Monsanto Knew of Glyphosate-Cancer Link over 30 Years Ago
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According to evidence unearthed from the archives of the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States, it has been established that Monsanto was fully aware of the potential of glyphosate to cause cancer in mammals as long ago as 1981.
Recently WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) issued a statement in which glyphosate (the main component of Roundup herbicide) was classified as “probably carcinogenic” to humans and “sufficiently demonstrated” for toxicity in animals
This announcement was given vast coverage in the global media, causing Monsanto to move immediately into damage limitation mode. The corporation demanded the
retraction of the report, although it had not yet been published!
Research scientist Dr. Anthony Samsel says: “Both Monsanto and the EPA knew of the deleterious effects of this chemical in 1980 at the conclusion of their multiple long-term assessments, but the EPA hid the results of their findings as ‘trade secrets.’ Monsanto has been lying and covering up the truth about glyphosate’s harmful effects on public health and the environment for decades. The increases in multiple chronic diseases seen since its introduction into the food supply continue to rise in step with its use.
“Monsanto’s Roundup glyphosate based herbicides have a ubiquitous presence as residues in the food supply directly associated with its crop use. Nations must stand together against Monsanto and other chemical companies who continue to destroy the biosphere. We are all part of that biosphere and we are all connected. What affects one affects us all.”
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SYNTHETIC METHIONINE ALLOWED IN ORGANIC CHICKEN FEED
The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) at its biannual meeting recently approved a proposal to increase the allowance of synthetic methionine in feed for broiler (meat) chickens.
In extensive comments to the Board, the Center for Food Safety challenged the need for the synthetic substitute, advocating instead for improved conditions, increased access to pasture, slower growing poultry breeds, and natural methionine sources.
With an 11-4 vote, NOSB allowed what was intended to be a temporary exception to linger. “Synthetic methionine has been allowed in organic for 12 years because the organic egg industry has been dragging its heels to find a suitable alternative and make other much needed improvements to organic poultry systems,” said Paige Tomaselli, senior attorney at Center for Food Safety. By accepting the new proposal, the five-year clock attached to synthetic inputs allowed in organic production will reset when the regulation is finalized. This means that the next opportunity to remove synthetic methionine from organic poultry production will likely be 2021 at the earliest.
As noted in The Washington Post, chickens are natural omnivores and traditionally access proteins from a variety of plant and animal sources. They consume bugs, small animals, and forages such as clover while out in pasture, and also receive meat and dairy scraps on diversified farms. Conditions for chicken-raising have changed dramatically, however, severely restricting access to pasture even in organic systems.
Such operations can crowd hundreds of thousands of chickens indoors with little access to soil or pasture. These producers also feed chickens a largely corn- or soy-based diet, neither of which is high in natural methionine. To supplement, producers have relied on synthetic methionine, temporarily allowed while organic alternatives are supposed to be developed.
“Synthetic methionine is a crutch that has unacceptably allowed conventional-style chicken and egg producers to become ‘organic’ in name. And, unfortunately, confined, factory-like conditions are increasingly becoming commonplace in organic production,” said Tomaselli.
The Center for Food Safety has concluded that the methionine eaten by chickens doesn’t need to be synthetic. Chickens can produce reliable and consistent quantities of meat and eggs in their natural, methionine-rich pasture environment where they feed on worms, insects, and high-protein forages. Corn gluten, potato meal and other natural alternatives are also possible sources of methionine for poultry. Insect production is a growing industry, and adding ground insect meal to feeds for protein is another option being explored by farmers.
The issue about whether to prohibit synthetic methionine gets at the heart of organic standards. During the temporary allowance, it is up to the organic chicken industry to seek out and implement alternatives. In this spirit, Center for Food Safety strongly believes that synthetic methionine should be permanently prohibited when it is scheduled to sunset in 2017. With an end date set, it would send a market signal to the organic poultry industry to step up its efforts to source feed without the synthetic additive.
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HERBICIDES INCREASE ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE IN MICROBES
A new study in mBio, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Society for Microbiology, suggests that the herbicides dicamba (Kamba), 2,4-D, and glyphosate (Roundup) induce antibiotic resistance in E. coli and Salmonella bacteria.
Researchers subjected bacteria to combinations of different herbicides and antibiotics commonly used to treat bacterial infections in humans such as ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, and tetracycline. The results demonstrated that E. coli and Salmonella exposed to low levels of Kamba, 2,4-D and glyphosate were more resistant to antibiotics than bacteria exposed only to antibiotics. Bacteria exposed to the commonly used herbicides activated proteins enabling them to rid themselves of toxic substances creating a defense against the antibiotics. The authors conclude that the common use of chemicals in agriculture, gardens, and public spaces can induce resistance to multiple antibiotics in bacteria harmful to humans. Furthermore, “The combination of high use of both herbicides and antibiotics in proximity to farm animals and important insects, such as honeybees, might also compromise their therapeutic effects and drive greater use of antibiotics.”
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EVERY CALL YOU MAKE, EVERY WORD YOU SPAKE, WE’LL BE WATCHING YOU
Dan Froomkin, reporting in The Intercept, says that emails and other digital communications once considered private can now become part of the government’s permanent record.
Top-secret documents from the archive of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show the National Security Agency can now automatically recognize the content within phone calls by creating rough transcripts and phonetic representations that can be easily searched and stored.
The documents show NSA analysts celebrating the development of what they called “Google for Voice” nearly a decade ago.
By leveraging advances in automated speech recognition, the NSA has entered the era of bulk listening.
And this has happened with no apparent public oversight, hearings, or legislative action. Congress hasn’t shown signs of even knowing that it’s going on.
The USA Freedom Act — the surveillance reform bill that Congress is currently debating — doesn’t address the topic at all.
Civil liberty experts contacted by The Intercept said the NSA’s speech-to-text capabilities are a disturbing example of the privacy invasions that are becoming possible as our analog world transitions to a digital one.
“I think people don’t understand that the economics of surveillance have totally changed,” Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, told The Intercept.
“Once you have this capability, then the question is: How will it be deployed? Can you temporarily cache all American phone calls, transcribe all the phone calls, and do text searching of the content of the calls?” she said. “It may not be what they are doing right now, but they’ll be able to do it.”
Indeed, NSA officials have been secretive about their ability to convert speech to text, and how widely they use it, leaving open any number of possibilities.
That secrecy is the key, Granick said. “We don’t have any idea how many innocent people are being affected, or how many of those innocent people are also Americans.”
So—what’s the relevance to an organic food blog of this information about the NSA’s ability to transcribe your phone calls and search them for incriminating evidence that you are someone they don’t like?
I’ll tell you. From the first day of my association as a journalist with the organic movement in early 1970, it’s been obvious to me that organic people are the suspects, the targets, the outsiders, the aliens, the “other.” We don’t buy into the received ideas that American exceptionalism guarantees that our food is safe, our corporations benign, our childbirth is safe, our pastors Christlike, or any of it.
It’s been obvious to me that corporate Amjerica would like to squash the organic movement and move on to a world dominated by them, controlled by them, with all profit going to them.
Organic food means that its produce is non-toxic and wholesome. That implies that conventional food is something else, something other. Suspect. Toxic. Less than good. There has been a consistent campaign by conventional agriculture and the food industry, and now the biotech industry, to dismiss organic folks as kooks and worrywarts. I’ve watched it for 45 years.
The NSA is the security arm of this powerful, corporate, and military-industrial monster that has swallowed America the Beautiful and spit out America the disgusting, dangerous, and toxic.
This is not paranoia folks. Disgusting: junk food, obesity, profiting by poisoning people. Dangerous: the invasion of Iraq and the unleashing of the Islamic State; drone warfare. Toxic: the introduction of GMOs and the drenching of the world with toxic Roundup. To all this add the Orwellian ability of the government to monitor and now print out all our phone calls.
Is it time for a change? You bet. And the organic movement is the agricultural part of it.
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