Monsanto in the News........

It’s official: Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide causes birth defects

http://redgreenandblue.org/2011/06/08/its-official-monsantos-roundup-herbicide-causes-birth-defects/

A new report by some top scientists has nailed it down, and Monsanto isn’t going to be happy. The Agri-giant has built its entire business model, including genetically modified (GMO) crops that dominate the US market, around its Roundup brand herbicide.
The last thing they want to admit is that it causes birth defects.
But that’s just what a group of scientists from a diverse group – including Cambridge University, the King’s College London School of Medicine, and the Institute of Biology, UNICAMP, São Paulo, Brazil – have found.

Key findings:

-- Industry (including Monsanto) has known since the 1980s that glyphosate causes malformations in experimental animals at high doses.
-- Industry has known since 1993 that these effects could also occur at lower and mid doses.
-- The German government has known since at least 1998 that glyphosate causes malformations.
-- The EU Commission’s expert scientific review panel knew in 1999 that glyphosate causes malformations.
-- The EU Commission has known since 2002 that glyphosate causes malformations. This was the year its DG SANCO division published its final review report, laying out the basis for the current approval of glyphosate.

The report goes into a good deal of technical detail to show how regulators bent over backwards to discount those studies, and make it look like there were no problems with Roundup.


How to hide behind bad science

One major problem – the studies are done on the cheap, and very few animals are used, so in order to see any results at all, the researchers are forced to use very high doses. Monsanto can then claim the doses were so high that of course there would be toxicity… but “There’s no evidence of toxicity at low doses”.

But independent studies (like Suresh, 1993) DO show toxicity at low doses. Regulators just ignored those studies completely…

The group noted that, even as pressure builds on Europe to allow sale of Roundup Ready GMO seeds (particularly from the Monsanto-infested Obama administration;

UPDATE: follow the link to read our earlier article, Monsanto employees in the halls of government), the EU has put off a review of Roundup’s safety from June of 2011 to… 2015.

How much Roundup are we eating? They’ve detected substantial residues in soybeans, and farmworkers are exposed in the fields – as are homeowners who use it on their gardens and passers-by who breath it when it’s sprayed on roadsides to keep down weeds.

The stuff is safe, right? It’s used everywhere.

You can read the full report at here. ( http://www.scribd.com/doc/57277946/RoundupandBirthDefectsv5 )
More on Monsanto and GMOs:

The Trouble with Monsanto and GMO – David Suzuki spells it out
http://redgreenandblue.org/2011/02/01/the-trouble-with-monsanto-and-gmo-dr-david-suzuki-spells-it-out/

Monsanto wants to control Canadian Alfalfa!

Scientists from a diverse group – including Cambridge University, the King’s College London School of Medicine, and the Institute of Biology, UNICAMP, São Paulo, Brazil – have found how dangerous are Monsanto's products & corporate strategies to hide the truth by hijacking government regulators responsible for protecting public safety. With government help, Public Health has been jeopardized for the sake of corporate greed.

Read the actual report for yourself:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/57277946/RoundupandBirthDefectsv5

The News item:
http://redgreenandblue.org/2011/06/08/its-official-monsantos-roundup-herbicide-causes-birth-defects/

The Scientist's explanation:
http://redgreenandblue.org/2011/02/01/the-trouble-with-monsanto-and-gmo-dr-david-suzuki-spells-it-out/