Leid Stories – 09.08.15

Feeding Us Lies: The Roundup on AgriGiant Monsanto
On its Web site, agribusiness giant Monsanto touts Roundup—a herbicide and pesticide product it developed in 1974 and in varying formulations is used by farmers, landowners, homeowners and parks departments worldwide—as “important tools in their toolboxes for controlling weeds.”
The key active ingredient in Roundup and Roundup-based products is glyphosate, developed by Monsanto in 1970. Monsanto and several companies in China dominate the production of glyphosate, now the largest-selling agrochemical product worldwide, commanding 25 percent of the market and forecast at 1.35 million metric tons of production by 2017.
For years Monsanto has been dogged by questions about the safety of glyphosate for humans, animals and the environment, and for years the company has denied or dismissed claims of its products’ links to a range of serious side effects—including birth defects, cancer, autism, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, kidney disease, wildlife and aquatic abnormalities and death, and even the deaths of butterflies and bees.
But new information has come to light that shows Monsanto not only knew of the biochemical hazards of glyphosate, but did not reveal the results of its own studies that corroborated several scientific challenges to its product.
Dr. Gary Null, who broke the story on PRN’s “The Gary Null Show,” and leading scientist-researchers who unearthed and examined Monsanto’s secret reports discuss what they found.

Sarah Lazare – New Nationwide Push to Keep GE Salmon Out of Waters, Off of Shelves

Food and environmental campaigners are determined to keep genetically-engineered (GE) salmon out of rivers and oceans and, at the very least, off of seafood retailers’ shelves. To that end, people across the United States will mobilize this week to press the warehouse chain Costco Wholesale Corporation to publicly pledge that it will not sell genetically engineered salmon in its stores …

Dr. Mercola – Science Is No Longer Truth: Death of Democracy and Knowledge

You’ve probably heard of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. One of the most widely used herbicides in the world, in the US it’s used most often on genetically modified (GM) Roundup Ready crops. The chemical can be sprayed directly onto the GM crops, which are modified to withstand it, while other living plants in the vicinity wither and die. What may come as …

Philip J. Landrigan & Charles Benbrook – GMOs, Herbicides, and Public Health

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are not high on most physicians’ worry lists. If we think at all about biotechnology, most of us probably focus on direct threats to human health, such as prospects for converting pathogens to biologic weapons or the implications of new technologies for editing the human germline. But while those debates simmer, the application of biotechnology to …

World Health Organization Only Requires 90 Days ‘Safety Testing’ on GMOS

Have you ever wondered why the World Health Organization (WHO) only requires 90 days of testing on GM crops before scientists are allowed to call them ‘safe’ or ‘statistically equivalent’? Yeah, so have I. Now that all of the suppressed science about GM food is coming out, it makes perfect sense why an agency that has such a heavy hand in the …

Brian Bienkowski – More evidence of Roundup’s link to kidney, liver damage

* Scientists report worrisome changes to liver and kidney genes in rats, adding to evidence that a popular herbicide may be toxic Long-term exposure to tiny amounts of Roundup — thousands of times lower than what is permitted in U.S. drinking water — may lead to serious problems in the liver and kidneys, according to a new study. The study …

Nadia Prupis – New Study Reveals Yet More Risks to Bees from Controversial Pesticides

Pesticides that have been banned in Europe over bee safety concerns may pose an even greater risk to pollinators than previously thought, a new report by the European Union’s food safety watchdog reveals. Neonicotinoids, or neonics, pose high risks to bees when sprayed on plant leaves, according to data by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in its report, published Wednesday—which bolsters previous …

Pat Thomas – Lab rats used in safety studies eat feeds laced with pesticides, herbicides and GMOs

A new scientific study has found that laboratory rats used in health and toxicity studies are routinely given feeds contaminated with herbicides, pesticides and GMOs, writes Pat Thomas, potentially invalidating the results of crucial safety tests on GMOs, agrochemicals, medical drugs and other substances, on which health and environmental regulators base critical decisions. The scientists tested 13 samples of proprietary …

Monsanto in Deep Trouble: Another Possible Lawsuit Pending – Christina Sarich

Thanks to the admitted link between Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide known as Roundup and the development of cancer,another major lawsuit could be coming up against the biotech titan. This would be the second major lawsuit over Monsanto’s Roundup health risk, following awareness campaigns launched by groups like March Against Monsanto and individuals like Anthony Gucciardi. It was last May when we told …

What Makes a Poison? By Genna Reed

The chemicals that we’re exposed to in our daily lives are often approved by the government under the assumption that they’re safe in small doses, even over a long period of time. For years, regulators relied on the old adage “the dose makes the poison” to try to explain their logic. While that might have appeared true for certain chemicals for …