Travelling about the NZ countryside recently I noticed the familiar yellow fields I used to think were attractive. Until I discovered they’d been sprayed with Roundup, the herbicide that farmers tell me, is so harmless you could drink it.
Sounds a bit like the ‘safe and effective’ mantra. Well it turns out Roundup is far from either of those terms. Why will farmers not read the independent research? Or follow the precautionary principle. Any doubt whatsoever about safety? wait until it is proven safe.
Roundup is manufactured by Bayer (formerly Monsanto… read their history … who have morphed into oblivion) and one of its ingredients so harmful to us all is glyphosate. There is a ton of independent research now (including law suits) that should make you avoid it at all costs. US Legal firm Wisner Baum helped negotiate over $11 billion in settlements against Bayer, securing multi-billion dollar jury verdicts for its clients. They state at their website:
Roundup is a widely used herbicide whose active ingredient is glyphosate. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) — part of the World Health Organization — classifies glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen. Thousands of people across the U.S. have alleged that long‑term exposure to glyphosate (in Roundup and similar products) caused them to develop non‑Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and other serious illnesses.
A NZ tertiary agricultural textbook has long instructed farmers to spray Roundup on their fields then plow it under. The text book is called Pasture Doctor and can be found on Amazon here. (Small wonder farmers still think it’s safe. Why would the University lie to them? ) There used to be a preview option of that book from which I screenshot the pages recommending spraying, however that option has now disappeared. (I lost the screenshots some time ago unfortunately). Of note, it was a University lecturer who told me in the 1980s that corporations would one day control governments. Predictive programming at its finest.
Professor Seralini (from France) conducted a two year experiment (2011) examining glyphosate and GMO food, his team fed transgenic corn to lab rats that produced in them multiple tumours. But of course Monsanto produced ‘evidence’ claiming the rats they used were the wrong kind, casting aspersions on the whole study. (Refuted here). Wiki predictably called it the Seralini ‘affair’. I would prefer to believe the Professor any day. You can watch the 12 minute Seralini video below. There is a transcript at the source on YouTube.
A French court ruled in 2009 that Monsanto has lied about the safety of Roundup (ie it is not biodegradable as claimed, a bit like the claims made about deadly 1080).
US Tertiary level lecturer of 55 years experience in agriculture, Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology (Dr Don Hubert) calls Glyphosate one of the most toxic substances on the planet.
The Physicians & Scientists for Global Responsibility (PSGR) supply a long list of research citing concerns about glyphosate here.
Hear also, NZ’s Dr Meriel Watts speaking on glyphosate.
“We don’t want to wait until we have exposed enough people to a chemical in order to prove that it’s carcinogenic. When we hit that point, we have hit a failure in the regulatory process.” – Dr. Lynn Goldman,
National Research Council Report Review Committee Member
For some time I and other interested folk appealed to the local Rangitikei District Council asking them to drop the use of glyphosate/Roundup on Council lands, streets, parks and so on. There were some concessions made about signage warning the public of spraying and so on but as to ceasing altogether they declined. There was evidence cited of the use of steam in Auckland to combat weeds which was only minimally dearer than Roundup. No go. I approached a person spraying for Council one time and asked why he didn’t wear protective clothing as recommended by the manufacturer. He told me he didn’t want to scare the public.
To educate yourself on the long list of studies and the experts who have spoken out against glyphosate and Roundup check out these pages (glyphosate is in other herbicides as well, check the labels, and consider organic alternatives if you must spray) :
Glyphosate Toxicity: What You Need to Know
Links between Glyphosate and a Multitude of Cancers that are “Reaching Epidemic Proportions” from GlobalResearch.ca
Search in ‘categories’ for ‘glyphosate’ (categories is found at the top left hand side of the news page). Alternatively type glyphosate into the search box (top right hand side).
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I wonder if I could qualify to be the wrong kind of rat?
I did some research a while back, because I wanted to evaluate some soil, and it seemed to be accepted wisdom that glyphosate broke down after ten or a dozen years.
Anyone know anything about this?
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My guess would be no myparrot. I would say they would require very compliant rats
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you would have to be right, Pam. Too old now to pretend to be a compliant rat.
You’ll never make a compliant rat out of an old dog who loves to act the goat.
Anyone with good info on the real breakdown properties of Roundup ™ please share.
Also, a good search engine. I’ve tried a few. Startpage was good a year ago, but horrible now.
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MyParrot- I used to sell horticultural chemicals and we were told Round-Up – glyphosate – the active ingredient bio-degrades in 24 hours. In other words it was non-toxic to plants in the stated time period. That appeared to be the case because any seedling poking it’s head up through the soil after the stand down period would survive ok.
We also were told you could drink the stuff – actually know of a sales rep for Monsanto that did that to show an audience it was true – not sure what his status is these days though, he could well be one of the sacrificial un-alives.
Back in the earlier days of Round-Up, all other weedkillers were dangerous to human touch or consumption. Round-Up as you can imagine was a breakthrough product and an instant star for the “greenies” of the day. Hence it’s rock-star status and widespread usage from farmers and councils, DOC, home owners, etc.
GMO food crops and even sports turf ryegrasses have been developed to be immune to glyphosate. It was never about saving the planet – it was about sales/profits by controlling the GMO product under intellectual property (IP) protection i.e.patents, giving monopoly to the owners and about leveraging Round-Up sales/profits.
Round-Up is now off license (patent has expired) so no doubt when the pressure comes on to totally get rid of it they will then roll out the “next big thing” replacement.
The NZ agricultural universtities, agricultural contractors, farmers, govt depts, councils plus all the advising boards to these entities all love Round-Up and call those that oppose it “conspiracy theorists”. To get Round-Up banned you will have to overcome this wall of derision from the above parties first.
Good luck with that one!
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Good hearing you confirm about the drinking of roundup claims. A farmer also told me personally he uses GM seed. And yes, they do love Roundup. The council in the case I encountered first were mostly farmers so very much loved it. In the pockets of Agrichem I call it.
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And that poison gets passed on to the consumers of their produce. There is more 1080 being dumped on the South Tararua range right now — the battle against it just goes on. Have reposted.
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It sure does & folk don’t even know it. Nor do many care to look. Thanks for the heads up on the Tararuas. I didn’t know that. Thanks too for the repost.
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Why should anyone invest in New Zealand only to get poisoned by pesticides?
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Exactly 65settlement. Again, no choice given us! Aside from opting out by indicating no sprays however that’s easier said than done as well.
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Bending to pull weeds, to me is better exercise than going to the gym and it gives me time to think and contemplate the evil shenanigans going on in this world so roundup or any spray for that matter is a No from me. Also as a youngun in the 60s/70s my father dragged me out to go gorse spraying with him every summer school holidays and I’d be drenched in the sickening stuff so swore, Never Again.
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There are so many stories like yours Di, folk soaking themselves in these poisons, totally oblivious. Scary.
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