Tag Archives: non-Hodgkins lymphoma

Kiwi farmers are still poisoning their fields with a Bayer/Monsanto product that has involved multi billion dollar settlements

October 14, 2025 Pam Vernon 12 Comments

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.

glyphosate sprayed fields — Manawatu field sprayed with Herbicide

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.

Prof Seralini's experiment with glyphosate and rats — The Seralini Rats

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

glyphosate spraying on fields in nz — Many Councils in NZ spray the roadsides with glyphosate. (Photo credit: Marian Sutherland)

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

Glyphosate/GMO videos

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).

cancer, Glyphosate, monsanto, News

Emails show Monsanto orchestrated GOP effort to intimidate cancer researchers

January 27, 2020 Pam Vernon 2 Comments

Kiwis still love this stuff (Roundup) and anyway it’s in other concoctions also on your supermarket shelves. As per usual they’re all either fast asleep, don’t care or in collusion with the govt/corporation that’s truly in bed with agrichem (IMO anyway). I had a convo recently with a worker at one of the big outlets that sell glyphosate ‘enriched’ creations for your garden edges etc who told me confidently ‘they’ (whoever they are) found it only affected those who worked with it all the time. All good for everybody else then by that calculation I expect. Councils here particularly love it. Try and take them on to dispense with it & you’ll get a glazed look whilst you reel off the independent science, then it’s – yawn – ‘next please’. (I tried it, you’re up against bought councils & the old boys’ club of farmers). The header image of the rats is a screen shot from Prof Seralini’s lab experiment … you can watch that at this link in case you still think glyphosate in Roundup is safe. And/or read further on our glyphosate pages. EWR

From theintercept.com

IN 2015, the World Health Organization’s cancer research arm, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, classified glyphosate, an active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, as a “probable carcinogen,” setting off a global debate about the world’s most popular weedkiller.

Over the last four years, Republicans in Congress have excoriated and pushed to defund the IARC, casting their defense of the chemical as a quest on behalf of small American farmers. Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., has written that his outrage over the cancer research is on behalf of the “farmers and food manufacturers who rely on traditional farming methods to produce the food that fuels America — and the world.”

But according to a recent trove of documents, the ongoing political assault on the IARC has been scripted in part by Monsanto, the St. Louis-based chemical and seed conglomerate that produces Roundup and Roundup-resistant crops.

Roundup has been cash cow for the company since the 1970s, fueling billions of dollars in annual profits. Its use has skyrocketed in recent decades since the company developed genetically modified corn and other crops that are resistant to it; it is now the world’s leading herbicide.

A growing number of individuals say that Monsanto failed to warn consumers of the dangers of using Roundup and had marketed the chemical spray as harmless to humans, while internally recommending that its own employees use gloves and protective gear. Critics say that the Roundup formula used in the U.S. also contains a surfactant that makes the herbicide far more toxic than the variation of the spray sold in the European market.

Monsanto, which merged with German multinational pharmaceutical company Bayer AG last year, is facing as many as 11,000 cases relating to glyphosate. Last year, Dewayne Johnson, a former groundskeeper now dying of cancer, was the first to win his jury trial in San Francisco state court against Monsanto, alleging that years of using Roundup contributed to his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Johnson was awarded $289 million by a jury, though a judge later reduced the amount to $78 million. Another plaintiff, Edwin Hardeman, also alleged that he spent decades spraying the glyphosate-based weedkiller with little to no protective gear and developed the same blood cancer, won a similar case in federal court this year.

https://theintercept.com/2019/08/23/monsanto-republicans-cancer-research/

Photo: Screen shot from Prof Seralini’s video

cancer, Glyphosate, monsanto, News, roundup

EPA Official Accused of Helping Monsanto ‘Kill’ Cancer Study on That Herbicide Kiwis Spray Everywhere

March 24, 2017 Pam Vernon 1 Comment

The Environmental Protection Agency official who was in charge of evaluating the cancer risk of Monsanto Co.’s Roundup allegedly bragged to a company executive that he deserved a medal if he could kill another agency’s investigation into the herbicide’s key chemical.

The boast was made during an April 2015 phone conversation, according to farmers and others who say they’ve been sickened by the weed killer. After leaving his job as a manager in the EPA’s pesticide division last year, Jess Rowland has become a central figure in more than 20 lawsuits in the U.S. accusing the company of failing to warn consumers and regulators of the risk that its glyphosate-based herbicide can cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“If I can kill this I should get a medal,” Rowland told a Monsanto regulatory affairs manager who recounted the conversation in an email to his colleagues, according to a court filing made public Tuesday. The company was seeking Rowland’s help stopping an investigation of glyphosate by a separate office, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, that is part of the U.S. Health and Human Service Department, according to the filing.

A federal judge overseeing the glyphosate litigation in San Francisco said last month he’s inclined to order Rowland to submit to questioning by lawyers for the plaintiffs, who contend he had a “highly suspicious” relationship with Monsanto. Rowland oversaw a committee that found insufficient evidence to conclude glyphosate causes cancer and quit last year shortly after his report was leaked to the press.

cancer, Carcinogen, Chemical Sprays, Glyphosate, Herbicides, monsanto, News, roundup

Monsanto’s Roundup Must Carry Cancer Warning Label, Judge Decrees

February 14, 2017 Pam Vernon 1 Comment

This is excellent news! A long time coming. Wake up people and see beyond the surface stories you are told … this NZ man who is spraying the stones in the course of his work day is wearing no protective equipment for his hands or face, as is the custom with most people who use it here. One contractor I questioned on this matter told me he didn’t wear a mask because it would alarm the public! Let’s just not frighten them because after all if any of us gets cancer nobody will be able to prove how it happened anyway. Farmers swear by it and their Agricultural texts recommend spraying their fields with it … this means it is likely in your non-organic meat. One in three people now get cancer … time to join some dots people. And this is not the only product that carries similar health risks, there are many more in our environment … we are bombarded from many angles. Read our Cancer pages.

Copy of Copy of Dec 2014 041.jpg — An employee of one of NZ’s major contractors, Fulton and Hogan, spraying the stones, unprotected with any safety gear apart from overalls

By Dr. Mercola

In March, 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a research arm of the World Health Organization (WHO), reclassified glyphosate as a “probable carcinogen” (Class 2A).^1,²

The decision was based on “limited evidence” showing the weed killer can cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and lung cancer in humans, along with “convincing evidence” linking it to cancer in animals.

The IARC is considered the global gold standard for carcinogenicity studies, so its determination was of considerable importance. It’s also one of the five research agencies from which the OEHHA — the California agency of environmental hazards — gets its reports to declare carcinogens under Prop 65.

Monsanto has vigorously pursued a retraction of the IARC’s damning report,³ to prevent California from pursuing a cancer warning on Roundup and other, newer weed killers in the pipeline, designed for use on the company’s latest genetically engineered (GE) crops.

Monsanto Forced to Put Cancer Warning on Roundup

Their efforts have so far failed, and Fresno County Superior Court Judge Kristi Kapetan recently struck another nail in the company’s coffin, striking down Monsanto’s attempt to overturn California’s 2015 ruling to require Prop 65 warnings on glyphosate.^4,^5,⁶

While Kapetan has yet to issue a formal decision on the matter, Monsanto says it will challenge the ruling, if upheld. As reported by LA Progressive:⁷

“California would be the first state to order this level of labeling if this decision by the California Carcinogen Identification Committee is sustained by further court action.

Monsanto previously sued the nation’s foremost agricultural producing state by filing court motions to the effect that California’s carcinogen committee … had illegally based their decision for mandatorily requiring the warnings on “erroneous” findings by an international health organization …

READ MORE

For more info and links to docos see our Glyphosate pages (remember the sub pages). Educate yourself and make informed decisions from all the data, not just what mainstream feed you. And remember to share the information and expose the untruths we’ve been told. Use the share buttons & thank you for reading.

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