On Monday and Tuesday, 150 members of the European Parliament (MEP) donated urine samples to find out if they have glyphosate in their systems. The screening comes ahead of a symbolic vote in the European Union that is scheduled for Wednesday, April 12, on whether to re-license the RoundUp chemical for another 15 years. [1]
Before you pop open a bottle of California Merlot, there is something you should know: trace amounts of glyphosate, the primary toxic chemical found in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, have been found in 100% of California wines tested by the national GMO awareness group, Moms Against Monsanto.
The news comes on the heels of a report finding 14 brands of beers tested positive for the likely carcinogen in Germany.
In a recent interview, the CEO of Monsanto, Hugh Grant, claims that Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide Roundup is not carcinogenic. This claim goes against numerous evaluations of Roundup and its ingredients concluding that glyphosate – a primary ingredient in Roundup – is indeed carcinogenic.
Biotech giant Monsanto reported multiple profit-plummets in 2015 relating to sales for both its genetically modified crop creations and its best-selling herbicide, Roundup. Once again, Monsanto has reported declining profits for the fiscal second-quarter earnings – by 25%.
One little voice may often not change much, but 90,000 of those small voices make a difference. They were apparently enough to force the UK supermarket Waitrose to remove all of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide bottles from their shelves.
Bayer, notorious for harming pollinating insects with its neonicotinoid pesticides, is registering a new GM canola that will be tolerant to two health-destroying chemicals, glufosinate and glyphosate. The new GM canola strain was developed to be tolerant to a double-dose of herbicides that have been documented to cause birth defects, neuro-degeneration, cancer, endocrine disruption, and autism-like symptoms.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has opened the door for farmers to plant MON87419, a new strain of genetically modified (GM) corn created by Monsanto to tolerate the weed killers dicamba and glufosinate without government oversight. The move will likely increase spraying of the herbicides.
Monsanto recently lost a bid to take over Swiss pesticide company, Syngenta, one if its largest competitors. Instead, China National Chemical Corporation (Chem China) successfully bought out Syngenta for a whopping $43 billion cash offer.
The word is out. Glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic,” according to the World Health Organization’s IARC, several agencies in the EU, and California’s Environmental Protection Agency. But what can a wife do when her husband dies from exposure to the chemical over a lifetime of farming?
Even Harvard has bowed to the Biotech Giants, stating that herbicide use is “ubiquitous” and may or may not increase with the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops. However, GM crops accounted for 45.2% of the global glyphosate market in 2012 and have been increasingly cultivated. Without GMOs, there would be a great decrease in the use of carcinogenic glyphosate.
