EPA Ups Allowable Residue of Monsanto's Toxic Herbicide on Food

Huge, massive over-doses found of industrial poison by Monsanto? EPA ups "allowable" doses.

http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-n...e-of-monsantos-toxic-herbicide-on-food/46249/

In a little reported development, the Environmental Protection Agency last week issued a new rule raising the allowable concentration of Monsanto’s herbicide glyphosate, otherwise known as Roundup, on food crops, animal feed and edible oils

Despite the proven risk, this ruling is clearly a result of successful lobbying effort on the part of the Ag Giant to raise the residue limits of this toxic chemical.

“Glyphosate has been shown in several recent studies to be an endocrine disruptor,” writes the Cornucopia Institute, in a statement about the news. “According to the National Institutes of Health, endocrine disruptors could have long-term effects on public health, especially reproductive health. And the ‘dose makes the poison’ rule does not apply to endocrine disruptors, which wreak havoc on our bodies at low doses.”

They continue:
A June 2013 study concluded that glyphosate “exerted proliferative effects in human hormone-dependent breast cancer.” An April 2013 study by an MIT scientist concluded that “glyphosate enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins,” and pointed out that glyphosate’s “negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body.”

The new regulations permit concentrations higher than the levels some scientists belive are carcinogenic, the Food Poisoning Bulletin adds.

Under the new regulation, fruits can have concentrations from 200 ppb to 500 ppb glyphosate, oilseed crops can contain up to 40 ppm (40,000 ppb) glyphosate, and root crops such as potatoes and beets can contain 6000 ppb glyphosate. Animal feed can contain up to 100 ppm (100,000 ppb) glyphosate.

So how could this be? Could it be because the "experts" the EPA relies on to make recommendations are the same people who used to work for Monsanto?

 

"Glyphosate has been shown in several recent studies to be an endocrine disruptor"

Taxcutter asks:
In what dosages?

 

In September 2019, Monsanto was ordered to pay $289 million after they were found liable in a lawsuit from an individual diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) after using their weed killer product Roundup.

In April 2019 and again in February 2020 The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reaffirmed that glyphosate the weed killer used in Round Up is safe. The agency found that it posed "no risks of concern" for people exposed to it by any means — on farms, in yards and along roadsides, or as residue left on food crops. The EPA's draft findings reaffirmed that glyphosate "is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans."

This is in contrast to the 2015 report from The International Agency for Research on Cancer which classified glyphosate as " probably carcinogenic to humans." The agency said it relied on "limited" evidence of cancer in people and "sufficient" evidence of cancer in study animals.

Two recent US. court verdicts have awarded multimillion-dollar claims to men who blame glyphosate for their lymphoma.​

Jury Determines That Monsanto’s Roundup Responsible for Lymphoma - EPA Disagrees (cancerconnect.com)

 

Glyphosate is not carcinogenic, US EPA says - C&EN
cen.acs.org › chemical-regulation › web › 2020/01
Jan 31, 2020 — In an interim decision, the EPA concluded that glyphosate poses no risks to human health when used according to instructions on the label. The ...

". . . In an interim decision, the EPA concluded that glyphosate poses no risks to human health when used according to instructions on the label. The agency also says that glyphosate is not a carcinogen. The findings are consistent with those of the US Department of Agriculture, the European Food Safety Authority, and Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency. However, they are in contrast to the conclusion of the World Health Organization’s cancer agency, which declared in 2015 that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic” to humans.

The EPA’s evaluation of the risks of glyphosate to human health and the environment is ongoing, but the agency issued the interim decision for the parts of the assessment that are complete. The evaluation is part of a routine reregistration process that the agency conducts every 15 years for pesticides in the US marketplace. The EPA has yet to complete its assessment of the risks of glyphosate on threatened and endangered species. It is also still working on screening glyphosate for potential endocrine-disrupting effects. The agency expects to take at least another year to finish that work. . . . "

 

Ok but most people just pour way too much in when they are mixing it themselves. I am not saying it is or it isn't. IDK. I don't use it often and never in my veg patches. Weeds are starting to break through round up though. It is why the are transitioning their GMO seed banks to be dicamba-ready instead.

 

I just use RoundUp on weeds coming up through the pine straw beds.

 

I only use pine needles on ornamental beds. They are bad about hosting ticks and ground snakes in my area. I don't mind the ground snakes in theory but the reality is they still freak me the hell out when they come shooting up out of the mulch and across my hands or feet.

 

We have only ornamental. I'm sure we have snakes (tidewater Virginia) but we never see them. Our community is pretty well manicured.

 

Sure, when in doubt, much better to err on the side of business profits, than the side of peoples' health-- what would doing that say about our priorities?

 

Ground snakes are all over the mid atlantic though people may not notice them much. They are fairly small things (often less than a foot long) and move like lightening. Unfortunately for them, most people assume they are small copperheads or whatever their feared snake is. I never noticed them until the year I did what was then my entire veg garden in pine needles. Come July, I couldn't bend over to pull a weed or pick something it seemed without encountering one of them.

Anyway, if yours are just ornamental beds, you could look into doing a more aggressive pre-emergent plan than using weed killer after the fact. Surflan works fairly well with pine needle mulch. It is commonly used by governments and golf courses to keep maintenance down on big planting beds. pre-emergents aren't well suited for veg beds in part because all the traffic in them breaks their "barrier" and in part because so much veg is grown from seed.

 

Thanks.

 

If you spray a freshly cut stump with 20% glyphosate, it stays dead. Without glyphosate, it resprouts, and your work is for nothing, if you're trying to clear out invasive plants like asian bush honeysuckle or callery pear. Invasive plant control requires glyphosate. Or some other herbicide, but glyphosate is the least dangerous herbicide out there. With glyphosate, I don't have to wear special gear or worry about spray blowing back in my face. Other herbicides, hell yeah I'd have to worry.

I regard glyphosate as one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. It kept millions of people from starving by increasing food production.

 

That's obviously false, as people controlled invasive plants before glyphosate through a lost arcane magical art called, "weeding." Glyphosate just takes less work.

Glyphosate's virtues are overstated because it was patented. All patented products' virtues are overstated to increase the patent holders' unearned rent income. That is effectively a law of economics.

That may be. But maybe those people wouldn't have been starving in the first place if landowners had not forcibly removed their liberty to sustain themselves using what nature provided for all by taking it as their own private property.