It was recently announced that Monsanto and the Scott’s Miracle Gro Company have extended their partnership and have inked a $300 million dollar deal, with a goal of bringing Monsanto’s carcinogenic herbicide Roundup to new markets. The poison-loving duo have been working away on a Roundup Ready grass that will soon be found in neighborhoods, schools, and parks near you.
Not that U.S. regulating agencies would do much in the way of preventing the toxic grass from making it to market, but Scott’s has found a way to avoid regulation completely by using a technology know as gene editing, where genes are inserted mechanically versus using a bacteria to do so. (Read more about CRISPR gene editing technology here.)
It is imperative to educate those around us on the very dire health ramifications of Roundup exposure. Let’s revisit some alarming facts about Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide:
1. Roundup Exposure and Western Diseases
Despite what pro-industry funded safety studies will have you believe, glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup, is a highly carcinogenic agent that is banned in countries all over the world.
Independent, unbiased research has shown glyphosate targets the gut microbial balance and that the effects of this disruption on the human body have been grossly underestimated. (Read the study here.)
“Glyphosate’s inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals. Residues are found in the main foods of the Western diet, comprised primarily of sugar, corn, soy and wheat … 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.” -Entropy 2013
Another study suggests that Monsanto’s herbicide is the cause of fatal chronic kidney disease of unknown origin (CKDu) which has devastated poor farming regions around the world.
The disease is so severe and widespread that the Center for Public Integrity found that CKDu has killed more El Salvadorian and Nicaraguan citizens in the last five years than diabetes, AIDS and leukemia combined. (Read the study here.)
Roundup has also been linked to neurological disorders like Parkinson’s, autism, and Alzheimer’s disease. A 2013 review of hundreds of scientific studies surrounding glyphosate demonstrated that humans exposed to glyphosate have decreased levels of the amino acid tryptophan, which is necessary for active signaling of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Suppressed serotonin levels results in unhealthy neurological systems in humans and is believed to be the origin for the development of chronic brain diseases. (Read the extensive review here.)
2. Monsanto Knows Glyphosate Causes Cancer.
Research conducted by Monsanto in 1981 proved that glyphosate definitively causes cancer and an array of other health problems. Since Monsanto’s henchmen run the EPA, this evidence was omitted from public record and classified as a “trade secret.”
“The evidence shows that by 1981 both Monsanto and the EPA were aware of malignant tumours and pre-cancerous conditions in the test animals which were fed small doses of glyphosate in the secret feeding experiments”, reports Dr Brian John of GM-Free Cymru.
“Although concerns were expressed at the time by EPA committees, these concerns were later suppressed under the weight of conflicting evidence brought forward by Monsanto, some of it involving the inappropriate use of historical control data of dubious quality. None of these studies is available for independent examination. That is a scandal in itself. There has been a protracted and cynical cover-up in this matter.
“Glyphosate is a ‘probable human carcinogen’, as now confirmed by the WHO Working Group, and no matter what protestations may now come from Monsanto and the EPA, they have been fully aware of its potential to cause cancer for at least 35 years.
“If they had acted in a precautionary fashion back then, instead of turning a blind eye to scientific malpractice, glyphosate would never have been licensed, and thousands of lives might have been saved.”
Take 5 minutes and read this excellent overview of the EPA and Monsanto’s collusion to poison a trusting public. (Click here.)
3. Prenatal to Cradle to Grave Exposure
There was a time when pediatric cancers were rare. Now, we live in an age where children are born with tumors, indicating a truly horrific reality that even our wombs are unsafe from Monsanto’s ubiquitous herbicide.
A recent study showed a staggering 93% of Americans had tested positive for glyphosate. Is it really any wonder that other studies have found levels of the chemical in the umbilical cord blood of pregnant women or in the breast milk of nursing mothers? (Read more about these studies here, here, and here.)
Conventional baby formula is made with GM ingredients and therefore contains Roundup. Many children’s first foods, like rice cereal or jarred fruits and veggies, are toxic. Most moms feed their babies Gerber puff snacks and those baby cheese puff-style chips. Gerber’s best-selling baby snacks are laced with Monsanto’s cancer-causing herbicide. (Read more about these shocking findings uncovered by GMO Free USA by clicking here.)
Ongoing testing alludes to the fact that vaccines are even more toxic than originally believed. Anyone with common sense should realize that all those soy adjuvants being injected into the muscle tissue of developing children aren’t organic. There has never been a single safety study test exploring the outcome of injecting Roundup into a child. But, along with vaccine ingredients like formaldehyde, aluminum, and Polysorbate 80, I’m sure it’s by design that our kids are so much unhealthier than previous generations. Big Pharma makes billions off dangerous vaccines and harmful prescriptions, and clearly there isn’t much revenue in healthy, functioning children.
History will record our children’s generation as one of the sickest to inhabit the earth, if we make it that far. The glyphosate is working as the infertility rate is 1 in 6 couples, and that’s another huge source of income for Big Pharma and those doling out costly fertility treatments. (Roundup has been linked as a cause of infertility and you can read more about that here.)
This isn’t the way life used to be. Does anyone else recall a time when infertility clinics were non-existent? Before the age of chemical agriculture, people who wanted a baby usually had one. Yes, infertility has always existed, but natural evolution has not lead us to the current sterility epidemic we face. This is a deliberate, man-made crime against humanity and the perpetrators have names and addresses.
Roundup is everywhere and in everyone. The toxic compound has even been detected in 75% of rain and air samples (source). What does that mean for our organic gardens?
Educate your neighbors and friends who may be unknowingly poisoning their yards. (Click here for a great resource of organic weed-killing options and share with loved ones.) Attend a PTA meeting and demand the end of any toxic chemicals used at your children’s school. Contact your town’s Parks and Recreation office and encourage sustainable solutions be implemented in the parks where our kids play.
These are simple, direct actions that will have a profound impact on our daily lives.
The change we seek isn’t going go to come from the top down, clearly. Time and again, the U.S. government has proven that it cannot be trusted. Monsanto rules the land and has spent millions to ensure their toxic stranglehold on the American food supply. Our elected officials are nothing more than corporate pawns, frothing at the mouth to cash the next biotech ‘campaign donation’. Despite the demands of a majority of the constituency, the government can’t be bothered with transparency because Monsanto says so. And they have spent far too much to be told no.
