470-3. PMID: 33536520; PMCID: PMC7858574. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7858574/
  18. https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-epa-neonicotinoids-extinction-crisis Article by Kenny Stancil May 05, 2023  “EPA Report on Neonics Proves U.S. Has ‘Five-Alarm Fire’ on Its Hands, Green Groups Say.”
  19. Eskenazi, B., et al. 2023. Association of Lifetime Exposure to Glyphosate and Aminomethylphosphonic Acid (AMPA) with Liver Inflammation and Metabolic Syndrome at Young Adulthood: Findings from the CHAMACOS Study. EHP Vol. 131, No. 3. CID: 037001 https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP11721
  20. Cerrizuela S, Vega-Lopez GA, Aybar MJ. The role of teratogens in neural crest development. Birth Defects Res. 2020 May;112(8):584-632.https://doi:10.1002/bdr2.1644
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An Indigenous Woman Fights Back Against Monsanto and Wins https://gmoscience.org/2023/03/07/an-indigenous-woman-fights-back-against-monsanto-and-wins/ Wed, 08 Mar 2023 01:20:08 +0000 https://www.rhi.bio/?p=677732 One person can make a difference!

A 55-year-old native Mayan beekeeper, Leydy Pech, has won out against Monsanto in a grassroots effort to protect her precious bees from glyphosate poisoning. Mexico is the sixth largest honey-producing country in the world, and the indigenous communities are major producers of honey from the Mayan stingless bees native to the area.

When her bees became threatened by Monsanto’s pesticides used on neighboring GMO soy crops, Pech led a lawsuit against the Mexican government to stop the planting of GMO crops in Mexico. Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled in November 2015 that the government is required by law to consult indigenous communities before planting its GMO soybeans. As a result, Monsanto’s permits to grow these crops in the states of Campeche and Yucatan were cancelled in 2017. The stingless bees are coming back from the brink of extinction due in part to her tireless efforts.

Pech was awarded the 2020 Goldman environmental Prize in honor of her work, and her efforts are a message to all that we should never give up the fight for what is right in the face of oppression and injustices. As of now, Mexico plans to phase out glyphosate altogether by March 31, 2024.


>>You can learn more about this story here

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GlyphoWHAT? The Daily Poisoning of Our Children https://gmoscience.org/2022/12/28/glyphowhat-the-daily-poisoning-of-our-children/ Wed, 28 Dec 2022 16:53:20 +0000 https://www.rhi.bio/?p=677674 Our children are consuming a daily dose of poison. Parents are unaware of the great harm befallen our most vulnerable. And for those parents who attempt to thwart the daily dose of poison, children consume it at school.

If you are awake and aware of the harm of glyphosate, the declared main ingredient in Roundup, now a household word thanks to the dissemination of toxic seeds by Monsanto-now-Bayer, skip on down to the, “…So what do we do now?” section. If you need to be convinced, read on.

Monsanto’s product history includes DDT (think Rachel Carson and The Silent Spring), Agent Orange, GMOs, saccharin, PCBs, nuclear weapons, polystyrenes, aspartame, bovine growth hormone (rBGH), etc. Certainly healthy children did not make the Monsanto’s Who’s Who list.

Fun glyphosate facts:

•Nearly 1 lb of glyphosate for every person in the US is sprayed per year
•It’s water soluble, so our rain and groundwater are also contaminated
•It’s a patented antibiotic by Monsanto, killing off the beneficial microbes and promoting the growth of the pathogens
•It binds crucial biologically important metals, such as zinc, magnesium and manganese
•It’s used off-label as a crop desiccant (drying agent) which means at harvest, crops like oats, wheat and legumes take up whopping amounts of glyphosate
•Roundup-Ready crops are GMO and do not die when sprayed – that’s the only reason for the development of GMOs: They will not save the world 🙁
•Once farmers get on the Monsanto/Bayer hamster wheel, it is difficult to get off

What you may not know is how the GMOs and their associated pesticides show up other than on the dinner plate. Gauze pads? Sanitary products? Infant formula? Yes, yes, and yes.

Are Regulators Regulating?

The EPA says glyphosate is safe, yet the literature says otherwise. A study published in 2019 showed how glyphosate caused autism in lab animals. The offspring of moms exposed to ambient pesticides showed an increased rate of autism as well. The courts also disagree with the EPA. Bayer has had significant financial losses and payouts to the victims of glyphosate-based herbicides.

Do You Know Someone Who Doesn’t Have a Gut Problem? 

Glyphosate destroys the gut by interference with the gut tight junctions. This disruption causes intestinal leakiness and is responsible for toxic substances entering into the bloodstream, causing inflammation and oxidative stress, and disrupting hormones. What happens in the gut doesn’t stay in the gut.  There is a two-way pathway called the gut-brain axis. Injury to the tight junction membrane in the brain by glyphosate can also disrupt the blood brain barrier and create neurologic mayhem.

However, as we end the glyphosate assault, the trick is not to let Big Ag introduce equally or more toxic substitutes, like 2,4-D. The combo of this one-two knock-out punch has been shown to have non-targeted effects on wildlife.

So What Do We Do?

1. Stop and Shop!
Stop our daily poison and shop organics! Avoid processed foods and stick to the outer aisles of the supermarket.

2. Go Italian!
Think onions and garlic and Include a rainbow of veggies, bone broth soup, apple cider vinegar and fermented foods in your diet.

3. Get dirty!

Get outside in nature and move away from the screens.

4. Grow your own!

Plant herbs, microgreens or veggies in your window or garden.

5. Filter your water!

Decrease the toxic tap water load and your body will thank you.

6. Shake the tech addiction!

Shut off the router when not in use.

Make Health Regeneration Your Health Hobby

Everywhere you turn, more folks are moving away from the Pharmacy to the Farmacy, which concurrently supports your local farmer! Be part of the movement where the regeneration of your health and your family’s health is your hobby.  Here are some links to help you get started:

https://regenerationinternational.org/regenerative-farm-map
https://neighborhoodfoodnetwork.com
https://nontoxicneighborhoods.org

 

Dr. Michelle Perro is the author of the acclaimed book, What’s Making our Children Sick?, Co-Founder and Executive Director of www.gmoscience.org, and Advisor to the popular website on regenerative health, www.rhi.bio

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GMO Myths & Facts: A Summary https://gmoscience.org/2022/05/03/gmo-myths-facts-a-summary/ Tue, 03 May 2022 18:39:05 +0000 https://gmoscience.org/?p=3966 The following article summarizes the recent publication, GMO Myths and Facts, by Claire Robinson.

GMO Myths & Facts: A Summary

By Melissa Diane Smith

For the past several decades, the public has been fed the rhetoric that genetically modified (GM) crops and foods are needed to feed the world’s growing population and to meet the challenges that farmers face, including climate change as well as pests and diseases. However, scientific research and real-world farming experience show that GM crops and foods have not delivered on their promises of increased yields or reduced toxic chemical inputs.

Instead, GM crops have presented farmers with new challenges of controlling herbicide-resistant superweeds and Bt-resistant superpests. In addition, GM crops have not been shown to be safe to eat, and existing research shows that some GM crops – and the pesticides that go hand in hand with them – pose worrying health risks.

These are the conclusions made in GMO Myths and Facts: What they dont want to tell you about genetically modified crops and foods, a meticulously referenced, reader-friendly, 28-page booklet written by Claire Robinson, editor of GMWatch.org, and produced by the Sheepdrove Trust to educate and inform the public. Download your free copy of the booklet.

At-a-glance

In the booklet, you’ll learn vital facts in the following areas.

  • Yield: Conventionally bred plants outperform GM crops in terms of:
  • Yield
  • Disease resistance
  • Enhanced nutritional value
  • Tolerance to extreme weather conditions and poor soils.
  • Pesticide use: Most GM crops are tolerant to herbicides, enabling farmers to spray the field liberally with that herbicide, killing all plant life except the crop. The spraying of crops with herbicide such as glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup weed killer, has led to the development and spread of superweeds—weeds that adapt to and withstand the herbicide, resulting in yet more herbicide spraying.
  • Massive rise in the use of glyphosate: Globally, the use of glyphosate, an herbicide that has been identified as a potential cause of cancer and is linked to other diseases including liver and kidney disease, has increased 15-fold since the introduction of GM glyphosate-tolerant crops.
  • GM Bt crops: GM Bt crops have been genetically engineered to produce insect-killing Bacillus thuringienisis (Bt) toxins in their cells so that pests that eat the plants will die. The use of GM Bt crops has led to the development of “super insects” that have become resistant to Bt’s insect-killing effects.
  1. GM Bt crops have been found to have harmful effects far beyond the specific pests they were designed to control, including in butterflies, beneficial pest predators, bees, aquatic organisms, and beneficial soil organisms. In feeding trials in mammals, GM Bt crops have been shown to have adverse effects including:
  • Toxic effects in the small intestine, liver, kidney, spleen, and pancreas
  • Disturbed functioning of the digestive system
  • Altered weight gain compared with controls
  • Male reproductive organ damage
  • Blood biochemistry abnormalities
  • Immune system disturbances
  • Lack of GM food testing: People often assume that governments and their independent agencies rigorously test and ensure the safety of the foods we eat. This is not the case with GM foods. Governments have made GMO developer companies that stand to profit from the sale of GMOs responsible for ensuring their safety – a practice that many liken to leaving the fox in charge of the henhouse. 
  • The risks of consuming GM foods: There are no safety studies in humans on the health effects of GM foods. But animal studies reveal worrying risks, including:
  • Multiple organ damage
  • Immune responses and abnormal allergic-type reactions
  • Enlarged lymph nodes
  • Liver and kidney damage
  • Digestive disturbances
  • Altered gut bacteria
  • Severe stomach inflammation and heavier uteruses.
  1. In addition, most feeding studies with GMOs are short- or medium-term, which may not reveal if changes in GM-fed animals could develop into serious disease in the longer term. Human health and life expectancy in the US are declining, and GM foods and the pesticides that are used with them cannot be ruled out as one cause among many.
  • Gene-editing: Gene-editing technologies (including CRISPR-Cas9, TALENs and ZFNs) are being used to generate not only new varieties of food crops, but farm animals as well. Although proponents claim that these techniques are precise and controllable, a growing body of scientific research shows that gene-editing gives rise to unpredictable results, including unexpected mutations (damage to DNA) both at the site targeted for editing (“on-target mutations”) and elsewhere in the genome (“off-target mutations”). Just like earlier GM technologies, the “new GM” technology of gene-editing will use up valuable resources and distract from the existing proven solutions to the problems of food production and agriculture.
  • Food security: The answer to ensuring food security and sustainably feeding the world’s population is not GMOs, which undermine seed saving and food security in developing countries. Instead, the answer lies in agroecology, a range of low-input and organic farming methods that preserve soil and water while minimizing the use of external inputs, such as pesticides and fertilizers. These methods have been proven to:
  • Deliver safe and abundant food 
  • Produce dramatic increases in yield
  • Keep seeds within the control of farmers and free from patent restraints.

Melissa Diane Smith is a health journalist, respected author on the topic of GMOs, holistic nutritionist, and environmentalist. 

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