California EPA Moves to Label Monsanto’s Roundup ‘Carcinogenic’

The California Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it plans to label glyphosate — the most widely used herbicide and main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup — as a chemical "known to cause cancer." The World Health Organization's research arm also recently found that the chemical is probably carcinogenic to humans, and research has also linked glyphosate to the steep decline of monarch butterflies. And as we reported this week, scientists have increasingly raised new alarms about potential negative health impacts tied to Roundup, including a recent study suggesting that long-term exposure to tiny amounts of the chemical (thousands of times lower than what is allowed in drinking water in the US) could lead to liver and kidney problems.

The Major Role Soybean Oil Plays in Obesity and Diabetes

Soybean oil is the most common oil used in the US, but this is a relatively new phenomenon. Prior to 1900, cooking was done with lard and butter, and the processed foods that are now primary sources of soybean oil (and other soy ingredients) were nonexistent. In the 1950s, saturated fats were condemned on the basis of them raising your cholesterol and causing heart disease – a theory that has since been proven wrong, but which is still lingering in medical offices and public nutrition regulations. Partially hydrogenated soybean oil was developed to replace saturated fats like butter and lard in the food supply. Not only did consumers embrace it, but food manufacturers did even more so because of its low cost, long shelf-life, and stability at room temperature. There was just one problem: partially hydrogenated oils are sources of trans fats, which are now known to cause chronic health problems such as obesity, asthma, auto-immune disease, cancer, and bone degeneration. Yet, even if you take the hydrogenation process out of the picture, soybean oil is still detrimental to your health. While trans fats are now being pulled out of processed foods due to their extreme health risks, soybean oil is still fair game… but it shouldn’t be – and here’s why.

France Bans Sale of Monsanto Herbicide Roundup in Garden Centers

French Ecology Minister Segolene Royal announced today a ban on the sale of popular weedkiller Roundup from garden centres, which the UN has warned may be carcinogenic. The active ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, was in March classified as "probably carcinogenic to humans" by the UN's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The weedkiller, used by amateur gardeners as well as farmers, is the star product of American biotechnology giant Monsanto. "France must be on the offensive with regards to the banning of pesticides," Royal said on French television. "I have asked garden centres to stop putting Monsanto's Roundup on sale" in self-service aisles, she added.

Study: RoundUp Causes Cell Death to Human Placenta Cells at Levels Allowed in Drinking Water

Roundup is an endocrine disruptor and is toxic to human cells in vitro (tested in culture dishes in the laboratory) at levels permitted in drinking water in Australia, a recent study has found. This is the first study to examine the effects of glyphosate and Roundup on progesterone production by human female cells in an in vitro system that models key aspects of reproduction in women. Glyphosate alone was less toxic to human cells than glyphosate in a Roundup formulation; both glyphosate and Roundup caused chorioplacental JAr cell death which resulted in decreased progesterone levels – a form of hormone/endocrine disruption. Endocrine disruption did not precede the toxicity to cells but occurred after it. The decreases in progesterone concentrations were caused by reduced numbers of viable cells.

Glyphosate Herbicide Causes Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, Kidney Disease, and Infertility

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden issued an alarming warning in 2014: "Antibiotic resistance that turns ordinary disease-causing bacteria into illnesses that can't be controlled could bring about the next pandemic." Frieden brought attention to the growing trend of antibiotic-resistant bacteria which can cause patients to "enter the hospital with one disease and leave with another." It is generally acknowledged today that the age of antibiotics is over, as bacteria have adapted to resist man-made pharmaceutical products. The focus now is on the microbiome, both the human microbiome as well as other microbiome systems within our environment, as we enter into a new age of dangerous organisms totally out of control. How did we get to this point where modern medicines can no longer stop infections? Many analyses correctly point to the fact that we have overused man-made antibiotic drugs, both in medicine and in livestock raised in CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations). However, as we report to you today, there is probably a far greater reason the human microbiome has been damaged and in many people destroyed, leading to a multitude of allergies and diseases that plague this modern generation. That reason is linked to a common herbicide currently present in 80% of the U.S. food chain: glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup and other herbicides. Glyphosate may well be the most toxic chemical ever approved for commercial use, as it is now linked to kidney disease, antibiotic resistant bacteria, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, depression, ADHD, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, multiple sclerosis, cancer, cachexia, infertility, and developmental malformations. It destroys the microbiome of humans and plants, which is the root cause of many modern diseases.

Is Glyphosate Responsible for your Health Problems?

The use of Roundup and other related glyphosate-based formulas threaten human health. The widespread use of these toxic substances can be directly linked to dozens of degenerative and life threatening diseases. They are causing infertility, birth defects, and the death of unborn children. The effects are multigenerational. People who eat glyphosate contaminated food will produce children who are predisposed to many types of digestive dysfunctions, that is, if such couples are even able to conceive children. We know for certain that glyphosate is toxic to human health. Of course, the chemical companies, the U.S. government, and agribusiness don’t agree. In the matter of food toxicity, we cannot depend upon government agencies to protect our health. The United States is rapidly going bankrupt, because of ballooning healthcare expenditures. As Americans, we are sick and getting sicker. The grand experiment which set out to feed us a low-fat high-carbohydrate diet is killing us. The grand experiment that uses fear to get people to take dozens of vaccines is destroying our immune systems. Glyphosate is adding its toxic burden to these other experiments by creating a food supply that is loaded with disease causing toxic chemicals. Clearly the grand experiment on the entire U.S. population involving Roundup and GMO food is failing miserably. Nevertheless, chemical companies and manufacturers of genetically altered seed keep on pressing forward to invent even more toxic chemicals for their ever increasing number of modified seeds.

Study: Roundup Herbicide 125 Times More Toxic Than Regulators Say

A highly concerning new study published in the journal Biomedical Research International reveals that despite the still relatively benign reputation of agrochemicals such as Roundup herbicide, many chemical formulations upon which the modern agricultural system depend are far more toxic than present regulatory tests performed on them reveal. Roundup herbicide, for instance, was found to be 125 times more toxic than its active ingredient glyphosate studied in isolation.

Toxic Combo of Roundup and Fertilizers Blamed for Tens of Thousands of Deaths

The public’s appreciation of the toxicity of glyphosate—the active ingredient in Monsanto’s broad-spectrum herbicide Roundup—is still limited, despite highly damning research being published. The fact that Monsanto marketed Roundup as “environmentally friendly” and “biodegradable” probably has a lot to do with this general lack of insight. Mounting evidence shows glyphosate is FAR more toxic than anyone previously suspected, both alone and in combination with other additives, agricultural chemicals, and/or heavy metals. A pandemic of chronic kidney disease that is striking down farmers in Sri Lanka, India, and Central America's Pacific coastline, has been traced back to Roundup in combination with contaminated fertilizer. As reported by Lanka Business Online: “Chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) first appeared in Sri Lanka’s rice growing areas in the north central province in the 1990s and has been spreading into other areas including the South, with over 20,000 estimated deaths so far.”

World’s Number 1 Weed Killer Discovered in U.S. Mothers’ Breast Milk

In the first ever testing on glyphosate herbicide in the breast milk of American women, Moms Across America and Sustainable Pulse have found ‘high’ levels in 3 out of the 10 samples tested. The shocking results point to glyphosate levels building up in women’s bodies over a period of time, which has until now been refuted by both global regulatory authorities and the biotech industry. The levels found in the breast milk testing of 76 ug/l to 166 ug/l are 760 to 1600 times higher than the European Drinking Water Directive allows for individual pesticides. They are however less than the 700 ug/l maximum contaminant level (MCL) for glyphosate in the U.S., which was decided upon by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) based on the now seemingly false premise that glyphosate was not bio-accumulative. Glyphosate-containing herbicides are the top-selling herbicides in the world and are sold under trademarks such as Monsanto’s ‘Roundup’. Monsanto’s sales of Roundup jumped 73 percent to $371 million in 2013 because of its increasing use on genetically engineered crops (GE Crops).

Dramatic Increase in Kidney Disease in the US and Abroad Linked To Roundup (Glyphosate) ‘Weedkiller’

Evidence now exists showing the herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) is responsible for an epidemic of kidney-related deaths in a rural farming region of Northern Sri Lanka, as well as other rural regions around the world, including Costa Rica and Nicaragua. The Center for Public Integrity released a report titled, "Sri Lanka bans Monsanto herbicide citing potential link to deadly kidney disease," citing Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's March 13th decision to impose an outright ban on glyphosate. This decision follows a decision by the legislature in El Salvador in 2013 to approve a ban on glyphosate. A series of graphs based on data from the USDA, National Cancer Institutes, Centers for Disease Control, have recently surfaced, depicting a steep rise in the rates of kidney disease in the US from the time of the introduction of glyphosate and GM food, reveals that the US may also be suffering from an epidemic of glyphosate-linked kidney damage.