Roundup / Glyphosphate Impacts

[mstacy]

My primary objection to genetically modified crops is the insidious nature of the business practices perpetuated by the colossal agribusiness conglomerates.

Interfering with the viability and even the legality of seed saving is a dangerous thing. Until fairly recently I viewed the direct risks (eg human or environmental health) associated with genetically modified plants to be relatively minor relative to the accelerated social and economic upheaval they facillitate (reduced independence, monocropping, fostering dependence on industrial inputs, etc).

However I recently stumbled onto the January 27th, 2007 issue of SCIENCE NEWS. That journal contains an article presenting studies that link atrazine (ingredient in roundup and other herbicides) with degraded sense of smell in fish. That may sound trivial to you and me … but not if you’re a salmon out in the ocean seeking your home river to spawn. Not so trivial for us salmon eaters either.

Even more interesting was that fish are even more sensitive to Roundup than they are to the concentrated active ingredient. The researchers concluded that the “inert” compounds that added to some herbicides are anything but inert either through direct effect or interaction with atrazine. The chemical companies are under absolutely no obilgation to even identify those “inert” compounds to regulatory agencies, researchers, or the general public.

Food for thought.

[Author]

Posts