The Glyphosate Awareness Newsletter is published weekly by Priscilla
King, c/o Boxholders, P.O. Box 322, Gate City, Virginia, 24251-0322. It’s
available free, in plain text as an e-mail or attachment. Printed or
audiocassette versions are available for the cost of production. (Audiofiles
are free to anyone who can convince me that s/he is blind and can’t read a
document aloud using widely available software.) Reprinting, recirculating, and
sharing this information at the reader’s own expense is encouraged, provided
that all sources of material are credited.
This week, Canadians start suing Bayer for glyphosate damage, a French
town’s glyphosate ban is ruled illegal, US citizens are invited (sort of) to
comment on the proposed USDA regulations for genetically modified organisms
(GMO), and I ask youall to consider ways
to raise Glyphosate Awareness in Missouri and Illinois...and more, in more or
less the order they came in. I’ve tried to expand on the good news in this
issue.
1. DID AMERICAN COUNCIL ON SCIENCE AND HEALTH SELL OUT?
Andy Kroll and Jeremy Schulman report to Mother Jones that the American Council on Science and Health
pursued, and received, donations from Monsanto. ACSH’s job is to debunk the
“junk science” that people rush into print without adequately questioning the
evidence if it supports their bias. The article identifies conflicts of
interest this nonprofit educational organization is likely to encounter when
examining scientific evidence that might affect any of numerous corporate supporters.
2. USE OF GLYPHOSATE IN PUBLIC PARKS
Last spring, you may recall, somebody in Fish & Wildlife argued
that glyphosate has to be sprayed in public parks to control invasive nuisance
plants like kudzu. Kudzu is indeed intimidating. More intimidating than kudzu,
however, was the condition some rivers and beaches in the Northeastern States
reached during the Industrial Era. The Anacostia River became so foul that only
“sewer worms” could survive in it. What changed this was a combination of the
export of heavy industry and, on the brighter side, the marketing of “River
Cleanup Days” as public festivities. Don’t spray...par-tay!
How long does it take to clear seventeen (contiguous) acres of kudzu?
Has anyone timed this yet? Kudzu attracts few pests, and the individual vines
are small and pliable. The daunting feature of kudzu is how much vineage you
have to roll up before you come to the root. Kudzu roots actually have
medicinal value. Some people will indeed roll up the vines, locate the roots,
and dig them up. When some Twit jeered, “With a bulldozer, maybe,” I joked
about the possible use of an excavator in
getting the roots up within a set period of time...in practice, people who
harvest kudzu roots use hand tools.
Today an e-friend was complaining of privet (Ligustrum) as an invasive nuisance. Where I live, it’s not one. For
one thing it’s useful. It’s a tough little shrub that holds soil on steep
banks; it’s easy to prune and hard to kill; fresh privet prunings are
pre-soaked skewers for grilling, and dried ones are good firewood; the soft
wood is easy for crafters to practice carving; if I prune it back to three or
four feet high in spring, by winter the cardinals can safely flit around in the
new growth, eating privet berries and singing “Cheer! Cheer! Cheer!” For another
thing it’s not all that invasive, in a damp climate. Soft wood absorbs water
easily and, although privet resists most insects and fungi, when it stays damp
long enough it becomes vulnerable to carpenter ants. If you have privet and
wish you didn’t, water it lavishly, and smear a little grease or syrup on it to
give the local carpenter ants the idea.
Honeysuckle, chinaberry, phragmites and other invasive plants have
uses. Even ailanthus will burn. If you want to remove them from a public area
fast, you find the people who are willing to use the plants, for crafts or
whatever, and offer those people some sort of prizes or benefits for digging up
those plants. They’ll be gone.
There are just a few invasive nuisance plants, like Johnson grass
(which looks like corn but is toxic to cattle), Bermuda grass (which became
obsolete when Astroturf was invented), and Spanish Needles (the Bidens species everyone hates), for
which nobody has ever found a use. Guess what? They’re the ones that thrive on glyphosate.
One of the more pleasant things we can do with Glyphosate Awareness is
explore the uses of invasive plants and talk to local park staff about
replacing poison sprays, which also endanger native plants of course, with
public parties—which may increase the use and potential funding of the parks. Worked
for Anacostia.
3. IS IT TRUE, WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT ANCIENT WHEAT?
Needless to say, the big corporations are not racing to fund studies of
exactly how and why it’s possible that some people can digest “ancient” wheat
better than “modern” wheat...or less heavily sprayed wheat better than more
heavily sprayed wheat. But it’s true: Though all plants, even “organically
grown” plants, in North America today are likely to contain enough glyphosate
residues to harm people, once we get glyphosate banned, some people who
currently have to avoid wheat are going to be able to enjoy hearty brown bread
again. The “ancient,” more natural strains of wheat have a lot going for them.
Though its high protein content is useless to us celiacs, the majority of
humankind used to be able to digest “ancient” wheat.
News on this front may be slightly premature, but then again it may
offer hope to some readers...Rodale has brought out a book about how farmer Bob
Quinn is profitably raising organic kamut. https://amzn.to/2SFF7Lr .
4. COLOMBIA RULES OUT POISONING COFFEE
A Colombian court rules that spraying glyphosate on the coffee fields,
in an effort to destroy coca plants, should remain illegal. I can’t drink
Hawaiian Kona coffee. I can still drink Colombian. Hurrah. (I happen to be one
of those who believe we should all buy as much of any wholesome export from the
High Andes as possible, alpaca yarn and coffee and Peruvian Purple potatoes and
so on, to give the poor indigenous population a wholesome alternative to
raising coca plants.) https://m.gulf-times.com/story/636972/Colombia-court-keeps-ban-on-aerial-spraying-of-gly .
5. DR. LEONG EXPLAINS HOW VEGETABLES AREN’T KILLING GRANDMA BONNIE
PETERS YET
Vegetables are good for us...if they’re not full of glyphosate, as most
of them are, even if they’re supposed to be organically grown. I no longer dare
to eat a commercially grown vegetable. (I’m not as malnourished as some town
readers expect...I do live in an orchard, where I can still pig out on fruits
and veg that have been exposed to very little glyphosate vapor.) But my blog
buddy (and fellow celiac), Grandma Bonnie Peters, still eats vegetables. She is
starting to act “old and sick,” which she dislikes; she can’t rely on her
ability to write, type, or sew, since having a stroke. Crumbs, she’s over
eighty years old! How is it possible that she’s still walking around? Dr. Kristie
Leong has been tweeting the explanation. While glyphosate damages our internal
“microbiomes,” the soluble fiber in fruits and vegetables restores our
microbiomes. GBP is at least ingesting a partial antidote along with her
poison. https://twitter.com/DrKristieLeong/
6. GLYPHOSATE WORKS AS BIRTH CONTROL, THOUGH IN NASTY WAYS
Here’s the summary of a long scientific study that documents how sons
born to glyphosate-exposed mothers are less likely to have sons (or daughters)
of their own: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-developmental-origins-of-health-and-disease/article/glyphosatebased-herbicide-exposure-during-pregnancy-and-lactation-malprograms-the-male-reproductive-morphofunction-in-f1-offspring/E24A0D5B1D43454DDED60401FC620B2B?fbclid=IwAR0CHkiNsm-FP2yG2yxhDR58triGynmNYqFGgT8Ove9ooZLalPxgPGKzD8E .
Meanwhile, although the precise causative relationship was not
analyzed, studies show that glyphosate-exposed mothers are more likely to give
birth prematurely, or “miscarry”—meaning “spontaneously” abort—or, when they do
give birth to live babies, produce babies with fatal physical defects.
Pro-life people need to be aware that this makes glyphosate not only a
form of birth control, but an ABORTIFACIENT. Whether you believe that abortion
is murder (I don’t) or physical abuse of women (I do), glyphosate is long-distance
abortion. Pro-life lobbyists should join the Glyphosate Awareness movement now!
7. A DATABASE OF STUDIES
Michael Balter thinks we need a database of studies. He’s right. The
hashtag #GlyphosateAwareness is supposed, in theory, to compile such a database
if people are willing to scroll through the banter, cartoons, trolls, etc., and
sort out the formal scientific studies people have linked. In practice, it’s
reached the point where scrolling all the way back to the original EPA dossier,
in which Monsanto’s carefully cherry-picked studies to “prove” that glyphosate
is not a primary carcinogen inadvertently confirm that glyphosate is toxic to the majority of living
creatures studied, may crash your browser. We need a searchable online database
that loads a manageable amount of data at one time. If you have data compilation
and coding skills, you might want to tweet to @mbalter and @Olivefarmer about
this.
8. PAULETTE DESCHAMPS FIGHTS TO RAISE GLYPHOSATE AWARENESS IN FRANCE
Background information: In France, and Europe generally, a total
glyphosate ban is being disputed because
the use of glyphosate didn’t go insane in 2009, as it did in the United States.
Austria is upholding a nationwide ban and being challenged by the European
Union. Paulette Deschamps, Madame le Maire of Perray-en-Yvelines, is upholding
a ban for her little town, and being challenged by the French national
government, whose president promised a total glyphosate ban and then backed
down. https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/mayor-of-ile-de-france-town-vows-to-ignore-order-to-overturn-local-ban-on-glyphosate-herbicide-and-neonicotinoid-pesticides
9. BAYER’S FEEBLE RESPONSE
Bayer claims the company will do
something to reduce its harmfulness...by 2030. Hah. That’s definitely long
enough for glyphosate to kill most of the celiacs who’ve already reached the
visible-blood-in-toilet stage. No ethical government or citizen can let them
wait that long to drop the poisons, move on to robots, and start paying us
damages. https://modernfarmer.com/2019/07/in-panic-mode-bayer-monsanto-announces-5-6-billion-for-new-weed-control/
10. “BUT IT’S NOT A PRIMARY CARCINOGEN, SO IT’S SAFE”
Basically anyone using this argument
is incompetent. Glyphosate is probably not a primary carcinogen; it’s very hard
to identify what is a primary
carcinogen. Cancer seems to involve a balance between risk factors and
protective factors, so there may not even be
a truly primary carcinogen. So what? Hanging, drowning, shooting, fire, and
plane crashes are not primary carcinogens! Here, scientific studies show that
glyphosate is definitely one of the factors that increase individuals’ risk of
developing cancer—if it doesn’t kill them in other ways first. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1383574218300887
11. HOW (SOME) FARMERS CAN SAVE SOIL
Pesticide-addicted farmers whine that, if they’re not allowed to poison
the soil, they’ll have to plough up weeds and lose topsoil. Research shows that
in the kind of flat country that should
be ploughed in the first place this is not true. https://littlevillagemag.com/how-planting-prairie-strips-on-iowa-farms-could-save-soil-water-wildlife-and-money-in-state-and-beyond/?fbclid=IwAR1EySAupV23FmrZzYa4uljMrkBNPGnC0NXlJGesehFJx5nMaay46KqN-hU
In steep hilly country, no, it won’t work. My parents tried ploughing,
mulching, and composting the space right above the original row of fruit trees above
the hedge, the first few years they tried putting a garden around our home. We
all watched rain wash the mulch and compost down through the front and back
yards, through the grass and wildflowers. We also saw that, although the field
could be ploughed with a mule, it was too steep to be safely ploughed with a
tractor. So that was when they made that field an orchard, which it still is
today.
Hill farmers conserve soil by terracing—not digging into the topsoil
and displacing the native plants, but laying solid layers of mulch on top of the topsoil. Some local farmers
are getting good results putting rows of aged straw bales on hilly fields in
autumn, adding compost or fertilizer while the straw ages in winter, then
planting directly in the straw in spring.
12. SIGN THIS, SIGN THAT, SIGN EVERYTHING
We’ve all signed petition after petition to demand GMO labels,
glyphosate restrictions, probably other things. We need to sign more. We need
to keep signing them. Sometimes it’s the plethora of petitions that gets
attention. Have you signed this latest one yet? https://advocacy.organicconsumers.org/page/8012/petition/1
Have you commented on the EPA’s current glyphosate docket yet? https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0361-2340
What about the FDA’s page for regulating and labelling GMO? Funnily
enough, the link to the comment page from this page has been “temporarily” not
working for the past three days. https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=APHIS-2018-0034.
There are organized, 501(c)(3)-registered groups working on Glyphosate
Awareness now. Some people may be comfortable working with them. I prefer to
network with them at a distance because groups like the Institute for
Responsible Technology, Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club, et al., though legitimate,
have an overarching leftist agenda that can sometimes limit their usefulness to
the people who need Glyphosate Awareness.
For example, although the Salsa Labs network that hosts IRT, where friends
and I used to be consultants too, is very polite and never asks about anyone’s politics,
I’m fairly sure they would not host a
Republican rally. Sometimes D’s like to be alone to talk inside Democratic
Party campaign strategy. That is their prerogative; even Little League teams
like to separate when they practice baseball. Yet Glyphosate Awareness is most
definitely for R’s too. I’ve seen R’s react to glyphosate more drastically than
I did. Common glyphosate reactions include kidney
malfunctions and learning
disabilities. It’s possible that the Trump family stand to benefit from
Glyphosate Awareness.
Why am I doing this Newsletter at all? I can ill afford to donate my
time to a cause without being paid. One reason why we need this Newsletter is
that IRT, FOE, EWG (Environmental Working Group), et al., send out flashy,
cookie-infested Newsletters...the graphics may make their e-mails more fun for
some people to read, but other people whom I know personally don’t want to open
their e-mails. Another reason is that some Republicans want to be sure that,
when they sign things or join things or support things in any way, their
responses aren’t going to be piled in together with responses to Extreme Left
petitions (as some suspected may have happened at Change.org). This newsletter
is not only for them, but it’s the
one where they’re welcome, too, and they’re safe. I don’t send out batch
e-mails at all, I don’t aggregate responses to anything, and I encourage
readers to be careful about people who do.
The Glyphosate Awareness Newsletter has no overarching agenda. It’s for
people who know that glyphosate is harmful to all living creatures and needs to
be banned. That is the only thing on which we need to agree.
And of course it’s also for people who have only just heard, or who may
still be skeptical, about glyphosate being harmful. I want you readers to share these Newsletters with friends who may
still be spraying “Roundup” on their roses. Tell them they don’t need to tell
you or me or anyone else what they learn, but a good place to start is by
noting on the calendar when they’ve sprayed, and when each member of their
family has a flare-up of some sort of “chronic problem”—maybe something
sub-clinical, like extra-messy hayfever, unusual grumpiness, or extremely
strong cravings to take another drink/pill/cigarette. Become aware. Then they
can read as much more and become as “active” in the movement as they feel moved
to be.
We met each other online. That means we’re people who have time to hang
out on the Internet, maybe even chat on Twitter. That means we’re highly likely
to be “retired,” disabled, students, or home care givers for people with
disabilities. We have little time and less money. I live from odd job to flea
market to hack-writing job, myself; I buy a few days’ groceries and don’t ask
where the next load of groceries is coming from. So how are you, how am I,
supposed to follow Gloria Steinem’s program for activists? (Remember, the one printed
in Outrageous Acts and Everyday
Rebellions—at least one letter to the editor per week and so on and so
forth?) Do what you can. This Newsletter is not going to dock your pay if you spend
a month with a sick relative and don’t write any letters to the editor. But it
does encourage everyone to write those letters, sign and circulate those
petitions. The more different perspectives, the better.
Especially in St. Louis, Missouri. If you know anyone there, please raise
their Glyphosate Awareness! https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bayer-glyphosate-lawsuit-analysis/bayer-could-benefit-from-home-advantage-in-st-louis-roundup-cancer-trial-experts-idUSKCN1UH10F
. Missourians like to stereotype themselves as “The Show-Me State” where people
want hard evidence. We have that. So show them.
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