Monsanto Roundup: GMOs - Expert: GMOs to blame for problems in plants, animals

One of the experts set to testify at Wednesday’s long-awaited meeting about the county’s policy for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on open space says scientists are seeing new, alarming patterns in plants and animals due to increased use of the herbicide Roundup.

McNeill told Boulder Weekly before the meeting that he and his colleagues in the industry are seeing serious, negative effects produced by the use of glyphosate, which is the primary ingredient in Roundup weed killer. (Monsanto, the company that makes Roundup, has generated controversy by genetically altering crops to make them resistant to the herbicide.)

“When you spray glyphosate on a plant, it’s like giving it AIDS,” he says.

And the problems are not limited to plants, it’s extending to the animals that eat them, according to McNeill.

He says he and his colleagues are seeing a higher incidence of infertility and early-term abortion in cattle and hogs that are fed on GMO crops. He adds that poultry fed on the suspect crops have been exhibiting reduced fertility rates.

McNeill compares the Roundup situation to the way science eventually caught up to another poison: Just as DDT was initially hailed as a miracle pesticide and later banned, researchers are beginning to discover serious problems with glyphosate.

The Source

GMO Frankenfood II? Despite US Judge Ruling, USDA Deregulates Monsanto Roundup-Ready Crops

GMO Frankenfood II? Despite US Judge Ruling, USDA Deregulates Monsanto Roundup-Ready Crops

David Ehrenfield, Professor of Biology at Rutgers University said, “Genetic Engineering is often justified as a human technology, one that feeds more people with better food. Nothing could be further from the truth. With very few exceptions, the whole point of genetic engineering is to increase sales of chemicals and bio-engineered products to dependent farmers”.

Deregulation by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) means Roundup-Ready crops can now be grown commercially, endangering non-GMO alfalfa and sugar beet crops by transgenic contamination through the increased use of herbicides.

In an interview with the True Food Foundation, Dr. David Suzuki, Canadian geneticist said, anyone who claims genetically engineered food is perfectly safe is “either unbelievably stupid, or deliberately lying,” adding: “The reality is, we don’t know. The experiments simply haven’t been done, and now we have become the guinea pigs…. I am most definitely not in favor of release of GMOs in the food stream and given that it’s too late, I favor complete labeling of GMO products.”

A recent review by Earth Open Source, an organization that uses open-source collaboration to advance sustainable food production, suggests that industry regulators in Europe have known for years that glyphosate, originally introduced by Monsanto in 1976, causes birth defects in the embryos of laboratory animals. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates the agricultural market used approx.180-185 million pounds of glyphosate between 2006 and 2007, and non-agricultural markets used approx. 8-11 million pounds between 2005 and 2007, according to the 2006-2007 Pesticide Industry Sales & Usage Report, published in February of 2011.

A Personal Chronical Ditch the Chemicals: Kathy Fitzgerald - Biotech not all it’s cracked up to be

Kathy Fitzgerald - Biotech not all it’s cracked up to be

But we didn’t think – until we signed up for a soils class back in 2004. What I learned that day changed the way I garden, and started me on an odyssey of learning and lifestyle changes. My epiphany?

Agricultural biotechnologists have jumped on this big-business-supported bandwagon. The example I know most about is Monsanto’s Roundup Ready seeds, genetically modified to be resistant to the company’s own glyphosate herbicide.

“Better living through chemistry” hasn’t turned the earth into the nirvana of universal ease, convenience and plenty its promoters promised. Why should we assume “better living through biotechnology” will work out any differently in the long run?

Dr. Huber Explains Science Behind New Organism and Threat from Monsanto's Roundup, GMOs to Disease and Infertility

Dr. Huber Explains Science Behind New Organism and Threat from Monsanto's Roundup, GMOs to Disease and Infertility from Food Democracy Now! on Vimeo.

David Murphy of Food Democracy Now interviews Dr. Don Huber, Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology, Purdue University on discovery of new organism and crop disease, livestock infertility and threats to U.S. food and agriculture.

Support Dr. Huber's call for more science: Take action! action.fooddemocracynow.org/​sign/​dr_hubers_warning/​