Category Archives: Agriculture

Roundup causes DNA damage even when vastly diluted

Roundup (you know, the stuff that’s sprayed on cotton, soybeans, peanuts, and corn and drifts across the road) causes DNA damage even when diluted down to 450 times less than what’s used in agriculture, according to a scientific study from February 2012.

Cytotoxic and DNA-damaging properties of glyphosate and Roundup in human-derived buccal epithelial cells, by Verena J. Koller, Maria Fürhacker, Armen Nersesyan, Miroslav Mišík, Maria Eisenbauer and Siegfried Knasmueller, Archives of Toxicology Volume 86, Number 5 (2012), 805-813, DOI: 10.1007/s00204-012-0804-8.

Glyphosate (G) is the largest selling herbicide worldwide; the most common formulations (Roundup, R) contain polyoxyethyleneamine as main surfactant. Recent findings indicate that G exposure may cause DNA damage and cancer in humans….

Since we found genotoxic effects after short exposure to concentrations that correspond to a 450-fold dilution of spraying used in agriculture, our findings indicate that inhalation may cause DNA damage in exposed individuals.

It’s probably not even the “active” ingredient, glyphosate, that’s causing this DNA damage, more likely one of its “inert” ingredients.

Sayer Ji wrote for Greenmedinfo 15 October 2012, Research: Roundup Herbicide Toxicity Vastly Underestimated,

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Shelling corn

Gretchen Quarterman shelling corn.

Face Shelling

Terry Davis is preparing by shelling one end so it starts in the device easier. Video:

Red cobs and blowing chaff:

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Corn in trailer with rising moon

Finished picking a trailer full of corn; now cover it.

Close Picker chute and moon

Cloud colors, picker, trailer, and moon:

Cloud colors, picker, trailer, and moon

Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 September 2012.

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Skeeter hawk in the okra

Valdosta Farm Days Skeeterhawk says, “come get your okra at Valdosta Farm Days today, at the historic Lowndes County courthouse, corner of Patterson and Central!”

Skeeter hawk with sun

Video:

Pictures and video by Gretchen Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 September 2012.

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Terry Davis and the Red Corn

Terry Davis selected the red kernels last year, planted them this spring, and now he’s picking them.

Movie: Corn picking (4.5M) Movie: Coming up the corn row (74M) Movie: Second corn (8.1M) Movie: Finishing the second row (30M)

Here’s a video playlist.

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Sweet potatoes

Gretchen will be selling these sweet potatoes at Valdosta Farm Days tomorrow morning, Saturday, 15 September 2012, 9AM to 1PM, at the historic Lowndes County Courthouse.

Digging

Displaying:

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Double rainbow in the okra field

Left (north) Top (east) Right (south)

Movie: Here we are in the okra field, the rainbow (40M):

Movie: Second rainbow is bright and getting brighter (42M):

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Pumpkin with fire ants

Who knew fire ants like pumpkins?

Fire ants have a pumpkin roof

Picture by John S. Quarterman for Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 September 2012.

It was ripe, so I rolled it out of the ant bed, brushed off the ants, and we already sold it.

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Parkinson’s and Roundup: latest in a long list

We already knew Argentinian farmers were suing Monsanto about Roundup-induced birth defects, including cerebral palsy, down syndrome, psychomotor retardation, missing fingers, and blindness; we knew Roundup’s active ingredient glyphosate was “a risk factor for developing Non-Hodgkin lymphoma”; we knew that Roundup-ready corn causes liver and kidney damage in rats and chickens fed feed including Monsanto corn show abnormal gene expression, and we knew that Roundup-ready corn is toxic to humans. Add to all that: Roundup is a risk for Parkinson’s disease.

Sayer Ji wrote for GreenMediaInfo 18 April 2012, Roundup Herbicide Linked To Parkinson’s-Related Brain Damage,

Alarming new research published in the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology supports the emerging connection between glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide, and neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and Parkinsonian disorders.

Published this month (April, 2012), the new study entitled “Glyphosate induced cell death through apoptotic and authophagic mechanisms,” investigated the potential brain-damaging effects of herbicides, which the authors stated “have been recognized as the main environmental factor associated with neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease.”1

They found that glyphosate inhibited the viability of differentiated test cells (PC12, adrenal medula derived), in both dose-and-time dependent manners. The researchers also found that “glyphosate induced cell death via authophagy pathways in addition to activating apoptotic pathways.”

Roundup herbicide is now a ubiquitous contaminant in our air, rain, groundwater, and food, making complete avoidance near impossible. A growing body of experimental evidence now indicates that it in addition to its neurotoxicity it also has the following.

Modes of Toxicity

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Callicarpa, corn

Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) growing next to corn (Zea mays): two very tasty plants!

Callicarpa

This corn was planted by Terry Davis from seed kept in his family for 100 years.

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