Today Learn Why Glyphosate is Dangerous
by Joanie Blaxter, founder of Follow Your Gut
A box, a bag or a can… the indispensable additions to meals prepared by overworked, double and triple time family meal preparers everywhere! Or, in a pinch, eating at a local restaurant. Who has time or energy anymore to cook entirely from scratch without at least some assistance from processed foods or eating out?
The good news, though, is that now the FDA has ordered food manufacturers to stop using trans fats altogether by 2018, we can count on one less unhealthy ingredient in factory produced food.
Great! But, totally unstated in the media reports is why artificial trans fats were added ubiquitously to virtually every manufactured food for decades without any serious long term studies. Could it be because the size of the dollar signs in the eyes of giant food companies overrode anyone's concerns about health consequences to the public?
Okay, hold that thought! We're going to look at the “safety” of another food ingredient also found everywhere.
Check your ingredient labels
Most all factory produced food contains some form of corn, soy, sugar beets and/or canola. And virtually all these non-organic crops have been genetically altered and drenched in glyphosate. (For the full list of GMO crops go here.)
And if you're sure glyphosate couldn't be a problem for you because your diet is “clean,” you might just want to keep reading…
What is glyphosate?
Originally manufactured by Monsanto and marketed as Roundup (also known as Rodeo when made by Dow), the generic name is glyphosate and it is “the world’s most widely produced herbicide, by volume.”
Glyphosate is sprayed on not only much of the crops used as basic ingredients for processed/junk/restaurant foods, but also widely used to control weeds by farmers on agricultural lands, as well as on gardens, lawns, school yards, public parks, golf courses, etc. Glyphosate is in fact all around us.
Shouldn't something that has entered both our food and water systems worldwide be proven to be safe?
Ahhh, forgive my cynicism, but my answer to that is two words: Trans Fats!
It didn't matter for that additive, and it doesn't matter for this one either. So let's look at some chronological history of this chemical herbicide.
Why Glyphosate is Dangerous
1974: It Starts
Monsanto begins selling glyphosate/Roundup as a weed killer, later patenting it as both a mineral chelator and antibiotic.
Mineral Chelator
What is a mineral chelator? A substance that binds with minerals, making them unavailable to be absorbed and used by the body.
Yes, every time you eat GMO crops, you are introducing a chemical into your body which effectively turns that food into mineral-free, empty calories.
What are minerals used for in the body? Everything. They are the building blocks of growth.
Antibiotic
Furthermore, glyphosate was patented by Monsanto on Aug. 30, 2002 as an antibiotic.
Why is this important? Fast forward more than a decade and read on…
April 10, 2013: How Glyphosate Negatively Impacts Our Immune System
Two senior researchers from MIT, Drs. Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff, demonstrate that, while the Shikimate enzyme pathway is, in fact, NOT located in human organs, per se, it IS found in the probiotic microflora in the human gut microbiome.
(Source: Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases
Entropy by Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff)
Why is this important?
For decades glyphosate manufacturers have argued that the reason glyphosate is not toxic to humans is because the Shikimate enzyme pathway can only be found in plants, but not mammals.
Just read Monsanto's Roundup label:
DID YOU KNOW? Glyphosate targets an enzyme found in plants, but not people or pets.
Turns out, however, that while that Roundup label is technically true, what it leaves out is that…
The plant enzyme that glyphosate targets IS found in the bacteria in our gut microbiome and it DOES kill those bacteria.
The 80-85% of our immune system located in our intestinal walls directly depends upon having a robust bacteria population in our intestines to be able to function.
Destroy gut bacteria and you destroy the health of our immune system. This is what Samsel and Seneff's research demonstrates.
Did Monsanto know this?
Since they patented Roundup as an antibiotic back in 2002, it would seem they did.
After all, what is cancer except an extreme dysfunction of the immune system?
April 7, 2014: Glyphosate Found in Urine and Breast Milk
Moms Across America and Sustainable Pulse publish the results of their study in which 35 American women test their urine, water and breast milk for the presence of glyphosate.
Contrary to decades of assertions by the pesticide industry that glyphosate breaks down too quickly to be retained in the body, researchers found “high levels of glyphosate” in:
- 30% of the breast milk tested and
- 85% of the participants' urine.
And the REALLY frightening part of this study?
The participants had already been on an Organic and/or GMO-free diet for anywhere from 2 months to 2 years before doing the test.
So how did glyphosate get into the bodies of the participants? Presumably from environmental exposure (remember, glyphosate is used everywhere: schools, public parks, lawns, farmlands, etc.) or possibly from their tap water (no, public water is not tested for glyphosate contamination).
Nevertheless, since according to Monsanto's own marketing claims that glyphosate breaks down too quickly to be retained in the human body, regardless of the source of exposure, glyphosate SHOULDN'T have been found in those breast milk and urine samples at all!
How high is “high?”
760 to 1,600 times higher than the European Drinking Water Directive allows for individual pesticides.
(Related post: Why we ditched reverse osmosis water and what we got instead.)
Mar 20, 2015: The Nuclear Explosion That May Topple Monsanto
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization announces that it has reclassified glyphosate as more toxic than previously thought.
Based on their own, independent laboratory tests, the IARC says that there is, in fact, sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity to move glyphosate, along with 4 other pesticides, into the “probable” cancer-causing range.
This is important because this information comes from a well-respected agency not funded by Monsanto or any other glyphosate manufacturer. The IARC's independent test results and conclusions throw doubt on decades of manufacturer-funded studies upon which the FDA and EPA have unquestionably relied for accurate safety analysis.
Can you hear my eyes rolling? When has it EVER been a good idea to have the fox guarding the hen house?
Mar 24, 2015: Glyphosate Helps to Create Deadly Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs
Just 4 days after the IARC's political firebomb, another study is published that finds that exposure to glyphosate changes the way bacteria respond to a number of antibiotics widely used to treat a range of deadly diseases.
In other words, the antibiotic effect of glyphosate is helping to create new forms of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
April 21, 2015: First of Many Class Action Suits Against Monsanto
On this date a class action suit was filed in Los Angeles county, California, accusing Monsanto of falsely claiming on their label that their product is harmless to humans.
This law suit has huge implications not only for individuals (home owners, landscapers, etc.) who purchased the product believing it was safe, but particularly for any worker in the U.S. paid to handle glyphosate as a regular part of their job: agricultural workers and farmers in the field, as well as municipal, county or state employees who do landscape and road maintenance (Parks and Rec, etc.) and apply glyphosate along roadways, trails, etc., week after week, year after year.
The Beginning of the Avalanche
The established link to cancer now opens the door to a stampede of law suits alleging that the label instructions for glyphosate have never been safe.
8/31/17 UPDATE: The following states have all now filed against Monsanto claiming that glyphosate disrupts the gut microbiome:
- California,
- Florida,
- Illinois,
- New Jersey,
- New York and
- Wisconsin.
(Source: Monsanto's Roundup to Get Cancer Label)
If you believe you may have been harmed by exposure to glyphosate, go HERE.
June 17, 2015: Decades of Corporate Studies on Glyphosate's “Safety” Shown to be Invalid
The results of tests performed by two different sets of researchers (Anthony Samsel in the U.S. and the Seralini team in France) reveal that the food given to both the control group AND test groups in GMO industry sponsored scientific studies were all contaminated with glyphosate.
This means…
ALL industry-sponsored “safety” studies regarding GMOs and glyphosate are INVALID due to poorly conducted test parameters.
Expect the U.S. to be slow to pick up on anti-glyphosate news stories and to see Monsanto hitting back hard, particularly in this country.
The WHO'S definition of glyphosate as a “probable carcinogen” has sparked an international firestorm Americans are not hearing about.
Even though campaigns to ban or remove glyphosate have intensified the world over, media reports here in the United States, home to Monsanto, are… not so much!
Nevertheless, bans, outright and partial, that are already in place include:
- France
- Belgium
- El Salvador
- Colombia
- Bermuda
- The Netherlands
- Sri Lanka
- Malta
Countries actively moving towards a national ban include:
- Brazil
- Argentina
- Germany
- Switzerland
- Denmark
(Source: Fallout from WHO Classification of Glyphosate as Probable Carcinogen)
April, 2015: Another Interesting Factoid
Monsanto's financial value falls yet again (15%) and Monsanto Vice President Kerry J. Preete sells over 40% of his stock in the company: 27,580 shares.
Note: This also occurred the same month that the law suit against Monsanto was filed in Los Angeles.
Maybe this Monsanto V.P. saw the “one-two punch” handwriting on the wall?
(Source: Ending GMO's Now)
May 19, 2017 UPDATE: Is the state of California agreeing to financially bail Monsanto out in exchange for classifying Roundup as a carcinogen?
I was recently informed by a former California public health employee, that CalPERS, the state's pension and health care fund, the largest in the nation, has invested $136 million in Monsanto.
As a California activist committed to healthy communities, I see this investment as a huge conflict of interest. For its health plan subscribers, the CalPERS mission to “advance the financial and health security” of the participants does not align with the detrimental effects of the toxic herbicide Roundup, Monsanto’s number-one product.
The day after finding out about this ill-advised investment, I sent a letter to CalPERS urging it to divest from Monsanto. They have not responded.
(Source: America's Largest Pension Fund Has Dumped a Fortune into Monsanto Stock)
RESOURCES ON GMOs & GLYPHOSATE
Glyphosate Testing
$5 of every test goes to Moms Across America to raise awareness about GMOs, when ordered from this link.
Our previous MAA tests and reports completed in 2014 showed that glyphosate is found in American women’s breast milk, urine and water…
(Source Feed the World Project)
How You Can Help ~ Consider Joining!
We are a national coalition of Unstoppable Moms committed to empowering millions to educate themselves about GMOs and related pesticides, get GMOs labeled and offer GMO free and Organic solutions. Moms Across America
Other Resources
Book: Real Food for Rookies by Kelly Moeggenborg: Kelly's new book is the perfect resource for that caring parent with not enough time, energy and money, but much desire to feed their family the most nutritious food. Where else can you find such practical recipes and tips on how to make cooking from scratch with the cleanest, glyphosate-free and preferably organic ingredients easy, inexpensive and super fast!
Click here to read more about it!
Websites
All Kelly's Articles on GMO's — she's still in-process with recategorizing her entire site, so you'll find some of those at this link as well, where other stories of general corruption are included as well.
Institute of Science in Society: Highly recommended for both well-referenced science as well as excellent reporting on the international community's perspective on glyphosate and genetic engineering, written by a geneticist and GMO expert, Dr. Mae Won Ho, PhD
Institute for Responsible Technology: The founder, Jeffrey Smith was one of the earliest and most dogged voices speaking out against GMO's and glyphosate.
The video below is an interview with Dr. Anthony Samsel who explains how his results show that virtually all tests on lab animals “proving” the safety of glyphosate turn out to be invalid:
photo, Creative Commons 2.0
This was a guest post by my sweet friend, Joanie Blaxter, who is now a regular writer around here!
Joanie has been the Ventura County, California chapter leader of the Weston A. Price Foundation since 2010, and you can contact Joanie here for health consultations. Also, find all her past posts here.
Disclaimer: neither Joanie nor I are health professionals! Use what you read here as part of your own research and then consult with a natural-minded doctor or health professional you trust to find what is best and right for YOU. Read my entire disclaimer here, and also note that there may be affiliate links in this post.
Laura says
Thank you for this valuable information. I got on the anti-glyphosate after researching it for my blog at wholesomemamamedicine.blogspot.com It is scary stuff and needs all the press it can get!!
Joanie Blaxter says
Truly, Laura! Thanks for the post and yes, we need to let other people know as much as possible.
Joanie Blaxter says
Don’t give up, Maggie! You are clearly a fabulous mom and everything you are doing is having a positive impact on your beautiful gal! You might also want to get both your daughter’s urine as well as your drinking water tested for glyphosate through Feed the World Project (see link under “Glyphosate Testing” above). That will give you more information. Do you have a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system? They are not that expensive and can be purchased at Home Depot or rented monthly through Culligan.
I send you much love!
Maggie says
As mom who has a child with multiple health issues this made me so frustrated I broke down in tears reading this article. We are already doing everything possible through diet and supplementation to help her with her digestion and now recently discovered metabolic issues. I feel like I’m running a race and just barely keeping up as it is. My daughter is the proverbial canary in the coal mine. I can’t imagine how bad things would be for her if we weren’t already doing everything possible to keep her system functioning. Thank God the tide is finally starting to turn against herbicides.