Camano Island is NW of Everett, Washington, and this article is from 2002,
responding to an article in the local paper there. -jsq
Commentary
A Call for Skepticism
by Steven K. Roberts
Camano Island
If ever we needed a demonstration that the fundamental flaw in many
arguments is a lack of discrimination regarding information sources,
we have it in the Nels Konnerup article, “Toxicology 101 Defended,”
in the March 26 issue of the S/C News.
The author makes a “plea for cogent thought, rather than a visceral
reaction to the use of pesticides and herbicides,” and cites a number of
references “authored by highly qualified and respected scientists.” So
far, so good.
But just for fun, I spent a few minutes researching some of these sources
to see if I could determine the affiliations and biases of their authors.
Dr. Stanley Culpepper of UGA Tifton says 52 counties have the mutant pigweed.
He says they’re looking at cover crops and deep turning.
(You may know that as plowing.)
He hastily adds that they’re looking at other herbicides.
But he wraps up by saying we have to look at other methods
than herbicides: tillage and cover crops.
He frames it as diversity and integration.
What it really means is spraying poisons eventually
breeds weeds that refuse to be poisoned.
People, of course,
are not so lucky.
The documentary points out many products in German stores that
include GM soy.
In Argentina, it’s even worse, with increasing numbers of birth defects.
They interview
Prof. Andrés Carrasco about his research on amphibians:
“The hemispheres do not separate, like you can see here.
If you look closely you can see one brain.
Glyphosate can cause this kind of mechanisms, for it is an enzymatic toxin.”
“To human cells glyphosate is already toxic in a very low dose.
A farmer uses a much higher dose on the field.
Roundup is even more toxic than glysophate,
for that is only one of the ingredients in Roundup.”
Roundup says none of this applies to humans and Roundup is safe.
Seralini
says:
Who should you believe?
A corporation repeatedly convicted of deception,
or scientists who say that GM crops
cause liver and kidney damage in animals,
according to research using Monsanto’s own data.
Even as traditional environmentalism struggles, another movement is
rising in its place, aligning consumers, producers, the media and even
politicians. It’s the food movement, and if it continues to grow it may be
able to create just the sort of political and social transformation that
environmentalists have failed to achieve in recent years. That would mean
not only changing the way Americans eat and the way they farm — away
from industrialized, cheap calories and toward more organic, small-scale
production, with plenty of fruits and vegetables — but also altering
the way we work and relate to one another. To its most ardent adherents,
the food movement isn’t just about reform — it’s about revolution.
Food is something that affects everybody, and now that people are
starting to realize that the mainstream food supply is poisoned:
Continue reading →
Clothianidin has already been banned by Germany, France, Italy, and
Slovenia for its toxic effects. So why won’t the EPA follow? It probably
has something to do with Big Agra, who loves the stuff for treating the
corn seed supply.
The world honey bee population has plunged in recent years, worrying
beekeepers and farmers who know how critical bee pollination is for
many crops.
She includes a quote from the study:
Clothianidin’s major risk concern is to nontarget insects (that is,
honey bees). Clothianidin is a neonicotinoid insecticide that is both
persistent and systemic. Acute toxicity studies to honey bees show that
clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis. Although
EFED does not conduct RQ based risk assessments on non-target insects,
information from standard tests and field studies, as well as incident
reports involving other neonicotinoids insecticides (e.g., imidacloprid)
suggest the potential for long-term toxic risk to honey bees and other
beneficial insects.
An insecticide used in genetically modified (GM) crops grown extensively
in the United States and other parts of the world has leached into the
water of the surrounding environment.
The insecticide is the product of a bacterial gene inserted into GM
maize and other cereal crops to protect them against insects such as
the European corn borer beetle. Scientists have detected the insecticide
in a significant number of streams draining the great corn belt of the
American mid-West.
The researchers detected the bacterial protein in the plant detritus that
was washed off the corn fields into streams up to 500 metres away. They
are not yet able to determine how significant this is in terms of the
risk to either human health or the wider environment.
Industrial ag is admitting that it needs to trash its neighbors and the
surrounding landscape to thrive. And it wants us to believe that there
are no alternatives.
His first example is Farm Bureau’s reaction to new EPA restraints
on chicken farm factories around Chesapeake Bay, then he gets to Monsanto:
Continue reading →
West African farmers have succeeded in cutting the use of toxic
pesticides, increasing yields and incomes and diversifying farming systems
as a result of an international project promoting sustainable farming
practices.
Monsanto’s Roundup, the agro-toxic companion herbicide for millions of
acres of GM soybeans, corn, cotton, alfalfa, canola, and sugar beets,
is losing market share. Its overuse has spawned a new generation of
superweeds that can only be killed with super-toxic herbicides such as
2,4, D and paraquat. Moreover, patented “Roundup Ready” crops require
massive amounts of climate destabilizing nitrate fertilizer. Compounding
Monsanto’s damage to the environment and climate, rampant Roundup use
is literally killing the soil, destroying essential soil microorganisms,
degrading the living soil’s ability to capture and sequester CO2,
and spreading deadly plant diseases.
In just one year, Monsanto has moved from being Forbes’ “Company
of the Year” to the
Worst Stock of the Year. The Biotech Bully of
St. Louis has become one of the most hated corporations on Earth.
The article mentions scientific studies about bad health effects
of genetically modified foods,
and goes on to warn of Monsanto maneuverings through the EPA
and the Gates Foundation.
Then he points to the European Union as leading the way:
Continue reading →
…Monsanto has been forced into the unenviable position of having to
pay farmers to spray the herbicides of rival companies.
If you tend large plantings of Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” soy or cotton,
genetically engineered to withstand application of the company’s Roundup
herbicide (which will kill the weeds — supposedly — but not the crops),
Monsanto will cut you a $6 check for every acre on which you apply at
least two other herbicides. One imagines farmers counting their cash as
literally millions of acres across the South and Midwest get doused with
Monsanto-subsidized poison cocktails.
The move is the latest step in the abject reversal of Monsanto’s longtime
claim: that Roundup Ready technology solved the age-old problem of weeds
in an ecologically benign way.
Roundup, trade name for glysophate, doesn’t work anymore because
the weeds mutated:
Continue reading →
Commentary
