{"id":1644,"date":"2012-01-13T13:48:52","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T19:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/realfoodhouston.com\/?p=1644"},"modified":"2014-07-27T11:08:59","modified_gmt":"2014-07-27T16:08:59","slug":"glyphosate-is-already-in-our-food-air-and-water-what-is-it-and-why-should-we-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/2012\/01\/13\/glyphosate-is-already-in-our-food-air-and-water-what-is-it-and-why-should-we-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Glyphosate is already in our food, air, and water: What is it and why should we care?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Roundup\"<\/a>Have you heard of glyphosate?\u00a0\u00a0 Glyphosate is an herbicide that\u00a0kills plants, almost all plants.\u00a0But if you haven’t heard of glyphosate, you have probably heard of Roundup and have seen the clever TV commercials showing\u00a0weeds\u00a0wilting and dying–touted as the perfect solution to get rid of weeds in your driveway or around your patio.\u00a0 It’s available just about everywhere–your local hardware or home and garden store.\u00a0 Roundup is\u00a0a brand name for a herbicide containing glyphosate, which was created and patented by Monsanto in the 1970s, although patent rights have expired and glyphosate is now used under other brand names in addition to Roundup.\u00a0\u00a0 Glyphosate is\u00a0a non-selective herbicide, meaning it kills almost all\u00a0plants;\u00a0it is absorbed through the leaves and spreads throughout the plant, including the roots and seeds.\u00a0 Glyphosate is systemic; it can’t be washed off<\/strong><\/em> because it’s inside the plant.\u00a0 According to the National Pesticide Information Center<\/a> maintained by the University of Oregon, glyphosate kills by preventing the plant from making proteins needed for growth; it stops an enzyme pathway, the shikimic acid pathway, which is found only in plants and some microorganisms; therefore,\u00a0glyphosate not only kills plants but also microorganisms.<\/p>\n

\"Rows<\/a>But Roundup’s success is not from home use, it was the introduction of genetically engineered seeds about twenty years ago that has helped glyphosate\u00a0become the most widely used herbicide in the U.S. and world-wide.\u00a0\u00a0Because Roundup Ready crops created by Monsanto have been genetically engineered to be resistant to glyphosate-containing Roundup,\u00a0the farmer\u00a0can\u00a0spray\u00a0Roundup on\u00a0his fields and crops;\u00a0Roundup will kill the weeds (or any other plant that is not Roundup Ready)\u00a0but won’t kill the Roundup Ready crops.\u00a0\u00a0Although glyphosate’s primary\u00a0application is on farm crops, it’s also used\u00a0on forests, lawns, gardens, industrial area weeds, and even on water plants.\u00a0The EPA estimated that in 2007, agriculture used 180 to 185 million pounds; home and garden use was 5 to 8 million pounds; and industry, commerce, and government used 13 to 15 million pounds.\u00a0 The most common Roundup Ready crops\u00a0in the U.S. and their approximate crop percentages: soybeans, 94%; corn,\u00a066%; canola, 90%;\u00a0cotton, 43%;\u00a0and\u00a0now also alfalfa.<\/p>\n

Although glyphosate is promoted as being benign and not readily absorbed by the soil,\u00a0studies have\u00a0found it\u00a0in our air and in our water.\u00a0\u00a0A Spanish study<\/a>\u00a0found glyphosate in groundwater.\u00a0 A U.S. study<\/a>\u00a0found glyphosate in the air and in rain:<\/p>\n

weekly integrated air particle and rain samples were collected during two growing seasons in agricultural areas in Mississippi and Iowa. Rain was also collected in Indiana in a preliminary phase of the study. The frequency of glyphosate detection ranged from 60 to 100% in both air and rain<\/strong>.\u00a0. . .\u00a0The frequency of detection and median and maximum concentrations of glyphosate in air were similar or greater to those of the other high-use herbicides observed in the Mississippi River basin, whereas its concentration in rain was greater than the other herbicides. [emphasis mine]<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Glyphosate destroys\u00a0soil quality by killing beneficial soil microorganisms.\u00a0 Robert Kremer, a microbiologist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service says<\/a> that using Roundup Ready crops is “altering the whole soil biology. . . Glyphosate is very systemic in the plant and is being released through the roots into the soil.\u00a0 Many studies show that glyphosate can have toxic effects on microorganisms and can stimulate them to germinate spores and colonize root systems.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Twenty percent of the glyphosate used on plants goes into the soil and can affect subsequent crops and soil quality.\u00a0 Dr. Don Huber, an agricultural scientist and\u00a0expert in microbial ecology, Professor Emeritus from Purdue University,\u00a0says<\/a> that the\u00a0“widespread use of glyphosate that we see today\u00a0in agriculture in the United States can ‘significantly increase the\u00a0 severity of various plant diseases, impair plant defense to pathogens\u00a0 and diseases, and immobilize soil and plant nutrients rendering them\u00a0 unavailable for plant use.'” Dr. Huber says that over 40 plant diseases–either new diseases or old ones that used to be easily controlled–are now becoming serious problems due to the detrimental effect on soil microorganisms caused by residues of glyphosate.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The ability of glyphosate to kill microorganisms can also affect animals who eat the plants.\u00a0 When the animals eat the genetically engineered crops that have been treated with glyphosate-containing Roundup, the animals’ beneficial gut bacteria are killed, thereby removing the natural resistance to toxins such as botulism.\u00a0 The levels of glyphosate currently permitted in feed\u00a0are high enough to kill normal biological control organisms such as lactobacillus and alcaligenes.\u00a0\u00a0 Feeding\u00a0foods made with Roundup Ready crops to infants\u00a0could be especially risky because\u00a0infants\u00a0don’t yet have full intestinal gut bacteria.<\/p>\n

\"Alfalfa\"<\/a>Dr. Huber’s\u00a0research<\/a> has\u00a0found that genetically engineered Roundup Ready crops contain an organism, completely unknown until now, that can cause infertility and\u00a0miscarriages in farm animals.\u00a0 The new organism is significant because “it can reproduce, and possesses the rare ability to cause disease in both<\/em> plants and animals.”\u00a0 [emphasis mine]\u00a0The potential danger of this new as yet unidentified organism is so great that, in January 2011,\u00a0Dr. Huber wrote a letter<\/a> to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack urging a moratorium on the deregulation of Roundup Ready alfalfa until further research could be conducted.\u00a0\u00a0A second letter<\/a> to the European Commission was written in March 2011 giving more detailed information\u00a0about the damage caused by glyphosate-containing\u00a0herbicides on Roundup Ready crops.\u00a0Dr. Huber’s\u00a0concerns and those of other scientists have been ignored.\u00a0 Roundup Ready alfalfa was approved for commercial use early in 2011.<\/p>\n

Another major problem with\u00a0Roundup Ready crops treated with glyphosate is the ability of glyphosate to\u00a0“immobilize plant nutrients such as manganese, copper, potassium, iron, magnesium, calcium, and zinc so they are no longer nutritionally functional.”\u00a0 Zinc and manganese are\u00a0up to 50% less effective. Manganese is not only essential to plants, humans and animals need it too.\u00a0 One study<\/a> has indicated that lack of manganese may be a possible root cause of osteoporosis.\u00a0The ability of glyphosate to bind up, or chelate,\u00a0the minerals in plants reduces the nutrition available to the animals and people that eat the plants.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, glyphosate was first patented as a chelator in 1964.\u00a0\u00a0When a plant is genetically engineered to be glyphosate resistant,\u00a0 it will survive, but it\u00a0will have\u00a0a 50 percent reduction in available iron and an 80-90 percent reduction in available manganese and zinc.\u00a0 Tests might show that these minerals, such as manganese, copper,\u00a0iron or zinc, are there in the plant, but the minerals\u00a0won’t be available for use by the plant or by the animals or humans\u00a0who eat the plants.<\/p>\n

Michael McNeill, an agronomist, said<\/a> that some of the problems with increased use of\u00a0glyphosate\u00a0are “increasing weed resistance to the herbicide, killing of beneficial soil microorganisms, increasing diseases in plants such as sudden death syndrome in soybeans and Goss\u2019s Wilt in corn and other fungal diseases.”\u00a0 Robert Kremer says<\/a> that there are “eight different species of glyphosate resistant weeds in Missouri.”\u00a0 There are 21 weeds confirmed world-wide that are now resistant to glyphosate.\u00a0 The techno-agricultural solution to glyphosate resistant weeds is to engineer seeds tolerant to a combination of two or more herbicides, such as Roundup and Dicamba.\u00a0 According to Robert Kremer,\u00a0continually combatting resistance by adding another herbicide to the mix\u00a0is “an illogical circle.”\u00a0 Heavy use of Roundup, in combination with genetically engineered crops,\u00a0has\u00a0produced these ‘superweeds’ in the U.S. and in other countries as well.<\/p>\n

What concerns me the most about glyphosate\u00a0are the serious and significant health\u00a0impacts\u00a0to humans and animals caused by exposure to glyphosate and Roundup Ready crops.\u00a0 Dr. Huber says <\/a>that glyphosate causes “reproductive failure, infertility, as well as miscarriage for cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, and poultry.”\u00a0 Further, since the effect covers so many animal species, it is also likely to affect humans the same way, and there is\u00a0 evidence that infertility in humans is steadily increasing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Other studies have shown premature aging in animals; cows at two and a half years old have been downgraded at market to a ten-year old cow.\u00a0 A study published in 2010 showed\u00a0evidence<\/a>\u00a0that pregnant women exposed to glyphosate have babies with “congenital malformations, including microcephaly, anencephaly, and cranial malformations. . .\u00a0 In addition,\u00a0both glyphosate and the commercial herbicide severely affect embryonic and placental cells, producing mitrochondrial damage, necrosis, and programmed cell death . . . with doses far below those used in agriculture.”\u00a0 “Other effects observed include cytotoxicity and genotoxicity, endocrine disruption of the androgen and estrogen receptors, and DNA damage in cell lines.”\u00a0 One study demonstrated that, in fact, Roundup was even more damaging than glyphosate alone, probably because the adjuvants in Roundup “allow a better cell penetration and stabilization of the product [glyphosate].” As you can see, there is increasing evidence of\u00a0organ and systemic\u00a0damage from glyphosate and Roundup in humans and animals.<\/p>\n

We’ve talked about the damage to plants, animals, and humans–superweeds,\u00a0the fertility and organ damage in animals, and the malformed babies of pregnant women exposed to glyphosate.\u00a0 How much harm does glyphosate and its hepped-up Roundup\u00a0need to cause before we recognize that we just can’t go on spraying it in ever-increasing amounts and in ever stronger doses by combining herbicides.\u00a0 If there’s so much potential harm to the soil, plants, animals, and to us and our children, what possible\u00a0benefits could justify its continued widespread use?<\/p>\n

You may also be interested in these\u00a0related Real Food Houston posts:<\/p>\n

It’s Not Pretty Behind the Biotech Veil, an Interview with Howard Vlieger<\/a>
\nGMO Crops Fail Again–This Time It’s Bt Corn<\/a>
\nDouble GM Whammy for the Monarch Butterfly<\/a>
\nWhy Was an Antibiotic-Resistant GE Potato Approved?<\/a>
\nWhat Does Genetically Engineered (or GMO) Mean?<\/a>
\nGMO Foods Should Be Labeled<\/a><\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

The Organic and Non GMO Report interview with Robert Kremer,\u00a0Experts say Roundup causing problems in soil, plants, and animals\u00a0<\/a><\/em>
\nThe Organic and Non GMO Report, interview with Dr. Don Huber,\u00a0Scientist warns of dire consequences with widespread use of glyphosate<\/a><\/em>
\nDr. Mercola’s interview with Dr. Don Huber, The Hidden Epidemic Destroying Your Gut Flora
\n<\/a><\/em>Carrasco, Andres E., Glyphosate-Based Herbicides Produce Teratogenic Effects on Vertebrates by Impairing Retinoic Acid Signaling<\/a><\/em>
\nSeralini, G.E., Time- and Dose- Dependent Effects of Roundup on Human Embryonic and Placental Cells<\/a><\/em>
\nFarm and Ranch Freedom Alliance<\/a>\/GMOs<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Additional Information about glyphosate:<\/p>\n

Added January 27, 2013<\/em>: Ji, Sayer, Research: Roundup Herbicide Toxicity Vastly Underestimated<\/a><\/em>
\nAdded May 13, 2013<\/em>: Ji, Sayer, Is GMO Farming Poisoning The World’s Drinking Water?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you heard of glyphosate?\u00a0\u00a0 Glyphosate is an herbicide that\u00a0kills plants, almost all plants.\u00a0But if you haven’t heard of glyphosate, you have probably heard of Roundup and have seen the clever TV commercials showing\u00a0weeds\u00a0wilting and dying–touted as the perfect solution …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[63,59,80,19],"tags":[96,98,94,95,405,84,61,120,92,93,31,97],"class_list":["post-1644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-safety","category-gmos","category-health","category-real-food","tag-alfalfa","tag-dr-don-huber","tag-genetically-engineered","tag-glyphosate","tag-gmos","tag-health-2","tag-healthy-foods","tag-pesticides","tag-roundup","tag-roundup-ready","tag-sustainable-farming","tag-tom-vilsack"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p70SEj-qw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1644"}],"version-history":[{"count":83,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5737,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644\/revisions\/5737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}