Banishing Glyphosate
You folks who think organizations like the FDA, USDA, EPA etc. are there to protect your health and safety as their number 1 priority have another think coming. It seems their numero uno responsibility is protecting corporate profits along with psychopathic corporate executives (and scientists).
Banishing Glyphosate
Dr Eva Sirinathsinghji & Dr Mae-Wan Ho with Dr Medardo Ávila-Vázquez, Dr Don M. Huber, Dr Rosemary Mason, Ib Borup Pederson, Prof Peter Saunders, & Dr Nancy Swanson
Sign the Independent Scientists Manifesto on Glyphosate here:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Independent_Scientists_Manifesto_on_Glyphosate.php
Glyphosate was released as an herbicide in 1974, and rapidly became the world’s most popular herbicide especially since the introduction of genetically modified (GM) glyphosate-tolerant crops in the 1990s. Currently, 85 % of GM crops are herbicide-tolerant, with glyphosate-tolerant crops making up the vast majority of those planted. In the US for example which is the largest producer of GM crops, 93 % of soybean and 85 % of maize crops are glyphosate-tolerant (see Chapter 5).
A total of 137 glyphosate-tolerant varieties have been approved by May 2015 (see Supplement Table 1 Approved glyphosate tolerant crops). There are 19 varieties of cotton, 115 of soybean and 81 of maize; and in addition, 1 wheat, 2 sugar beet, 4 potato, 3 Polish canola, 8 Argentine canola, 1 creeping bentgrass and 3 alfalfa. 80 % of these crops are stacked, containing additional traits such as tolerance to glufosinate and 2,4-D herbicides and/or pesticidal properties. Of the glyphosate-tolerant crops generated, over 99 % of those grown belong to only four species - soybean, maize, cotton and canola.
According to the new yearly report from industry funded International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) [1], “18 million farmers in 28 countries planted more than 181 million hectares [of GM crops] in 2014, up from 175 million in 27 countries in 2013.” This has spurred huge sales of glyphosate, giving it a market value of US$5.4 billion in 2012 with a total demand of 718 ooo tonnes [2]. Globally it is a key ingredient in more than 700 products [3] and is also used to control weed in gardens, along roadsides in commercial and residential areas, and on millions of hectares of farmland. Its presence is pervasive, in the air, in the soil, in our food and drinking water (see Chapter 1).
Underlying its success has been the repeated claim that the chemical is benign for human health, that its killing mechanism for plants works via an enzyme that does not exist in animals and is therefore safe for both human and animals. This claim goes counter to evidence that existed right from the start. Studies revealed both carcinogenicity and teratogenicity as far back as the 1980s, but were buried by industry with the support of regulatory bodies such as the US Environmental Protection Agency and the European Food Safety Authority (see Chapter 5 and (4) EU Regulators and Monsanto Exposed for Hiding Glyphosate Toxicity, SiS 51).
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Banishing_Glyphosate.php