Argentine scientist who challenged Monsanto dies

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

May 10, 6:24 PM EDT

Argentine scientist who challenged Monsanto dies

By MICHAEL WARREN
Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Dr. Andres Carrasco, an Argentine neuroscientist who challenged pesticide regulators to re-examine one of the world's most widely used weed killers, has died. He was 67.

Argentina's national science council announced Carrasco's death on Saturday. He had been in declining health.

Carrasco, a molecular biologist at the University of Buenos Aires and past-president of Argentina's CONICET science council, was a widely published expert in embryonic development whose work focused on how neurotransmitters affect genetic expression in vertebrates. But none of his research generated as much controversy as his 2010 study on glyphosate, which became a major public relations challenge for the St. Louis, Missouri-based Monsanto Company.

Glyphosate is the key ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup brand of pesticides, which have combined with genetically modified "Roundup-Ready" plants to dramatically increase the spread of industrial agriculture around the world. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other regulators have labeled it reasonably safe to use if applied properly. But few countries enforce pesticide rules as rigorously as the United States, and farming's spread has increasingly exposed people to glyphosate and other chemicals.

Carrasco, principal investigator at his university's Cellular Biology and Neuroscience Institute, told The Associated Press in a 2013 interview that he had heard reports of increasing birth defects in farming communities after genetically modified crops were approved for use in Argentina, and so decided to test the impact of glyphosate on frog and chicken embryos in his laboratory.


Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_ARGENTINA_OBIT_CARRASCO?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-10-17-06-17

[Archae]

1. Monsanto had him killed!

[proverbialwisdom]

8. Here's a lecture from 2012 and a link to GM Watch. Check it out before making any more jokes.

Published on Jul 2, 2012

Andres Carrasco, MD, is head of the Molecular Embryology Laboratory at University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and chief scientist at the National Council for Science and Technology (CONICET), Argentina.

The Carrasco laboratory investigates glyphosate/Roundup herbicide and birth defects.

Carrasco's findings gave scientific credibility to reports of people in Argentina who claimed escalating rates of birth defects and cancers after the introduction of genetically modified soy, which is engineered to tolerate being sprayed with huge amounts of glyphosate.

In June 2011, Earth Open Source published a report by a group of international scientists, "Roundup and birth defects: Is the public being kept in the dark?" which examined the original approval documents for glyphosate and found that industry's own studies from as long ago as the 1980s-1990s (including some commissioned by Monsanto) showed that glyphosate causes birth defects in laboratory animals, specifically rabbits and rats.

http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12482:reports-andres-carrasco-interview

Andrés Carrasco - Interview
In this section you'll find links to high quality images of those affected by the spraying of glyphosate on GM soy in Argentina

<>

Baby with hydrocephalus or water on the brain, a common effect of agrochemicals exposure
– Photo by Jorge Galeano, Region: Caaguazu, Paraguay. Nearly all soy in that region is GM Roundup Ready soy.

Baby with sores from agrochemicals spraying in a GM soy-producing region of Paraguay
– Photo by Jorge Galeano. Community of Mbokaya'i (Vaqueria). Region: Caaguazú, Paraguay.

A representative of the activist group Mothers from Ituzaingo, Cordoba, Argentina, showing a map with all the cases of sick people in their neighbourhood, linked with agrochemicals spraying, marked on them.

[img][/img]

[blkmusclmachine]

2. Cause of death???

[Judi Lynn]

3. "He had been in declining health." That's all she wrote!

"Argentina's national science council announced Carrasco's death on Saturday. He had been in declining health."

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/10/4109776/argentine-scientist-who-challenged.html#storylink=cpy

(Same story, faster link.)

[Judi Lynn]

4. Argentina: THREATS TO SCIENTIST WHO SHOWED ROUNDUP DANGERS

Argentina: THREATS TO SCIENTIST WHO SHOWED ROUNDUP DANGERS


Reports from Argentina say there have been attempts to intimidate the lead researcher of a study showing that Roundup - the glyphosate herbicide developed by Monsanto - can cause brain, intestinal and heart defects in fetuses. The lead researcher for the study, carried out in Argentina where Roundup is used on a massive scale on GM herbicide-resistant soy, is embryology professor Dr Andres Carrasco.

Dr Carrasco has worked for nearly thirty years in embryonic development, and was President and Assistant Secretary of Conicet (Brazil’s National Commission for Scientific Research). He now works at the Defence Ministry. Dr Carrasco has warned that the doses of herbicide used in his study "were much lower than the levels used in the fumigations(crop spraying)," and so the situation "is much more serious" that the study suggests because "glyphosate does not degrade".

According to an article in the Argentine press, after news about the study broke, Dr Carrasco was the victim of an act of intimidation, when four men arrived at his laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine and acted aggressively.

Two of the men were said to be members of an agrochemical industry body but refused to give their names. The other two claimed to be a lawyer and notary. They apparently interrogated Dr Carrasco and demanded to see details of the experiments. They left a card identifying them as being from Basilico, Andrada & Santurio, attorneys on behalf of Felipe Alejandro Noel.

Dr Carrasco also reports being subjected to offensive phone calls and there have been disparaging references to his research in newspapers with links to agribusiness. Dr Carrasco however is resisting the intimidation, saying, "If I know something, I will not shut my mouth."

http://www.combat-monsanto.co.uk/spip.php?article376

[proverbialwisdom]

5. Much worse than threats, apparently.

http://www.truth-out.org/archive/item/92751:war-over-monsanto-gets-ugly

War Over Monsanto Gets Ugly

Tuesday, 09 November 2010 08:15
By Mike Ludwig, t r u t h o u t

A delegation of politicians and community activists gathered on August 7 in La Leonesa, a small farm town in Argentina, to hear Dr. Andres Carrasco speak about a study linking a popular herbicide to birth defects in Argentina's agricultural areas.

But the presentation never happened. A mob of about 100 people attacked the delegation before they could reach the local school where the talk was to be held.

Dr. Carrasco and a colleague locked themselves in a car as the mob yelled threats and beat on the vehicle for two hours. One delegate was hit in the spine and has since suffered lower-body paralysis. Another person was treated for blows to the head. A former provincial human rights official was hit in the face and knocked unconscious.

Witnesses said the angry crowd had ties to local officials and agribusiness bosses, and police made little effort to stop the violence, according to human rights group Amnesty International.

Carrasco is a lead embryologist at the University of Buenos Aires Medical School and the Argentinean national research council. His study, first released in 2009 and published in the United States this past summer, shows that glyphosate-based herbicides like Monsanto's popular Roundup formula caused deformations in chicken embryos that resembled the kind of birth defects being reported in areas like La Leonesa, where big agribusinesses depend on glyphosate to treat genetically engineered crops.

The deformations resulted from much lower doses of herbicide than those commonly found on crops, according to the study.

<>

[proverbialwisdom]

6. DOCUMENT - ARGENTINA: THREATS DENY COMMUNITY ACCESS TO RESEARCH (Amnesty International)

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR13/005/2010/en/303e9ee6-9138-405f-97fc-ed58965b76d0/amr130052010en.html

UA: 173/10 Index: AMR 13/005/2010 Argentina
Date: 12 August 2010

URGENT ACTION
THREATS DENY COMMUNITY ACCESS TO RESEARCH

On 7 August, violence and threats in the remote northern Argentinian town of La Leonesa stopped community activists hearing a talk by a renowned scientist about his findings of the health impact of chemicals sprayed on rice and soya crops.

On Saturday 7 August, community activists from La Leonesa, a small town located within an area of large scale rice production in the Argentinian Chaco Department, went to attend a talk that was to be given by Professor Andres Carrasco, a scientist and doctor from the Buenos Aires University Medical School. A delegation of two provincial deputies, a former public official and members of the neighbouring community of Resistencia also came to La Leonesa to hear the talk. Professor Andres Carrasco's research, concluded in 2009, highlighted the negative effects of glyphosate, a commonly-used agro-chemical, on embryos.

On arrival in La Leonesa at around 4pm, the delegation headed for the school where the talk was due to take place. However, the talk was suspended because the delegation was attacked by a group of around 100 people who threatened them and beat them. One person has since suffered from lower body paralysis after being hit on his spine, and another is undergoing neurological examinations after receiving blows to the head. The former provincial Sub-Secretary of Human Rights, Marcelo Salgado, was struck in the face and left unconscious. Dr Carrasco and his colleague shut themselves in a car, and were surrounded by people making violent threats and beating the car for two hours. Members of the community were injured and a journalist's camera equipment was damaged.

Members of the community who witnessed the incident have implicated local officials in the attack, as well as a local rice-producer and his workers and security guards. They strongly believe that the violence was promoted by them, and motivated by the powerful economic interests behind local agro-industry. Despite calls to local authorities asking for help, the police were slow to respond and failed to send sufficient reinforcements to stop the violence.

<>

THREATS DENY COMMUNITY ACCESS TO RESEARCH
ADditional Information

In April 2009, Dr Andres Carrasco finalised his 15-month study into the impact of glyphosate, a herbicide commonly used on soya and rice crops. His findings pointed at the negative effects of glyphosate- in doses much lower than those used in agro-industry- on the morphology of embryos. His findings provoked a hostile media campaign aimed at undermining the legitimacy of his findings, and he received anonymous threats.

Activists, lawyers and health workers in areas of Argentina where agro-industry and glyphosate spraying are widespread have started to conduct their own studies, registering cases of foetal malformations and increased cancer rates in local hospitals. To date, no systematic epidemiological study of these reported phenomena has been carried out by State authorities.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Oh, absolutely! You have provided the information we really needed to see.

What a shame the usual kinds of people got to terrorize him, his colleagues, other conscientious human beings who have been trying to reverse the damage being done to our only planet.

It's no surprise this rough stuff started against him under Argentina's dirty, dishonest, friend of the military dictatorship, friend of George H. W. Bush, Carlos Saúl Menem, who illegally trafficked weaponry while President, and god knows what else, as well as running the country into the ditch financially before being impeached.

What a wretched shame.

You gave real depth to this excellent man's name here.

Thank you, so much.

[proverbialwisdom]

7. "I did not discover anything new. I said the same thing as the families that are sprayed, except..."

http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php/news/archive/2014/15427-andres-carrasco-scientist-and-activist-dies

Andrés Carrasco, scientist and activist, dies
on 10 May 2014.

[img][/img]

We are very sad to hear the news of the death of Professor Andres Carrasco, whose research showed that glyphosate and Roundup cause malformations in embryos.

Andres Carrasco was a brilliant and honest scientist and a fearless campaigner for truth. He will be sadly missed.

http://www.lavaca.org/notas/andres-carrasco-cientifico-y-militante-gracias/

Andrés Carrasco, scientist and activist: thank you
Lavaca.org, 10 May 2014

(In Spanish; rough English translation of excerpts only by GMWatch)

Andrés Carrasco, the scientist who confirmed the devastating effects of glyphosate, investigated sprayed people, and questioned science in the service of corporations, has died. We publish below the last interview he gave and also "Happiness can be a political issue?", the interview [with Carrasco] that [radio station] Decí Mu broadcast.

… The scientist Andrés Carrasco told how he decided to release his investigation into the lethal effects of glyphosate. He was in the south, fishing, just enjoying the beauty of the natural order. He knew his findings were crucial and felt that the perfect silence around him was a huge scream. "I had to do something." To do it, he just needed to find "a serious and decent journalist." On the spot, he called Dario Aranda…

by Dario Aranda

Carrasco said: "I'm a researcher at CONICET (Argentine government scientific research council) and studied the impact of glyphosate on embryos. I would like you to see the work."

It was the first thing I heard on the other end of the phone.

It was 2009 and the conflict over Resolution No. 125 [by which the government increased the taxes on agricultural exports, mainly soybeans, sunflower, wheat and corn] was still inactive[?]. Pagina12 (newspaper) had given extensive coverage to the consequences of the agricultural model and this journalist had written about the effects of the spraying of agrochemicals.

The call resulted in mistrust. I did not know the caller. Why was I called?

The scientist continued his presentation. "My name is Andres Carrasco, I was president of CONICET and I am head of the Embryology Laboratory of the UBA... "

I had never heard his name. I had never written about scientists...

I called the newspaper and asked colleagues. All confirmed that he was a known scientist with a thirty-year career, who had made major discoveries in the 80s and had worked hard in the '90s, when he confronted the governments of President Carlos Menem...

His research made the front page of the newspaper (April 2009). The news: glyphosate, the chemical pillar of the soy farming model, was devastating to amphibian embryos. Nothing was ever the same. Social organizations, farmers, and activists sprayed families and Carrasco took Carrasco's work as proof of their experience of living in the region.

"I did not discover anything new. I said the same thing as the families that are sprayed, except that I confirmed it in a laboratory," he used to say. And he began to be invited to meetings. From universities and scientific conferences to environmental meetings and sprayed schools. Trying to go everywhere, while leaving time for the lab and his family.

He also won many enemies. First and foremost: agrochemical companies. Attorneys for CASAFE (an industry group of large agribusiness corporations) came to his laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine and bullied him. He began receiving threatening anonymous phone calls. And the Science Minister, Lino Barañao defamed him...

Barañao discredited Carrasco's work and defended glyphosate (and the agricultural model)… He even questioned the work of Carrasco in meetings of Aapresid (agribusiness entrepreneurs) and, above all, within CONICET.

Carrasco would not be silenced. "They think they can easily smear my thirty-year career. They are hypocrites, corporate footsoldiers, but they are afraid. They know they can not cover the sun with one hand. Scientific evidence and above all hundreds of people, are living proof of the health emergency."

The Clarín and La Nación (newspapers) launched a campaign against him. They could not allow a renowned scientist to question agribusiness. They even said that (Carrasco's research) did not exist and it was a government operation to ban glyphosate, in retaliation for the failed (Resolution) 125. Carrasco responded angrily. "If there is someone that does not want to touch the soy model, it is the government," he said over a coffee in downtown Buenos Aires. But Carrasco was a government official: he was Secretary for Science at the Ministry of Defence. They asked him to tone down his criticisms of glyphosate and the agricultural model. He did not. He resigned.

[proverbialwisdom]

15. In Memoriam: Andres Carrasco in Developmental Biology 393 (2014) 1–2

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012160614003352

Developmental Biology
Volume 393, Issue 1, 1 September 2014, Pages 1–2

In Memoriam
Andrés Carrasco (1946–2014)

by Professor Bruce Blumberg
Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, United States

doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2014.07.001



Professor Andrés Eduardo Carrasco died on May 10, 2014 after a short illness. He was only 67 years old, still with great vitality and passion for science. Andrés was trained as a Medical Doctor, graduating from the School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires in 1971. He then taught physiology, cell biology and embryology at UBA until 1981. Andrés then moved to the Biocenter of the University of Basel, Switzerland, where he made his first major discovery as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Eddy de Robertis. Together with Bill McGinnis in Walter Gehring׳s lab, Andrés cloned and sequenced the first vertebrate homeobox gene of the Hox/homeotic type, the eponymous Andrés Carrasco 1 (AC1), now known as Hoxc6 (Carrasco et al., 1984. Cell 37, 409–414). This provided the best evidence that genes involved in the patterning of the anterior–posterior axis of insect embryos were conserved in vertebrates. This was a seminal discovery in Developmental Biology as homeobox genes of the Hox type represented the first development-controlling gene identified in vertebrates.

<>

[Octafish]

9. Endocrine Disruptor

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19539684/

[Judi Lynn]

12. Thank you, Octafish. Wow. n/t

[proverbialwisdom]

10. Related.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/argentine-activist-sofia-gatica-monsanto_n_1475659.html

Sofia Gatica, Argentine Activist, Faced Anonymous Death Threats For Fighting Monsanto Herbicide
Posted: 05/03/2012 6:05 pm Updated: 05/03/2012 6:16 pm
by Lucia Graves

[img][/img]

For 13 years Sofia Gatica has organized opposition to the aerial spraying of agrochemicals that threaten human health and the environment in Argentina -- and for almost as long, she and her children have faced physical threats from anonymous agents.

Gatica, who lives in a working-class neighborhood of 6,000 in central Argentina surrounded by soy fields, began organizing against Monsanto after she noticed a disturbingly high rate of cancer and birth defects in her community. Her own 3-day-old daughter died of kidney failure in 1999, and a neighbor had a baby die of the same uncommon birth defect.

Editor's Note: This story contains explicit language.

"I started seeing children with mouth covers, mothers with scarves wrapped around their heads to cover their baldness, due to chemotherapy," she told Grist in an interview, explaining what inspired her to co-found Mothers of Ituzaingó. The efforts of those half-dozen mothers, who began going from door to door collecting information on health problems in their community, led to the first epidemiological study that showed cancer rates in Gatica's hometown of Ituzaingó were 41 times the national average, with high rates of birth defects and infant mortality as well.

Within a few years of the study's publication, and as her advocacy work gave her a higher profile, Gatica began to receive death threats, culminating in an incident in late 2007.

<>

Gatica has also succeeded in passing a municipal ordinance prohibiting aerial spraying 2,500 meters from people's homes, and in 2012 she was awarded the distinguished Goldman Prize for environmentalists in South and Central America...

2014 Goldman Prize info: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017190283
Sofia Gatica videos here: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=goldman+sofia+gatica

[Judi Lynn]

13. Monsanto’s Campaign Contributions to US House and Senate Candidates

Monsanto’s Campaign Contributions to US House and Senate Candidates
By Global Research News

Global Research, May 24, 2014
Center for Responsive Politics 26 May 2013

List of Congresscritters follows:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/monsantos-contributions-to-us-house-and-senate-candidates/5336404

[Uncle Joe]

14. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.

[AikidoSoul]

16. 2,624 links to the effects of MONSANTO's Glyphosate by independent scientists from

The Collaborative for Health and the Environment (CHE).

CHE is made up of nearly 4,000 scientists, researchers, doctors, and others worldwide who study the effects of toxic chemicals on health and the environment.

They are not "Liars for Hire", but rather scientists and others who like Dr. Andres Carrasco, are deeply concerned with the pandemic of brain and immune health issues triggered by exposures to neurotoxic chemicals.

Many of them have been targeted for retribution from corporate entities and others for economic reasons.

I'm extremely proud to be a member of CHE since its inception in 2000, and attended one of its first organizational conferences in Orlando in that year.

CHE has an excellent database on many health topics, but ROUNDUP (GLYPHOSATE) is one of its most discussed topics. We receive at least ten emails a week with current discussions.

CHE is NOT funded by the chem/pharm industry!

http://che.webfactional.com/search/search.cgi?Match=0&Realm=All&Terms=Glyphosate

Neurotoxic poisoning of the brain and central nervous system is a pandemic in our world.

Embryos are the most sensitive of all to these poisons.