Click on the Photo to link to the article about this new study.
This excerpt is from The Great Healing. Chapter 2, Compassion For Self:
GMO Roundup Ready seed crops are designed to be routinely sprayed with Bayer’s potent poison Roundup. Roundup contains the herbicide glyphosate, which kills weeds, insects, and the living microorganisms essential to soil health. Over 2.6 billion pounds of glyphosate herbicide have been sprayed on GMO crops on U.S. farmland between 1992 and 2012 — crops that become our food or the food for factory farmed animals.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization, determined in 2015 that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.”[i] [ii] The State of California and the Center for Food Safety determined that glyphosate is a known carcinogen and sought to label products containing it as such per California law. Glyphosate’s manufacturer, Monsanto (acquired by Bayer in 2018), challenged this decision in court. In April 2018, the court sided with the State of California.[iii]
A research study released in February 2019, found a “compelling link” between exposure to glyphosate and a 41% increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer in humans.[iv] [v]
38 countries have bans in place on GMO crops including almost the entirety of the European Union.[vi] 64 countries around the world including the European Union, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Russia and China require the package labeling of genetically modified foods. The U.S. does not.[vii]
The manufacturer of glyphosate has it registered as an antibiotic. “Biotic” is a word of Greek origin meaning “pertaining to life” or “of life.” Anti-biotic is something that, by definition, kills life. When you take an antibiotic to rid your body of an infection, you take it for just enough time to do its job because antibiotics also kill your vital gut bacteria — your microbiome.
A healthy gut microbiome is essential to your wellbeing. David Montgomery and Anne Biklé make the connection between the microbiome in the soil and the one inside our bodies, “Many practices at the heart of modern agriculture and medicine — two arenas of applied science critical to human health and wellbeing — are simply on the wrong path. We need to learn how to work with rather than against the microbial communities that underpin the health of plants and people.”[viii]
Glyphosate is a powerful poison. Since its manufacturer classifies glyphosate as an antibiotic, it is not something you want introduced into your healthy stomach and gut microbiome. Is there a correlation between the rising number of people with “leaky gut” and other stomach and intestinal disorders and ingestion of GMO foods and the antibiotic glyphosate?
In 2018, the Environmental Working Group tested glyphosate levels in 45 samples from more than a dozen popular oat cereals, oatmeal and granola snack bars. Government regulators at the Food and Drug Administration have been testing dietary exposures for glyphosate for two years and have kept their results secret. So, the EWG scientists tested independently to provide Americans with this vital information.
Nature’s Path Organic Honey Almond Granola. Quaker Steel Cut Oats. Lucky Charms. Kashi Heart to Heart Organic Honey Toasted Cereal. Cheerios. Bob’s Red Mill Steel Cut Oats. Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars. Kellogg’s Cracklin’ Oat Bran. 43 of the 45 product samples tested contained glyphosate. Nearly three-fourths of them had levels higher than the benchmark EWG scientists consider protective of children’s health with an adequate margin of safety.[ix]
Notice the words “organic” and “nature” in the names of some of the products listed here. Using the resources annotated in Chapter 1, you will soon learn that words like “Natural” and “Healthy,” while attractive for consumers, are hollow in terms of factual nutritional promise. “Organic” is meaningful but read the packaging to make sure the product is made from non-GMO ingredients.
Testing products that schools typically serve on their breakfast menus, the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) reported in December 2018, that, “Nearly 70% of the oat-based breakfast foods tested contain concerning levels of glyphosate.”[x] Two Quaker products, Old Fashioned Oats and Instant Oatmeal, contained, “Glyphosate contamination more than six times the safety threshold developed by the EWG.” The glyphosate contamination in Cheerios exceeded five times that level.[xi]
In February 2019, the United States Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) revealed that 19 of 20 beers and wines it tested contained glyphosate. The beer brands included Budweiser, Coors, Miller Lite, Sam Adams, Samuel Smith Organic and New Belgium. Wines included Beringer, Barefoot and Sutter Home.[xii]
In her comprehensive and compelling book, Whitewash - The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science, Carey Gillam concludes, “There is simply too much evidence that pesticides contribute to elevated rates of chronic diseases such as different cancers, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders that include Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, and reproductive disorders… Everyone who eats foods produced with these pesticides is also at risk. And though the chemical agribusiness industry has long contended that low-level exposures pose no risk to human health, numerous scientists and medical professionals no longer are willing to accept that false assurance.”[xiii]
And jurists aren’t either.
[i] IARC Monographs Volume 112: Evaluation of Five Organophosphate Insecticides and Herbicides, World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Mar. 20, 2015, http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf
[ii] Guyton K.Z., Loomis D, Grosse Y, et al. International Agency for Research on Cancer Monograph Working group, IARC, Lyon, France. Carcinogenicity of Tetrachlorvinphos, Parathion, Malathion, Diazinon, and Glyphosate, Lancet Oncol. 2015 May;16(5):490-91
[iii] California Defeats Monsanto in Court to List Glyphosate as Carcinogen, Sustainable Pulsa, Apr. 20, 2018 https://sustainablepulse.com/2018/04/20/california-defeats-monsanto-in-court-to-list-glyphosate-as-probable-carcinogen/#.WvtpUxMvxhE
[iv] Luoping Zhang, Iemaan Rana, Rachel M. Shaffer, et al. Exposure to Glyphosate-Based Herbicides and Risk for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: A Meta-Analysis and Supporting Evidence, Science Direct, doi.org/10.1016/j.mrrev.2019.02.001 Feb. 10, 2019, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1383574218300887
[v] Emily Dixon, Common Weed Killer Glyphosate Increases Cancer Risk by 41%, Study Says, CNN, Feb 14, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/14/health/us-glyphosate-cancer-study-scli-intl/index.html
[vi] Yelena Sukhoterina, Sorry, Monsanto: GMO Crops Now banned in Nearly 40 Countries, Grown in Just 28, AltHealth Works, Apr. 21, 2016 https://althealthworks.com/9778/list-of-38-countries-that-banned-gmos-and-28-that-grow-themyelena/
[vii] Labeling Around the World, Just Label It!, http://www.justlabelit.org/right-to-know-center/labeling-around-the-world/
[viii] David Montgomery, Anne Biklé, The Hidden Half of Nature, New York, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2016, pg.255
[ix] Alexis Temkin, Ph.D, Toxicologist, Breakfast With a Dose of Roundup? Environmental Working Group Children’s health Initiative, Aug. 15, 2018 https://www.ewg.org/childrenshealth/glyphosateincereal/#.W5c2VJNKhhG
[x] Center for Environmental Health, Glyphosate in School Cereals, ceh.org Dec. 2018, https://www.ceh.org/glyphosate-school-cereals/
[xi] Caroline Cox, There’s a Toxic Weedkiller on the Menu in K-12 Schools Across the U.S., Common Dreams, Jan. 9, 2019, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/09/theres-toxic-weedkiller-menu-k-12-schools-across-us
[xii] Kara Cook, Glyphosate Pesticide in Beer and Wine, U.S. PIRG Education Fund, Feb. 2019, https://uspirg.org/feature/usp/glyphosate-pesticide-beer-and-wine
[xiii] Carey Gillam. Whitewash. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2017. Pg.237