Tag: monsanto

New U.S. Government Research is Finally Admitting that Glyphosate Weed Killer Causes Cancer

If you have already had something to eat today prior to reading this article, chances are very high that you have already ingested glyphosate, the active ingredient in herbicides such as RoundUp, the most widely used agrochemical in the world.

Since I have earned my living for the past two decades by selling clean food, I have been warning the public now for many years about the dangers of these agrochemicals and the contamination of our nation’s commercial food supply.

If you do a search on “glyphosate” at Health Impact News, you will get search result list of over 380 articles that we have published during the past decade.

The advent of genetically modified (GMO) seeds in the late 1990s, particularly corn and soybeans, has allowed the agricultural chemical giants, such as Monsanto, to spray greater quantities of herbicides and pesticides onto the nation’s crops.

In 2014 we began testing commercial grain products to verify that North America’s wheat and grain supply was contaminated by the herbicide glyphosate, even though there are currently no GMO varieties of wheat or other grains.

We found it to be true, due to the practice of “desiccating” crops in the fall with glyphosate in the northern states and Canada to allow the farmers to harvest their wheat before the first snowfall.

Next, we tested our own USDA certified organic grains that we sold in our online store, and were shocked to find out that they were just as contaminated with glyphosate as non-organic grains. 

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Popular weed killer impairs insect immune systems, raising malaria risk

Unexpected new findings from researchers at Johns Hopkins University are indicating the world’s most commonly used herbicide appears to weaken the immune systems of insects. One experiment with mosquitos known to spread malaria suggests the chemical can increase the insect’s susceptibility to parasitic infection, possibly increasing risk of human disease transmission.

Glyphosate is a weed-killer that has been in wide agricultural use since the 1970s. It kills plants by disrupting a crucial metabolic process called the shikimate pathway. The pathway is only present in plants, so for many years glyphosate was thought to be an ideal herbicide – harmless to everything but plants.

Over recent years, however, concerns have been raised over the chemical’s effect on the surrounding environment and humans. Austria and Vietnam were two of the first countries to outright ban the herbicide, while several others are undergoing a staged phase-out of its use over the coming years.

The effects of glyphosate on insects is still a source of much debate. Studies have found the herbicide can disrupt gut bacteria in insects, and this can lead to behavioral or physiological changes. A new study is suggesting glyphosate could impair immunity in insects, and this may lead to damaging consequences for human health.

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Roundup causes high levels of mortality following contact exposure in bumble bees

Our results are the first to show that contact exposure to either consumer or agricultural Roundup® products at label recommended concentrations can cause high levels of mortality in bumble bees. The consumer product Roundup® Ready‐To‐Use caused 94% mortality at the pre‐mixed concentration, and still caused significant mortality at a quarter strength. The agricultural product Roundup® ProActive also caused significant mortality, although over a longer time period. Interestingly, Roundup® No Glyphosate caused 96% mortality while the generic GBH Weedol® did not significantly increase mortality. Together, this demonstrates that the co‐formulants in these Roundup® products, not the active ingredient glyphosate, are driving mortality. We suggest that the mechanism driving this mortality may be surfactants in the formulations blocking the tracheal system of the bees, which is essential for gas exchange. Given the hazard demonstrated here with all tested Roundup® products, and the extensive exposure of bees to such GBHs world‐wide, GBHs may pose a high risk to bees, and thus may be an as yet unidentified driver of the bee declines that are occurring around the globe.

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