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Roundups

San Nicola Varco is a place in Eboli, near Salerno, where there is a farmers market... more

hyperion74
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12 days ago
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GM food can cause cancer: French scientist

French scientist Gilles-Eric Seralini unmasked the dangers of genetically modified brinjal, almost approved for commercial production in India. He shared with Savvy Soumya Misra his findings on Bt brinjal and Roundup Ready soybean

*On the data submitted on Bt brinjal by Mahyco for approval from the Indian government

The data submitted to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (geac) of the Union environment ministry is not valid; it has not been signed by the scientist who conducted the tests. What is more scandalous is that the studies on the effects of Bt brinjal were conducted for just three months.

If the product is to be consumed by humans, the tests should have been for a period of at least two years—the lifespan of a rodent.

Worse, Mahyco tried to cover up the side-effects by jumbling data on various types of brinjal in a way that it was hard to compare Bt brinjal with normal brinjal. I am sorry to say people in the geac did not carefully assess the data. It is also not clear how the geac overlooked the fact that Bt brinjal has a protein that induces resistance to antibiotics. Mahyco has not studied hormonal impacts of Bt brinjal—Bt toxin found in it could lead to reproductive health problems.

*On his findings on Roundup Ready soybean that tolerates herbicides

Our study found that even minute doses of Roundup (a natural herbicide) disrupt sex hormones like androgen and estrogen. The inert ingredients in Roundup Ready (RR) soybean like polyethoxylated tallowamine kill human cells and disrupt the synthesis and action of human sex hormones. The research was published in this year’s July edition of the journal Toxicology. Some pregnant women who consumed RR soybean developed disorders. This combined with certain studies on animals in labs (conducted by others) made us conclude that Roundup is an endocrine disruptor.

*On claims that GM plants reduce the need for pesticides

This is a false projection. Bt plants, in fact, are designed to produce toxins to repel pests. Bt brinjal produces a very high quantity of 16-17mg toxin per kg. They affect animals. Unfortunately, tests to ascertain their effect on humans have not been conducted. RR soybean that makes up 63 per cent of GM plants in the world contains high amounts of Roundup. The US food and drug administration (usfda) has allowed up to 400 ppm Roundup residues in animal feed. It is much more than what we recommended. There was a paper published in June in Scientific American saying usfda would review the approval accorded to RR soybean because of our study.French scientist Gilles-Eric Seralini unmasked the dangers of genetically modified... more

JanforGore
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30 days ago
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Why are Monsanto insiders now appointed to protect your food safety?

As I write this I am in Washington DC for the International Vaccine Conference and I just did a 12 hour amazing tour of the Capitol that I will describe later, along with pictures that I will post on Facebook. So politics and patriotism is fresh in my mind.

When President Obama took office, many Americans welcomed what was supposed to be an era of much needed change not only for the economy but also for the food industry and U.S. health care system.

Time magazine put it quite well when they described current farm policy as "a welfare program for the megafarms that use the most fuel, water and pesticides; emit the most greenhouse gases; grow the most fattening crops; hire the most illegals; and depopulate rural America."

And as has been recently disclosed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), between 2003 and 2006, millionaire farmers received $49 million in crop subsidies, even though they earned more than the $2.5 million cutoff for such subsidies. In a speech given at the end of 2008, President Obama stated that this was a prime example of the kind of waste he intends to end when he takes office.

Meanwhile, American medical care is the most expensive in the world.[1] The United States spends more than twice as much on each person for health care as most other industrialized countries. And yet it has fallen to last place among those countries in preventing avoidable deaths through use of timely and effective medical care.

That the system is fatally flawed and in need of a radical overhaul is self-evident.

In fact, according to a 2008 report published in the New England Journal of Medicine[2], 90 percent of Americans believe our medical system should be “completely rebuilt” or that “fundamental changes” are required.

And many are looking toward the Obama Administration to carry out these fundamental changes -- changes that appear, on the surface at least, to be in the works.

But while health care reform is finally on the table, and an organic farm has, for the first time, been planted on the White House lawn, there are an unsettling number of foxes being appointed to guard the U.S. health care and food industry hen houses … foxes that have entirely too many connections to Monsanto, the chemical manufacturer turned agricultural giant that is slowly gaining control over the world’s population, one seed at a time.As I write this I am in Washington DC for the International Vaccine Conference and I... more

JanforGore
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1 month ago
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12 comments

Monsanto 4Q loss widens on lower sales

Monsanto Co., the world's biggest seed maker, said Wednesday its fourth-quarter loss... more

JanforGore
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1 month ago
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17 comments

SaaS Project Management Roundup

In the modern business age, project management isn’t just a job, it’s a... more

digitalfever
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1 month ago
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Cocaine and Monsanto's Round Up colliding to make a genetically modified war on science

At the intersection of cocaine and Roundup in rural South America, Monsanto and the U.S. government are struggling to keep up appearances. That's becoming more and more difficult as the unanticipated hazards of genetic modification become clearer.

snip

It seems that the whole operation may have backfired though, at least from the perspective of the governments that are promoting such a strategy. The effort has lead to coca growers cutting down national forests -- where such spraying is often against the law -- to produce their illicit crops. But Mother Nature may be rebelling against drug policy as well. coca plants appear to be either evolving on their own (or with the help of coca farmers' active selection) -- or they are possibly crossing with Roundup Ready crops already on the ground -- to produce a glyphosate-resistant crop known as Boliviana negra.

One TNI study looked at the political and commercial motives for continuing to spray the chemical on drug crops in South America regardless of findings that the effort is counterproductive at best:

It is true that the United States is behind fumigation, backed by the economic interests of companies such as Monsanto and DynCorp, who share in this lucrative business -– which is one of the reasons it meets with opposition. But it is also true that the disastrous consequences of the current anti-drug policy, of which fumigation is but one component, are a reality that surpasses ideologies, and the nations that suffer its consequences firsthand must find a solution instead of becoming polarised...

Colombia would not fumigate if it weren’t for pressure from the US. It would be implementing other forms of eradication or offering alternative development programmes that provide income to the population.

The group suggested that South American countries band together to refuse U.S. anti-narcotic spraying on environmental and human safety grounds, as has been done in Afghanistan.

In 2004, Joshua Davis had the Boliviana negra plant tested to determine its provenance for Wired Magazine. He concludes that the glyphosate-resistant coca plant he found in Colombia was most likely developed in the fields by farmers grafting on chance genetic mutations.

But the resulting article is perhaps most interesting for the taciturn response on all sides of the issue. Davis suggests that South American authorities don't want to talk about the situation because the revelation might cost countries that receive a large amount of U.S. aid to combat drug traffickers. The U.S. government doesn't want coca farmers who don't already know to find out about the new strain, because it can still eradicate old strains with glyphosate. And drug growers who do have the new strain certainly don't want the status quo to end, because currently the U.S. government is doing their weeding for free.

But on the larger cost-benefit analysis, the biggest winner is Monsanto. The more Roundup Ready crops there are out there, the more Roundup farmers need to get rid of the weeds, as is evidenced by the GRAIN research in Argentina. The real foe of Monsanto is not drug cartels or government entities. It's scientists.

When you put together the studies referenced above, which show that spraying glyphosate is harmful to humans and the environment and that it does not hamper the production of coca or weeds, the answer to almost everyone's problems is eliminating Monsanto.At the intersection of cocaine and Roundup in rural South America, Monsanto and the... more

JanforGore
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3 months ago
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9 comments

Superweed explosion threatens Monsanto heartlands

You mess with nature, it messes you back. It's time to ban glyphosate. Excerpt:... more

JanforGore
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4 months ago
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0 comments

Study: Round Up disrupts sex hormones

Prof. Seralini's group from CRIIGEN in the University of Caen, in collaboration with Pr. Chagnon's group from the University of Dijon, have just published a new discovery, after having demonstrated Roundup toxicity at infinitesimal doses in particular in umbilical cord cells from newborns. At very low levels, for instance 800 times less than Roundup residues authorized in some GMOs for feed in United States, this kind of herbicide for a formulation sold in drugstores prevents the action of androgens, the masculinizing hormones. Then the action and formation of estrogens are also disrupted. The DNA damages in human cells begin around this level. These effects explain disturbing results of animal experiments and in human epidemiology. It is thus proposed to examine in regulatory instances the classification of Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides as reprotoxics and endocrine disruptors. These phenomena have been underestimated up to now because pesticides factories pre sent in majority to authorities studies with glyphosate alone, however the commercialized mixture is a lot more active.

The study is published by the end of June 2009 in the international scientific journal Toxicology by Gasnier et al.

Q: We use Roundup for weeds on our commercial property. You have written before that it isn't good for you. Is this just opinion or is there evidence to support your statements?

- G.H., San Jose

A: In the July 22 issue of Environmental Health News, a publication of Environmental Health Services, a foundation-funded organization, Crystal Gammon wrote: "Used in yards, farms and parks throughout the world, Roundup has long been a top-selling weed killer. But now researchers have found that one of Roundup's inert ingredients can kill human cells, particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells."

A study from the University of Caen in France, published in January, says that scientists discovered that the inert ingredients in Roundup amplified the toxic effect on human cells, even at concentrations much more diluted than those used on farms and lawns. The inert ingredient they have focused on is POEA (polyethoxylated tallowamine), an inert detergent in Roundup. They found that POEA is far more dangerous than herbicide itself. It said, "The proprietary mixtures available on the market could cause cell damage and even death (at the) residual levels found on Roundup-treated crops, such as soybeans, alfalfa and corn, or lawns and gardens."

In Gammon's article, Monsanto, the company that makes Roundup, claims the recent study is flawed, but Gilles-Eric Seralini, the molecular biologist who headed the French study, says standard toxicological methods were used.

It's my opinion that Roundup should not be used in any public area. If someone wants to use this stuff on his private property, that is his business, but it should not be used on school grounds, public parks or anywhere else people can unknowingly come in contact with it.Prof. Seralini's group from CRIIGEN in the University of Caen, in collaboration with... more

JanforGore
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5 months ago
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31 comments

Genetically modified eucalyptus trees threaten the U.S. south

The U.S. government is set to approve [1] a request from ArborGen, the genetically engineered (GE) tree research and development giant, for permission to plant 260,000 GE cold tolerant eucalyptus trees in 29 "field trials" across seven southern U.S. states. Approval of such a large-scale planting of these dangerous flowering GE forest trees in the U.S. is completely unprecedented. The GE eucalyptus, to be planted in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, would be allowed to flower and produce seeds, enabling them to potentially escape into native ecosystems and forests.

The STOP GE Trees Campaign, an international alliance of organizations that has banded together with the goal of globally banning the open-air release of genetically engineered trees, this week issued an "Urgent Action Alert" about ArborGen's potentially disastrous plans, with information about how the public can make comments to the government to help stop this large-scale release of GE trees.

"This is absolutely unprecedented--the government wants to approve the mass release of 260,000 flowering GE forest trees in so-called "field trials," stated Dr. Neil Carman who works with the Sierra Club in Texas. "You cannot call over a quarter of a million trees over 330 acres "field trials." These are experimental forests being planted outdoors under the disguise of "field trials" as a loophole. The government must produce an Environmental Impact Statement to carefully review all of the potential environmental threats from this large-scale GE tree release," Dr. Carman continued.

Eucalyptus are internationally known for their devastating impacts--from invasiveness to wildfires to their ability to worsen droughts. Massive wildfires in Australia earlier this year were fueled by eucalyptus, which contains a highly volatile oil. These wildfires moved at 100 km/hr and killed 173 people, who literally did not have time to escape. Additionally, eucalyptus grandis, one of the species in the GE eucalyptus hybrid, is also a known host to Cryptococcus gattii, a fungus that can cause fatal fungal meningitis in people and animals that inhale its spores. C. gattii was recently found in the U.S. [2]

"In Brazil, eucalyptus plantations are known as 'green deserts' because they do not allow anything else to live," stated Camila Moreno, an attorney and Global Justice Ecology Project staff consultant in Brazil. "No understory plants, no wildlife, no communities--only eucalyptus trees can survive there. They are a disaster for Brazil, which is why there exists a large social movement against eucalyptus in Brazil and many hectares of plantations have been destroyed by communities," Moreno continued.

"ArborGen and their corporate owners, International Paper, Mead Westvaco and Rubicon [3] could not be more irresponsible. The large-scale planting of these GE eucalyptus would spell disaster," added Danna Smith, Executive Director of the North Carolina based Dogwood Alliance. "Already millions of acres of land in the South have been converted to pine plantations. We cannot afford to lose any more of the precious native forests of the South--and especially not to eucalyptus plantations, which could make kudzu [4] look tame by comparison," she continued.

Public comments on the government's plans to approve the planting of 260,000 GE eucalyptus trees are being accepted until 6 July 2009 at 5 pm eastern U.S. time. Also as a Public Service, the STOP GE Trees Campaign has created a sign-on Comment Letter demanding rejection of ArborGen's request to which members of the public can add their name. That Comment Letter with signatures will be submitted to the government.The U.S. government is set to approve [1] a request from ArborGen, the genetically... more

JanforGore
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5 months ago
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15 comments

HTPC Roundup: Fully Equipped Shuttle PC

Let me introduce you to a HTPC Roundup that I will be bringing you over the next... more

technic
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6 months ago
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Scientist warning of health hazards of Monsanto's RoundUp receives threats

There are reports coming out of Argentina of attempts to intimidate the lead researcher of the study showing that Roundup - the glyphosate herbicide developed by Monsanto, could cause brain, intestinal and heart defects in fetuses.

The lead researcher for the new study, carried out in Argentina where Roundup is used on a massive scale in conjunction with 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 (The National Commission for Scientific Research) and now works at the Defence Ministry in the Science and Technology innovation department. He apparently conducted the experiments in his laboratory of molecular embryology, based at the Institute of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, at the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires.

Dr. Carrasco has warned that the doses of herbicide used in his study "were much lower than the levels used in the fumigations," 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 extremely 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 Basílico, Andrada & Santurio, attorneys on behalf of Felipe Alejandro Noël.

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."

The news report in Spanish is available at

http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-123932-2009-04...There are reports coming out of Argentina of attempts to intimidate the lead... more

JanforGore
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7 months ago
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19 comments

Monsanto Flexes Muscles and Montana Biotech Seed Bill Tabled

Montana Senators have sidelined a seed bill that sought standards for how biotech... more

covelogibbs
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8 months ago
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3 comments

You Are What You Grow

The real price of fruits and vegetables between 1985 and 2000 increased by nearly 40... more

covelogibbs
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9 months ago
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1 comment

Death by multiple poisoning, glyphosate and Roundup

Scientists pinpoint how very low concentrations of the herbicide and other chemicals... more

JanforGore
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9 months ago
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36 comments

What's Killing the Sea Otters?

Sea otters, the fuzzy mascots of the California coast, have fought back for 75 years... more

covelogibbs
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11 months ago
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The Future of Food

For full screen "click" link. There is a revolution happening in the farm fields... more

covelogibbs
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1 year ago
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25 comments

Monsanto and Michael Pollan talk about creating a world that can feed itself

This is like 36 minutes long, but it's definitely worth watching...

Kati_kat
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1 year ago
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5 comments

Monsanto expects Roundup to generate 1.8 billion in profits for 2008

That's a lot of poison in our rivers, streams, food, air and stomachs. Poison for... more

JanforGore
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1 year ago
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Monsanto's Sordid History

Monsanto, best known today for its agricultural biotechnology products, has a long and dirty history of polluting this country and others with some of the most toxic compounds known to humankind. From PCBs to Agent Orange to Roundup, we have many reasons to question the motives of this company that claims to be working to reduce environmental destruction and feed the world with its genetically engineered food crops.

Headquartered near St. Louis, Missouri, the Monsanto Chemical Company was founded in 1901. Monsanto became a leading manufacturer of sulfuric acid and other industrial chemicals in the 1920s. In the 1930s, Monsanto began producing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). PCBs, widely used as lubricants, hydraulic fluids, cutting oils, waterproof coatings and liquid sealants, are potent carcinogens and have been implicated in reproductive, developmental and immune system disorders.

The world’s center of PCB manufacturing was Monsanto’s plant on the outskirts of East St. Louis, Illinois, which has the highest rate of fetal death and immature births in the state. By 1982, nearby Times Beach, Missouri, was found to be so thoroughly contaminated with dioxin, a by-product of PCB manufacturing, that the government ordered it evacuated. Dioxins are endocrine and immune system disruptors, cause congenital birth defects, reproductive and developmental problems, and increase the incidence of cancer, heart disease and diabetes in laboratory animals.

By the 1940s, Monsanto had begun focusing on plastics and synthetic fabrics like polystyrene (still widely used in food packaging and other consumer products), which is ranked fifth in the EPA’s 1980s listing of chemicals whose production generates the most total hazardous waste.

During World War II, Monsanto played a significant role in the Manhattan Project to develop the atom bomb.

Following the war, Monsanto championed the use of chemical pesticides in agriculture, and began manufacturing the herbicide 2,4,5-T, which contains dioxin. Monsanto has been accused of covering up or failing to report dioxin contamination in a wide range of its products.

The herbicide “Agent Orange,” used by U.S. military forces as a defoliant during the Vietnam War, was a mixture of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D and had very high concentrations of dioxin. U.S. Vietnam War veterans have suffered from a host of debilitating symptoms attributable to Agent Orange exposure, and since the end of the war an estimated 500,000 Vietnamese children have been born with deformities.

In the 1970s, Monsanto began manufacturing the herbicide Roundup, which has been marketed as a safe, general-purpose herbicide for widespread commercial and consumer use, even though its key ingredient, glyphosate, is a highly toxic poison for animals and humans. In 1997, The New York State Attorney General took Monsanto to court and Monsanto was subsequently forced to stop claiming that Roundup is “biodegradable” and “environmentally friendly.”

Monsanto has been repeatedly fined and ruled against for, among many things, mislabeling containers of Roundup, failing to report health data to EPA, and chemical spills and improper chemical deposition. In 1995, Monsanto ranked fifth among U.S. corporations in EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory, having discharged 37 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air, land, water and underground.

Since the inception of Plan Colombia in 2000, the US has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in funding aerial sprayings of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicides in Colombia. The Roundup is often applied in concentrations 26 times higher than what is recommended for agricultural use. Additionally, it contains at least one surfactant, Cosmo-Flux 411f, whose ingredients are a trade secret, has never been approved for use in the US, and which quadruples the biological action of the herbicide.

cont...Monsanto, best known today for its agricultural biotechnology products, has a long and... more

JanforGore
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1 year ago
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18 comments

Fox News owned by Monsanto

Monsanto to Fox News: "The news is what we say it is."

SpookyFish
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1 year ago
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23 comments

tagged w/ Roundup

Roundups

GM food can cause cancer: French scientist

Why are Monsanto insiders now appointed to protect your food safety?

Monsanto 4Q loss widens on lower sales

SaaS Project Management Roundup

Cocaine and Monsanto's Round Up colliding to make a genetically modified war on science

Superweed explosion threatens Monsanto heartlands

Study: Round Up disrupts sex hormones

Genetically modified eucalyptus trees threaten the U.S. south

HTPC Roundup: Fully Equipped Shuttle PC

Scientist warning of health hazards of Monsanto's RoundUp receives threats

Monsanto Flexes Muscles and Montana Biotech Seed Bill Tabled

You Are What You Grow

Death by multiple poisoning, glyphosate and Roundup

What's Killing the Sea Otters?

The Future of Food

Monsanto and Michael Pollan talk about creating a world that can feed itself

Monsanto expects Roundup to generate 1.8 billion in profits for 2008

Monsanto's Sordid History

Fox News owned by Monsanto

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