Rock on, Sisters. Never underestimate the power of a mother protecting her child.


Two mothers’ organizations are focusing their efforts to pressure the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the herbicide chemical glyphosate from use in the United States.

This chemical is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup and is the most popular herbicide in the world.


In May of this year, representatives from Moms Across America, Organic Consumers Association, Natural Resources Defense Council, Consumers Union, Beyond Pesticides, Truth-in-Labeling Coalition, scientists, and lawyers met with a nine-member EPA panel to review, discuss, and present scientific evidence to support their serious concerns about this toxic substance.





The group’s motivation is protection of our children, offering testimonials from parents whose children have experienced severe allergies, gastrointestinal problems, autism spectrum disorders, and nutritional insufficiencies as the result of exposure to glyphosate.

Please see the EPA’s follow-up response here; it is absolutely unconscionable. It is apparent that although its professed mission is to protect Americans from harmful substances, that position has been grossly corrupted by its political association with Monsanto.


Here’s some background:

Numerous Independent Studies Found Glyphosate to be Toxic to Mammals.[1]

It causes cancers, neurological conditions, rhinitis, death, alters testosterone levels, and damages DNA.[2] One study published in the journal Entropy pulls no punches in its conclusions:


“Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup®, is the most popular herbicide used worldwide. The industry asserts it is minimally toxic to humans, but here we argue otherwise. Residues are found in the main foods of the Western diet, comprised primarily of sugar, corn, soy and wheat. Glyphosate’s inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals. CYP enzymes play crucial roles in biology, one of which is to detoxify xenobiotics. Thus, glyphosate enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins.[emphasis added] Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body. Here, we show how interference with CYP enzymes acts synergistically with disruption of the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids by gut bacteria, as well as impairment in serum sulfate transport. Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. We explain the documented effects of glyphosate and its ability to induce disease, and we show that glyphosate is the ‘textbook example’ of exogenous semiotic entropy: the disruption of homeostasis by environmental toxins.”[3]

Roundup is so toxic that even diluted 450-fold, it causes DNA damage in fish within just twenty-four hours.

Glyphosate has been associated with gluten disorders from its use on genetically modified crops.

Studies Performed all over the World Corroborate the Dangers of Roundup.

As long ago as 2009, Argentina’s Supreme Court was petitioned to ban glyphosate after a scientist and local people recorded an unusually high number of birth defects and cancers in people living near where the herbicide is routinely sprayed. DNA damage in amphibians was also found there. A study of herbicide residues performed in Argentina found:


“Exposure to residues from spraying with these herbicides can, even in small concentrations, affect hormone metabolism (see for example Gasnier et al., 2009; Thongprakaisang et al., 2013), and disrupt, for example, embryo development or influence cell division and cancer growth.”[4]

The ingredient in Roundup that allows the herbicide to spread and penetrate cells (polyethoxylated tallow amine, POEA) has been found in French studies to damage embryo, placenta, and umbilical cord cells. Gilles-Eric Séralini is a prominent microbiologist who has done a whole body of research involving glyphosate, POEA, genetically modified corn, and Roundup.

One study that was published in 2012 determined that one strain of Monsanto’s modified corn causes liver and kidney disease, cancer, and death in rats and was yanked from the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology under pressure from Monsanto.

After garnering world-wide support from the scientific community for his study, the findings were republished in 2013 in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe.[5]

It’s Bad for The Earth


In addition to the various dangerous outcomes to animals (including humans) of using glyphosate and Roundup, there is serious concern over the health of the environments in which these chemicals are used:

“The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has confirmed that the cultivation of genetically engineered herbicide resistant plants is problematic for the environment. In one of its opinions published in 2012, on the cultivation of Roundup Ready soybeans (technical name: 40-3-2) which are also grown in Argentina, it says: “‘The EFSA GMO Panel is of the opinion that potential adverse environmental effects of the cultivation of soybean 40-3-2 are associated with the use of the complementary glyphosate-based herbicide regimes. These potential adverse environmental effects could, under certain conditions, comprise: (1) a reduction in farmland biodiversity; (2) changes in weed community diversity due to weed shifts; (3) the selection of glyphosate resistant weeds; and (4) changes in soil microbial communities.” (EFSA, 2012)'”

All of our food comes either directly or indirectly from the ground. If you poison the earth, the water, the animals, and the plants, what are we left with?


sources:

[1] http://www.greenmedinfo.com/toxic-ingredient/glyphosate

[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22331240

[3] http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/4/1416

[4] http://www.testbiotech.de/sites/default/files/TBT_Background_Glyphosate_Argentina_0.pdf

[5] http://www.enveurope.com/content/26/1/14http://www.enveurope.com/content/26/1/14

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