Biggest Threat to the Entire Food Chain

We have all heard of Roundup by now, but did you know that Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicide, is causing Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS), a serious plant disease, in many fields. Study after study shows that glyphosate is contributing not only to the huge increase in SDS, but also to the outbreak of numerous other diseases.

Glyphosate is the world’s bestselling weed killer; it was patented by Monsanto for use in their Roundup brand, which became more popular when they introduced “Roundup Ready” crops — genetically modified (GM) plants that can withstand applications of normally deadly Roundup.

But the herbicide doesn’t destroy plants directly; instead, it creates a unique perfect storm of conditions that activates disease-causing organisms in the soil, while at the same time wiping out plant defenses against those diseases.

Institute for Responsible Technology January 14, 2011 reports:

“By weakening plants and promoting disease, glyphosate opens the door for lots of problems in the field. According to Don [Huber is a a plant pathologist], ‘There are more than 40 diseases of crop plants that are reported to increase with the use of glyphosate …’

Some of the fungi promoted by glyphosate produce dangerous toxins that can end up in food and feed … They’ve ‘been linked to the plague epidemics’ of medieval Europe, ‘large-scale human toxicosis in Eastern Europe,’ esophageal cancer in southern Africa and parts of China, joint diseases in Asia and southern Africa, and a blood disorder in Russia.”

In the US alone, more than

• 77% soybeans
• 86% corn
• 93% cotton
• 93% rapeseed (canola)

are genetically modified to enables farmers to spray Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. At what cost?

The glyphosate in Roundup not only weakens plants, it changes the makeup of soil and boosts the number of disease-causing organisms, a practice that is oh so clearly, eventual global suicide.

Don Huber, a plant pathologist at Purdue University, stated:

“There are more than 40 diseases of crop plants that are reported to increase with the use of glyphosate, and that number keeps growing as people recognize the association between glyphosate and disease.”

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