Monsanto's Roundup Herbicide: Long-term Effects:

[amborin]

Patents Trump Public Interest in Monsanto's Ag Empire
Special Report: Are Regulators Dropping the Ball on Biocrops?

by Carey Gillam

COLUMBIA, Missouri - Robert Kremer, a U.S. government microbiologist who studies Midwestern farm soil, has spent two decades analyzing the rich dirt that yields billions of bushels of food each year and helps the United States retain its title as breadbasket of the world.
Kremer's lab is housed at the University of Missouri and is literally in the shadow of Monsanto Auditorium, named after the $11.8 billion-a-year agricultural giant Monsanto Co.. Based in Creve Coeur, Missouri, the company has accumulated vast wealth and power creating chemicals and genetically altered seeds for farmers worldwide.

But recent findings by Kremer and other agricultural scientists are raising fresh concerns about Monsanto's products and the Washington agencies that oversee them. The same seeds and chemicals spread across millions of acres of U.S. farmland could be creating unforeseen problems in the plants and soil, this body of research shows.

Kremer, who works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS), is among a group of scientists who are turning up potential problems with glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup and the most widely used weed-killer in the world.

"This could be something quite big. We might be setting up a huge problem," said Kremer, who expressed alarm that regulators were not paying enough attention to the potential risks from biotechnology on the farm, including his own research.
Concerns range from worries about how nontraditional genetic traits in crops could affect human and animal health to the spread of herbicide-resistant weeds.
Biotech crop supporters say there is a wealth of evidence that the crops on the market are safe, but critics argue that after only 14 years of commercialized GMOs, it is still unclear whether or not the technology has long-term adverse effects.

But whatever the point of view on the crops themselves, there are many people on both sides of the debate who say that the current U.S. regulatory apparatus is ill-equipped to adequately address the concerns. Indeed, many experts say the U.S. government does more to promote global acceptance of biotech crops than to protect the public from possible harmful consequences.
"We don't have a robust enough regulatory system to be able to give us a definitive answer about whether these crops are safe or not. We simply aren't doing the kinds of tests we need to do to have confidence in the safety of these crops," said Doug Gurian-Sherman, a scientist who served on a FDA biotech advisory subcommittee from 2002 to 2005.

"The U.S. response (to questions about biotech crop safety) has been an extremely patronizing one. They say 'We know best, trust us,'" added Gurian-Sherman, now a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit environmental group.


snip

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/13-0

[DCKit]

1. Round-Up is an herbicide, not a pesticide.

But it probably messes with the bug's genders too.

[amborin]

4. you're right, thanks! my bad!

[kentauros]

2. One thing I find most unfortunate about all this

is that most people literally do not understand just how beneficial weeds are to soil health. If I ever have some land, I'll likely cultivate the "weeds"! :D

Weeds -- Guardians of the Soil: 4. The Fertility Chain and Soil Balance

[amborin]

5. and to wildlife! especially birds!

[kentauros]

10. You understand!

:)

I've never read the entire online book I linked (mostly because I'm not a farmer) but have discussed the topic with naturalists. What we call "weeds" are some amazing plants indeed :D

[truedelphi]

14. I know. It is deplorable.

My landlord sprays the heck out of miner's lettuce, which is trying its best to restore soil fertility while keeping more noxious pests like the star thistle away from the land. My previous landlord's son loved to come over and blast away at CLOVER!

And even the more noxious pests are beneficial. We eat nettles, thistle and dandelion at our house - but I have to traipse over to properties where no one is around to spray.

I cannot understand why people have been taught that the very gorgeous weeds and brush are a threat. And that barren dead soil is somehow wonderful.

[kentauros]

15. I'm guessing the origin of the "no weeds ever!!1!" mindset

came from the beginnings of suburbia after WWII. Everything had to be pristine, especially the lawns and gardens. Although I do wonder how much influence British gardening habits had on this, too.

That's wonderful that y'all eat some of these plants :D I never have, usually because they aren't around; someone else gets to them first, and not in a good way. I'd love to try dandelion as I know it's supposed to also be a good diuretic ;)

[alcina]

19. For an interesting look at lawn vs weed

I recommend the book The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession, by Virginia Scott Jenkins.

From one of the reviews: The author makes a "convincing argument that the military metaphors used by advertisers and lawn-care experts alike were part of a male viewpoint that saw nature as something to be 'controlled and mastered'."

[kentauros]

21. Sadly, we still see that viewpoint,

that Nature must be controlled, "tamed" even.

Thanks for the book recommendation; I'll look for it :)

[amborin]

22. sounds intriguing, thanks for the tip!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. "after only 14 years of commercialized GMOs, it is still unclear"

Good thing we know that glyphostate, which is not a GMO, has been safe for some thirty, forty years now.

[varelse]

7. safe, yet toxic

http://extoxnet.orst.edu/pips/glyphosa.htm

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. It's almost as bad as dihydrogen monoxide.

Every summer dozens of children are asphyxiated by overexposure to dihydrogen monoxide.

[NYC_SKP]

25. That shit almost killed me more than once.

But I'm addicted to it.

Just need to be moderate in the way I, yanno, use it.

:P

[truedelphi]

16. Back in the late 1980's, the GMO containing strata which the tryptophan was

Grown on - that strata led to the deaths of over thirty five people world wide, with some thousands more suffering a rare blood disease.

So although the problem was tracked down to a GMO culturing medium, the Powers that Be pretended that was not the case.

However due to the pull that the GMO people have, our nation's FDA went into full alert and kicked in doors all across this nation - taking away L Tryptophan not developed on the contaminated surface - but perfectly good Tryptophan.

Then the news media went into full alert letting people know how unsafe tryptophan was! When the problem was the GMO surface itself.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

28. Debunked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-tryptophan#Tryptophan_supplements_and_EMS

[marmar]

6. Monsanto has been responsible for a great deal of death and human suffering....

....and I will dance in the streets when that company goes :nuke:

[MadHound]

8. I live in the Mid Missouri area, and the local radio station had an extended report on this

We are, after all, in farm country.

Turns out that there are already Round up ready resistant weeds growing, ones that can't be taken out with Round Up or even a combination of herbicides. One farmer is having to go out and take his weeds the old fashioned way, with a hoe.

[RedEarth]

11. Watch Food Inc on PBS next week...it goes into detail about Round Up

[amborin]

23. thanks for the tip!

[Echo In Light]

12. k/r - saw a great doc film on them last night!

[Echo In Light]

13. The World According to Monsanto

There’s nothing they are leaving untouched: the mustard, the okra, the bringe oil, the rice, the cauliflower. Once they have established the norm: that seed can be owned as their property, royalties can be collected. We will depend on them for every seed we grow of every crop we grow. If they control seed, they control food, they know it – it’s strategic. It’s more powerful than bombs. It’s more powerful than guns. This is the best way to control the populations of the world. The story starts in the White House, where Monsanto often got its way by exerting disproportionate influence over policymakers via the “revolving door”. One example is Michael Taylor, who worked for Monsanto as an attorney before being appointed as deputy commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1991. While at the FDA, the authority that deals with all US food approvals, Taylor made crucial decisions that led to the approval of GE foods and crops. Then he returned to Monsanto, becoming the company’s vice president for public policy.

Thanks to these intimate links between Monsanto and government agencies, the US adopted GE foods and crops without proper testing, without consumer labeling and in spite of serious questions hanging over their safety. Not coincidentally, Monsanto supplies 90 percent of the GE seeds used by the US market. Monsanto’s long arm stretched so far that, in the early nineties, the US Food and Drugs Agency even ignored warnings of their own scientists, who were cautioning that GE crops could cause negative health effects. Other tactics the company uses to stifle concerns about their products include misleading advertising, bribery and concealing scientific evidence.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-world-according-to-monsanto/

[amborin]

20. Taylor now has a job in the FDA

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8099327&mesg_id=8099327

the same person?

[Echo In Light]

27. Thanks for posting that

[DemoTex]

17. Ranch Hand and Round Up.

Operation Ranch Hand was the USAF "secret" program in Viet Nam that sprayed the defoliant Agent Orange from the Delta to the DMZ (using, mainly, C-123 "Provider" airplanes). Monsanto was one of the manufacturers of the now infamous Agent Orange. On a ranch, the ranch hands round up livestock. Is this pure coincidence, or did Monsanto cynically name their product, Round Up, with an allusion to a program that made them a fortune in the 1960: Operation Ranch Hand?

[amborin]

24. interesting, thanks for posting!

[DemoTex]

26. Got to ask the questions that are bugging you ..

And this one has been bugging me for quite a while.

[Greyhound]

18. "Trust us".

By all means, 'cause that's worked so well thus far.
:eyes:
:kick: & R