Do you use Roundup?

[oldguy]

My nephew sent me this link, and he thinks this is a big deal. If it's true, it clearly is a big deal. Problem being, for me, shikimate pathways and genetic engineering are a little after my time in school, so I'm not a very good judge of how likely it is that this is for real.

It's a long vid, but if you listen to 10 minutes you'll get the drift, especially if you read the side notes and the text. There's some damned smart people on this forum that I would interested to read their opinions about whether this is the threat is seems like it could be.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/09/monsanto-roundup-herbicide.aspx

If what they are saying is true, I hope politics can be set aside and we can all start pushing our representatives to do whatever it takes to stop feeding this stuff to us.

Even if it makes Monsanto cranky.

If this stuff is for real, Ed O. needs to get the class action suit going and get all of us paid!

Go Blazers

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

I use it. It works pretty well.

 

[Haakzilla]

...Monsanto is definitely of the devil!

 

[Natebishop3]

Monsanto is bulletproof. Nothing will ever come of it. They are untouchable.

 

[crandc]

I did not read the whole article and tend to be skeptical of these "alternate health" sites as they often, not always, are not based on evidence but on anecdote. That being said, Roundup is known to be very bad for the environment. Remember, "-cide" means kill, so an herbicide kills. It does not just kill your weeds. It says once it dries it won't hurt your pets, but anything a cat walks on ends up in her/his mouth when they wash - do you want to your pet to eat Roundup? Since it is sprayed, air carries it to food crops. Do you want to eat Roundup? It's known to be very bad for aquatic life and excess does run off and get into the water supply. Do you want to drink Roundup? Also, it's known to kill beneficial insects. For people with chemical sensitivities, it makes them seriously ill. People with chemical sensitivities are sometimes thought to be like the "canary in the coal mine", the ones who are aware before others that something is wrong. You are much better off pulling weeds (good exercise!) or if that's not possible, using vinegar or other less toxic weed killers.

 

[Eastoff]

I don't believe Roundup is linked to Autism. Autism is linked to mother obesity, both parent age, mother with auto immune disease, and a couple other things I can't remember. I think this anecdote "it's the.... fault" is refusing to admit they "caused" their child's autism.

 

[ABM]

In Pendleton, they used Roundup......turned it into a rodeo.

 

[donkiez]

Problem with linking anything to autism is that autism has been on the rise along with many other potential contributing factors. Everything is circumstantial at this point and many groups use autism scares as a way of getting people to notice and to further their agenda. That being said I don't use round up and I try to limit my intake of GMO food where possible. I find the round up ready GMO to be the most disturbing. I'm not sure if they are harmful or not but I try to opt out of the experiment where ever possible. The real issue with round up IMO is that Monsanto is a very dubious corporation, who's commitment is their bottom line not public health. Kind of like when the tobacco companies had "experts" proving cigarettes where not harmful. I also find Monsanto's non reproducing plants and chemically activated germination to be somewhat disturbing, but more from a food supply control standpoint than a health issue.

 

[porkchopexpress]

I forget what it was called, but 5 or 6 years ago I saw a documentary about Plan Colombia. I don't really remember it (like if it was actually good or not), but one of the main themes was that we were dumping essentially concentrated Round Up on crops in Colombia if it was suspected that they were growing Coca. The government and manufacturers claimed it was safe, didn't affect he people that it was dumped on or the drinking water, but then tons of people started developing rashes, sores and respiratory issues. Regular Round Up warns to keep your pets away from the sprayed area for a while, but some how the concentrated stuff isn't supposed to harm people it is directly dumped on.

From the wiki page on Plan Colombia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Colombia#Fumigation_strategy_and_criticisms

Aerial eradication began as a part of Plan Colombia backed by the United States government as a strategy to eliminate drug crops in Colombia in the 1980s. By the mid-1990s, drug cultivation increased, which caused fumigation efforts to become more intensified. However, with the continued expansion of drug cultivation, the United States policymakers put the intensive use of the herbicide Roundup Ultra for massive aerial spraying of illicit crops in Colombia as the central strategy for Plan Colombia

One notable aspect in discussion of the aerial spraying of illicit crops in Colombia is the size of the areas sprayed. Forty thousand hectares are said to have been sprayed in a single department, Putumayo. Nationwide in 2003, chemicals were sprayed on 139,000 hectares, 17,000 people were displaced as a result of fumigation, and their income and food supply were threatened. Even in a general standpoint, Colombia’s Council for Human Rights and Displacement showed that in 2001 and 2002, fumigation left 75,000 people nationwide displaced

In addition, spraying is shown to have effects on health. Many residents of spray zones have shown to have a variety of skin, respiratory, and other ailments. The scandal regarding health violations arises because the U.S. State department constantly downplays these concerns. They claim instead that illness arises as a result of the herbicides they use for their crop cultivation. Also, the EPA provided the State Department with the assessments of health and environment impacts of fumigation, but these assessments were conducted without any information specific to the local environment of Colombia. The State Department does not even submit enough information to the EPA on how spraying is actually carried out. In terms of environmental effects, because of the “balloon effect”, farmers end up moving their crop cultivation into forests and national parks. As a result, there has been deforestation, pollution of soil and waterways, and even increased risk of extinction for Colombian bird and plant species.[42] Aside from these specific issues, there are also others raised about the costs of fumigation and if it is using too much money

So yeah, regardless of the OP's article's validity, fuck Round Up.

 

[oldguy]

I did not read the whole article and tend to be skeptical of these "alternate health" sites as they often, not always, are not based on evidence but on anecdote. That being said, Roundup is known to be very bad for the environment. Remember, "-cide" means kill, so an herbicide kills. It does not just kill your weeds. It says once it dries it won't hurt your pets, but anything a cat walks on ends up in her/his mouth when they wash - do you want to your pet to eat Roundup? Since it is sprayed, air carries it to food crops. Do you want to eat Roundup? It's known to be very bad for aquatic life and excess does run off and get into the water supply. Do you want to drink Roundup? Also, it's known to kill beneficial insects. For people with chemical sensitivities, it makes them seriously ill. People with chemical sensitivities are sometimes thought to be like the "canary in the coal mine", the ones who are aware before others that something is wrong. You are much better off pulling weeds (good exercise!) or if that's not possible, using vinegar or other less toxic weed killers.

The question isn't whether you want to be eating roundup. Monsanto is producing "Roundup ready" food crops. This means that they spray Roundup directly onto the crop, and it kills the weeds, but not the crop itself. Hard to imagine you are not eating it, if it is being sprayed on your food in the field.

Go Blazers

 

[donkiez]

The question isn't whether you want to be eating roundup. Monsanto is producing "Roundup ready" food crops. This means that they spray Roundup directly onto the crop, and it kills the weeds, but not the crop itself. Hard to imagine you are not eating it, if it is being sprayed on your food in the field.

Go Blazers

I believe round up ready is engineered into the crops not sprayed into them. Which sounds worse to me.

 

[crandc]

The question isn't whether you want to be eating roundup. Monsanto is producing "Roundup ready" food crops. This means that they spray Roundup directly onto the crop, and it kills the weeds, but not the crop itself. Hard to imagine you are not eating it, if it is being sprayed on your food in the field.

Go Blazers

Agree, but the question was "do you use Roundup". It implied personal use in our gardens, not corporate.

 

[oldguy]

I believe round up ready is engineered into the crops not sprayed into them. Which sounds worse to me.

I could be wrong, but I thought they engineered the crop to be resistant to being sprayed with Roundup.

Go Blazers

 

[Eastoff]

I could be wrong, but I thought they engineered the crop to be resistant to being sprayed with Roundup.

Go Blazers

This is true.

 

[donkiez]

I could be wrong, but I thought they engineered the crop to be resistant to being sprayed with Roundup.

Go Blazers

I think your right and that makes more sense. I think I was thinking of the pesticide engineered into crops. Yummy either way.

 

[Nate4Prez]

In a related topic:
Tyson Foods Inc. says it will no longer buy cattle fed a supplement that's designed to bulk them up before slaughter, citing experts who suggest the drug may be causing animals to become lame.

Tyson says this is not a food safety issue, but about animal well-being.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/tyson-stop-buying-cattle-fed-merck-supplement-19917673

Good for Tyson.

 

[Draco]

Roundup isn't harmful its neutralized as soon as it touches the ground. People dump things like vinegar in soil because they think its more green but it actually causes far more damage.

 

[tlongII]

There's nothing wrong with GMO food.

 

[Natebishop3]

There's nothing wrong with GMO food.

Except that the companies who make them are destroying the farming industry?

 

[magnifier661]

My nephew sent me this link, and he thinks this is a big deal. If it's true, it clearly is a big deal. Problem being, for me, shikimate pathways and genetic engineering are a little after my time in school, so I'm not a very good judge of how likely it is that this is for real.

It's a long vid, but if you listen to 10 minutes you'll get the drift, especially if you read the side notes and the text. There's some damned smart people on this forum that I would interested to read their opinions about whether this is the threat is seems like it could be.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/09/monsanto-roundup-herbicide.aspx

If what they are saying is true, I hope politics can be set aside and we can all start pushing our representatives to do whatever it takes to stop feeding this stuff to us.

Even if it makes Monsanto cranky.

If this stuff is for real, Ed O. needs to get the class action suit going and get all of us paid!

Go Blazers

Actually it's a really big deal. I deal with farmers that use it a lot. Pork is one of he biggest hit with this gmo corn. They eat the gmo corn through feed and their manure is recycled into the corn fields. Then that corn has round up in it, plus the round up left in manure.

The round up actually retards nutrient uptake; which makes the corn and pigs less nutritious and adds even more salt in the soils. That salt is leached into the streams and natural habitats; which effects the entire ecosystem.

Here's the real problem. The round up is actually an enzyme that isn't biodegradable. Basically the poison stays in the soils for a very long time.

And remember folks. We are what we eat, so eating round up corn and gmo pork adds the round up in us; which restricts our ability to uptake nutrients.

 

[magnifier661]

There's nothing wrong with GMO food.

You are 100% incorrect. There are very poisonous gmo foods. If you don't believe me, drink a tablespoon of round up and see what happens.

 

[magnifier661]

I could be wrong, but I thought they engineered the crop to be resistant to being sprayed with Roundup.

Go Blazers

The seeds are engineered with the round up enzyme (glyphosate). The purpose of this enzyme is to choke out weeds.

 

[magnifier661]

Roundup isn't harmful its neutralized as soon as it touches the ground. People dump things like vinegar in soil because they think its more green but it actually causes far more damage.

You actually believe that?

Round up stays in the vascular system of plants. And if it's neutralized in soil, then the farmer would have to spray every week to kill weeds. Not only would that be extremely expensive; it's intractable when you need to treat thousands of acres.

Roundup is designed to stay in soil for a long while. Most the time; at least the entire growing season.

 

[magnifier661]

Maybe you guys should read this letter. This isn't from some "tree hugger" group either. He is highly respected in the agricultural community.

http://www.lavidalocavore.org/diary...dup-ready-crops-may-cause-animal-miscarriages

 

[TradeNurkicNow]

GMO food has basically replaced non-GMO food over the course of the last 30 years with NO oversight. We literally went into it blind and assumed that everything would be fine.

 

[PHXBlazer1]

At one point when I was growing up in Eugene in the mid 90's, the creator of Round-Up lived in Eugene, and was the richest man in town. I remember reading about it

 

[Nikolokolus]

I recommend some of the Michael Pollan books if you want a nice primer on GMO and Monsanto. His background is in journalism, so his stuff is pretty even-handed and well sourced.

The bottom line for me is, Monsanto is a shit company, but there's almost nothing that can be done about it. They won.

 

[magnifier661]

I recommend some of the Michael Pollan books if you want a nice primer on GMO and Monsanto. His background is in journalism, so his stuff is pretty even-handed and well sourced.

The bottom line for me is, Monsanto is a shit company, but there's almost nothing that can be done about it. They won.

Yep, there really isn't anything you can do right now. They are so rooted into the ag it's not even funny.

No commercial farmer will stop using it because it saves them sooooooooo much money. It's sad, because I think in 10 years, it's going to be a huge snow ball of health concerns.

It's a small problem now, but eventually it's going to be a huge problem.

 

[Sinobas]

I agree with everything in the article. It's not a good thing that we're drenching our crops, and our environment with this crap. And who knows what the overall health impact has been on our population?

If you really want to "kill" a specific area in your yard, and it's not in danger to run off to the water system, I think it's ok for isolated use. I've used it in certain areas. But there are also more organic ways to kill vegetation, such as table salt, and vinegar....but the vinegar needs to be concentrated.

 

[Sinobas]

I recommend some of the Michael Pollan books if you want a nice primer on GMO and Monsanto. His background is in journalism, so his stuff is pretty even-handed and well sourced.

The bottom line for me is, Monsanto is a shit company, but there's almost nothing that can be done about it. They won.

There's a push in Europe to ban their products. Italy is pushing for it, France passed a ban, but their court over turned it.

The biggest voting power we have is with the dollar, buy organic, non gmo food.