Glyphosate toxicity

Bioaccumulation

There is evidence that the chronically ill amongst us will often present with unusually high levels of glyphosate in their blood. Most of us have a measurable quantity of this contaminant in our systems, because it is often found in our most popular food, bread. GM soy crops, which have been modified to withstand the herbicide, are often sprayed three times per season before they make their way into the soy flour that is a core component in most supermarket bread (including many Australian baked items). The Europeans boast that they wisely avoided the growing of GM crops. However, the production of protein crops in Europe has slumped in the face of the massive import of GM soy, as stock-food. They may not directly grow these problem crops, but glyphosate is deeply embedded in the food chain of every meat-eating European.

Reduced nutrient uptake

‘We are what we absorb’ and herein lies a problem. Glyphosate kills plants by reducing their capacity to uptake nutrients and it may well do something similar to us. Glyphosate-induced vitamin deficiency has recently been linked to cancer in children. In Australia, the wheat usually dries down naturally, but glyphosate is sprayed on so-called ‘health foods’ like mung beans and fava beans to dry them off for harvest.

Similarly, we might reconsider the use of this chemical to kill off potato crops (the western world’s most popular vegetable) to ease their harvest ability. I suspect that some of the conventional potato growers out there may well feel confronted because they do not use glyphosate for this purpose. They actually choose a worse chemical, called paraquat, to finish the crop and simplify their harvest. Google ‘paraquat’ and make your own call.

Glyphosate increases the risk of lymphatic cancers

In one study, contact with this chemical actually doubled the risk of Non- Hodgkin lymphoma. Another study, published in The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health involved a meta- analysis of 41 different papers. Several farm chemicals were linked to Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but it was found that there was a direct link between glyphosate and a form of this disease called B-cell lymphoma.

Glyphosate creates digestive chaos

It is particularly harsh on beneficial gut organisms. The mode of action of this chemical involves the shutdown of the Shikimate pathway. This pathway is integral to all life on the planet. The perpetrators of this chemical have noted that animals do not depend on this pathway, so there is no problem. The fatal flaw in this argument relates to the grim realisation that the 100 trillion organisms that inhabit a healthy digestive tract, do have a Shikimate pathway. The consequent damage to our inner life force has been strongly linked to autism, celiac disease, gluten intolerance and other plague auto-immune issues. There are multiple studies where the use of GM soy as stock food has damaged the digestive tracts of farm animals and chickens.

Links to liver and kidney damage

Sri Lanka and Ecuador have banned glyphosate following conclusive evidence linking the weedkiller to increases in liver and kidney problems. In 2012, French researcher, Gilles-Éric Séralini, published a damning study called “Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize”. The damage control spin doctors attacked the research, despite multiple and rigorous peer reviews, and successfully had it withdrawn from publication.

Séralini had capably demonstrated that the original short term studies, submitted by Monsanto, were suspect when longer periods were involved. The French researchers found serious issues when the feed study was extended out for two years. The regime involved feeding rats GM maize, featuring glyphosate levels that were lower than that allowable in drinking water. Séralini’s team discovered substantial kidney and liver damage associated with this food over a longer period and they also noted a marked increase in tumour development amongst the ‘treated’ rats. Thankfully, in a victory for real science, the Séralini research has recently been republished.

Direct links to reproductive problems and spontaneous abortion

Dr Michael Antoniou and his research team demonstrated that low doses of glyphosate cause malformations in animals. They found that there was a four-fold increase in birth defects in one state of Argentina following the introduction of Roundup Ready® crops. Glyphosate and its more persistent metabolite, AMPA, both cause cell death in human umbilical, embryonic and placental cells in dilutions far lower than those used in agriculture.

Glyphosate kills multiple beneficial organisms

thereby compromising farm resilience. In separate studies Schneider, Benamu and Griesinger and their respective associates demonstrated that glyphosate has an adverse effect upon some earthworms and several key IPM insects, including green lacewings, predatory mites, ladybirds and spiders. In fact, it is now understood that glyphosate also impacts a variety of beneficial soil life. It destroys the organisms responsible for delivering manganese and iron into the plant. Two key creatures, mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen-fixing organisms, are both negatively affected and it also kills an important protective organism called Pseudomonas fluorescens. Iron and manganese are critical for plant immunity, as are the exudates of these other damaged organisms. In one study, Professor Don Huber has now linked long-term use of glyphosate to increased likelihood of 40 soil diseases.

In my recent visit to Ireland, scientists at a research centre where I was speaking described the ‘dead zone’ they are monitoring, following long-term use of glyphosate beneath the trees. In orchard situations, this root zone should be the most fertile region on the farm. The tree roots are constantly pumping exudates out to their supportive workforce. You do not need fancy equipment to recognise the mistake here. Just smell the soil in your herbicide zone and you will detect the lack of life.

Widespread environmental contamination

The French Government claim that the compelling evidence of endocrine disruption associated with glyphosate is equally important as the new WHO findings relative to cancer. The huge concern is that this chemical is everywhere in our environment. It is absurdly destructive and restrictions are essential and long overdue. Glyphosate and its metabolite AMPA were found in 100 per cent of rain samples from agricultural regions of the US. Tank water becomes a liability in this context but the groundwater is not much better. Slack et al report glyphosate residues in surface and groundwater in the US, the UK, China, Germany, Argentina, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Norway and Canada. The countries that have embraced GM are obviously worst placed, because the cash crop is sprayed three times per season with this toxin