What is going on with glyphosate? EPA’s odd handling of controversial chemical | US EPA yanks documents from its website after “inadvertent” publication |
EXCERPT: Despite - or perhaps because of - the delays in issuing a final regulatory risk assessment on glyphosate, questions about the impact of the chemical on human health and the environment have been mounting. In addition to the lawsuits alleging glyphosate caused cancer in farm workers and others, private groups are scrambling to test a variety of food products for glyphosate residues.
— What is going on with glyphosate? EPA’s odd handling of controversial chemical
Carey Gillam
Huffington Post, 2 May 2016 http://gmwatch.us6.list- The Environmental Protection Agency’s ongoing risk assessment of the world’s most widely used herbicide is starting to generate more questions than answers. On Monday, it also generated a giant “oops” from the EPA. On Friday, April 29, the EPA posted on its website a series of documents related to its long-awaited risk assessment for glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide and other weed-killing products sold around the world. The risk assessment started in 2009 and was supposed to conclude in 2015. But questions about whether or not glyphosate may cause cancer are dogging the agency’s review, and have slowed the process. On Monday, after the contents of the documents started to generate questions from media, EPA yanked those documents from its website: An agency spokeswoman said this: “Glyphosate documents were inadvertently posted to the Agency’s docket. These documents have now been taken down because our assessment is not final. EPA has not completed our cancer review. We will look at the work of other governments as well as work by HHS’s Agricultural Health Study as we move to make a decision on glyphosate. Our assessment will be peer reviewed and completed by end of 2016.” The EPA said it was “working through some important science issues on glyphosate, including residues of the chemical in human breast milk;” an “in-depth human incidents and epidemiology evaluation;” and a preliminary analysis of glyphosate toxicity to milkweed, a critical resource for the monarch butterfly. Inadvertent or not, one of those documents posted and then withdrawn was a doozy, a heavy hammer that seeks to knock down worries about glyphosate ties to cancer. The agency released an Oct. 1, 2015 internal EPA memorandum from its cancer assessment review committee (CARC) that contradicts the March 2015 finding by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifying glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen. EPA found instead that glyphosate is “Not Likely to be Carcinogenic to Humans.” The memorandum stated that the classification was based on “weight-of-evidence considerations.” CARC said this: “The epidemiological evidence at this time does not support a causal relationship between glyphosate exposure and solid tumors. There is also no evidence to support a causal relationship between glyphosate exposure and the following non-solid tumors: leukemia, multiple myeloma, or Hodgkin lymphoma. The epidemiological evidence at this time is inconclusive for a causal or clear associative relationship between glyphosate and NHL. Multiple case-control studies and one prospective cohort study found no association; whereas, results from a small number of case-control studies (mostly in Sweden) did suggest an association.” Monsanto touted and tweeted the release of the document, which follows the release by EPA of a different memorandum supporting the safety of glyphosate last June. The newest memo gives the company added evidence to defend itself against a mounting stack of lawsuits filed by agricultural workers and others alleging Monsanto’s glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide gave them cancer. “This is the EPA’s highest ranking for product safety—they also do nice job of explaining all of IARC’s mistakes,” Monsanto Chief Technology Officer Robb Fraley said in a twitter posting. Monsanto has been calling on EPA to defend glyphosate against the cancer claims since the IARC classification came out in March 2015. A March 23, 2015 EPA email string released as part of a Freedom of Information request details Monsanto’s efforts to get EPA to “correct” the record on glyphosate “as it relates to carcinogenicity.” Another document newly released by EPA - which was also then withdrawn - illustrates just why EPA’s risk assessment about the safety of glyphosate matters so much. In a memorandum dated Oct. 22, 2015, EPA detailed how extensively glyphosate is being used on food items. That memo updates estimates of glyphosate use on crops in top agricultural states, and provides annual average use estimates for the decade 2004-2013. Seventy crops are on the EPA list, ranging alphabetically from alfalfa and almonds to watermelons and wheat. Glyphosate used on soybean fields, on an annual basis, is pegged at 101.2 million pounds; with corn-related use at 63.5 million pounds. Both those crops are genetically engineered so they can be sprayed directly with glyphosate as farmers treat fields for weeds. Cotton and canola, also genetically engineered to be glyphosate tolerant, also have high use numbers. But notable glyphosate use is also seen with oranges (3.2 million lbs); sorghum (3 million lbs); almonds (2.1 million lbs); grapes, (1.5 million lbs); grapefruit and apples (400,000 lbs each); and a variety of fruits, vegetables and nuts. Despite - or perhaps because of - the delays in issuing a final regulatory risk assessment on glyphosate, questions about the impact of the chemical on human health and the environment have been mounting. In addition to the lawsuits alleging glyphosate caused cancer in farm workers and others, private groups are scrambling to test a variety of food products for glyphosate residues. On Friday a lawsuit with a new twist on glyphosate concerns was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. That suit, which seeks class action status, alleges that glyphosate residues found in Quaker Oats invalidates claims by the Quaker Oats Co. that its product is wholly natural. “Glyphosate is a synthetic biocide and probable human carcinogen, with additional health dangers rapidly becoming known,” the lawsuit states. “When a product purports to be ‘100% Natural,’ consumers not only are willing to pay more for the product, they expect it to be pesticide-free,” the lawsuit states. Questions about glyphosate have become so prevalent that U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu wrote a letter to EPA officials in December requesting EPA scientists meet with a group of independent scientists to go over “troubling information” related to glyphosate. Lieu cited concerns that EPA is relying on Monsanto-backed data rather than independent, peer-reviewed research in assessing glyphosate. Sources close to the situation say that meeting has been scheduled for June 14, though both EPA and Lieu’s office declined to comment. The EPA’s diligence on digging into glyphosate questions and concerns is encouraging to those who want to see a thorough risk assessment done. But the delay and the questionable actions with releasing documents and then withdrawing them from the public eye does not inspire confidence. Indeed, in another curious move, the EPA on May 2 also issued a newly updated “registration review schedule.“ But while three dozen other chemical draft risk assessments are listed on the EPA website for release by the end of 2016, glyphosate was not included. Oops?
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Thursday, May 5, 2016
EPA GLYPHOSATE ASSESSMENT BEGUN IN 2009 STILL ON THE SKIDS SEVEN YEARS LATER
Monday, May 2, 2016
10 OF 24 BREAKFAST FOODS TESTED POSITIVE FOR GLYPHOSATE (ROUNDUP)
iStockphoto
Instant oatmeal, stemming from a crop that Roundup herbicide is not used on, contained the highest amount of glyphosate of 24 breakfast food items tested.
Herbicide, It’s What’s for Breakfast: Glyphosate in
Bagels, Organic Eggs, Oatmeal
4/22/16
Turtle Island residents woke up this week to news that our cereal, eggs and bagels are infused with a potentially cancer-causing compound from the Monsanto weed killer trade-named Roundup.
A whopping 10 out of 24 breakfast food items tested positive for the compound,Huffington Postreported. The chemical culprit is glyphosate, which theWorld Health Organization (WHO) has linked to cancer.
“We decided to do this testing to see just how ubiquitous this toxin has become in our environment,” said Gretchen DuBeau, executive and legal director of the Alliance for Natural Health-USA, which conducted the analysis by independent lab, to the environmental news siteEcoWatch. “We expected that trace amounts would show up in foods containing large amounts of corn and soy. However, we were unprepared for just how invasive this poison has been to our entire food chain.”
Just how invasive extended to organic eggs, which contained more glyphosate than any of the other foods, the Alliance for Natural Health reported. The compound was also found in oatmeal, bagels, bread, and wheat cereal—items from crops that are not sprayed with the herbicide until briefly just before harvest, as a dessicant.
“We were surprised to see foods that tested highest for glyphosate were from non-Roundup Ready crops—and these crops are presumably sprayed less heavily with Roundup than the crops that are designed to tolerate the herbicide,” thegroup said in a statement. “Especially worrisome are the levels of glyphosate found in some organic eggs and dairy creamers, animal products which are not sprayed directly with glyphosate. This indicates that the chemical is entering the food chain and building up in the tissues of animals—likely also the case for humans.”
The group tested flour, cornflakes, instant oatmeal, bagels, yogurt, bread, frozen hash browns, potatoes, cream of wheat, eggs, non-dairy creamers and dairy-based coffee creamers, according to itsreport.
"The major finding from this analysis is that glyphosate is showing up in food products where it’s not intended to be, supporting claims made by many critics that glyphosate is far more ubiquitous in our food system than the public is made to believe," the report stated.
Such pervasiveness is a stark, and dark, reminder of the interconnectedness of everything on Mother Earth. Moreover it harks back to 2008, when the defunct-since-the-1970s pesticide DDT was found in Adelie penguins in the Antarctic, asReutersreported at the time. Though the DDT stored in their fatty tissues was not enough to harm the birds, it did cause concern because of its origin in melting glaciers, study author Heidi Geisz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science told theAntarctic Sun.
When it comes to glyphosate in our breakfast, the Alliance said that while the levels of residue were lower than what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers harmful, it actually is six times higher than the European Union standard. The levels detected in foods—higher than 75 parts per billion in 10 out of 24 foods—“suggests that Americans are consuming glyphosate in common foods on a daily basis,” the Alliance said.
“The true safety of this chemical, just last year identified as a probably carcinogen by the WHO, is unknown,” the group said. “Current EPA standards have not been rigorously tested for all foods and all age groups. Nor have the effects of other ingredients in glyphosate formulations been evaluated. Evidence linking glyphosate with the increased incidence of a host of cancers is reason for immediate reevaluation by the EPA and FDA.”
Read more athttp://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/04/22/herbicide-its-whats-breakfast-glyphosate-bagels-organic-eggs-oatmeal-164226
GLYPHOSATE (ROUNDUP) SPRAYS BOMBARDING BAY AREA, PORTLAND, NYC
Monsanto's Highly Controversial Herbicide Is Currently Being Sprayed in Five of America's Largest Urban Areas
April 26, 2016
Man in a protective suit spraying plants against pests, Disinfection, photography
Photo Credit: overcrew/Shutterstock
Photo Credit: overcrew/Shutterstock
Reverend Billy and The Stop Shopping Choir have published two new interactive maps showing where glyphosate is being sprayed in California’s Bay Area and Portland.
Based on the maps, glyphosate—the cancer-linked main ingredient in Monsanto’s weedkiller Roundup—is being used in a number of public spaces including parks and playgrounds in both cities.
According to a press release sent to EcoWatch, the Portland map displays 1,592 locations in the city where herbicides containing glyphosate are being sprayed.
“Monsanto’s Roundup and its key ingredient glyphosate are major weapons in the Portland Parks Department’s arsenal of herbicides,” the release states.
A Care2 petition has been posted to stop the use of glyphosate in Portland’s public green spaces. The campaign, which has gathered more than 17,600 signatures, seems to be picking up momentum. In recent months, Portland lawmakers have mulled over new restrictions on the use of synthetic pesticides in the city.
Meanwhile, in the city of San Francisco alone, more than 200 locations such as ball fields, libraries, playgrounds and parks are being doused with the herbicide, Inhabitat reported.
Rev. Billy’s San Francisco map was published in collaboration with the San Francisco Forest Alliance. The alliance has requested that the San Francisco Department of Environment remove Tier I and Tier II herbicides (especially Roundup/ Aquamaster and Garlon 4 Ultra) from the 2016 Reduced Risk Pesticide List, “without exceptions.”
San Francisco mother and Inhabitat editor Jill Fehrenbacher is currently petitioning for a glyphosate ban in public parks. The campaign has more than 12,000 signatures to date.
“If this sounds like just a local issue within San Francisco, it is not. Roundup/glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the world, and city governments, organizations and companies spray it EVERYWHERE as a cost-effective approach to weed removal,” Fehrenbacher wrote on the Change.org petition. “Glyphosate may have an important place in agriculture (another debate entirely), but a possibly-carcinogenic pesticide should not be sprayed thoughtlessly around schools and public parks for no good reason. It is too much of a gamble with our public health.”
Earlier this year, Reverend Billy and The Stop Shopping Choir released a map of New York City locations being sprayed with glyphosate. The data was obtained by the group and members of the Coalition Against Poison Parks from the New York City Parks Department.
"Monsanto’s Roundup continues to be the major weapon in the New York City parks department’s arsenal of herbicides while scientific evidence that Roundup’s key ingredient, glyphosate, is toxic approaches the level of scientific consensus,” the New York City-based group said in February. “The frequency of parks department’s use of Monsanto’s Roundup doubled since 2013 with 1,300 spraying events reported. In 2014, overall herbicides use reported by volume increased by 16 percent with a 9 percent increase in the amount of glyphosate applied by volume.”
Organizers told EcoWatch that a “National Map of Roundup City Spraying” is coming together. Glyphosate maps for Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle and Philadelphia are currently in the pipeline.
Glyphosate, which is the most widely applied pesticide in the world, was classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans” in March 2015 by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The organization also observed that non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other hematopoietic cancers are the cancers most associated with glyphosate exposure.
Monsanto has long maintained the safety of their product, denying the link to cancer and demanding a retraction of the IARC’s report.
Last September, California’s issued plans to add glyphosate to the state’s list of chemicals known to cause cancer, making it the first state in the country to do so. Monsanto promptly filed a lawsuit to prevent the state from doing so.
Lorraine Chow is a freelance writer and reporter based in South Carolina.
Saturday, April 30, 2016
ABC REPORT: 10 of 10 CA Wines Tested Contained Carginogenic Glyphosate PULLED
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Tuesday, April 26, 2016
WHO CONFIRMS GLYPHOSATE (ROUNDUP) SPRAYED ON MILLIONS OF FOOD CROPS IS TOXIC
http://www.globalresearch.ca/world-health-organizations-new-q-a-on-glyphosate-confirms-toxicity-of-round-up/5513497
World Health Organization’s New Q & A on Glyphosate Confirms Toxicity of Round Up
The World Health Organization (WHO) has just published a clear question and answer form on the toxicity of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide concoction, Round Up. It leaves no question that the herbicide is truly genotoxic, causing damage to life everywhere.
The report has likely come out due to controversy over the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)’s determination that glyphosate is ‘safe.’ The herbicide is meant to be voted on to reinstate marketability later this month.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a research arm of the WHO, has stated clearly that both formulations containing glyphosate and pure glyphosate pose a grave risk. It is this clear explanation that leaves the EFSA little wiggle-room when trying to downplay glyphosate’s toxicity dependent upon the formulation.
The EFSA has tried to push propaganda that the herbicide is not a carcinogenic hazard to human beings, but multiple other studies say otherwise. It has now come to light that the EFSA has also hidden studies from public view which were used to make this determination.
The IARC, as compared to the EFSA, looked at over 1000 studies which involved glyphosate, including reviews of people exposed through their jobs, such as farmers and agricultural workers. The IARC also looked at experimental studies on cancer and cancer-related effects in experimental systems.
The EFSA did not even publish all the studies they referenced, nor clearly reporting who wrote them. More than 95% of authors for the glyphosate review reportedly refused public scrutiny of their determination.
Some of the Glyphosate Questions and Answers
Just a few of the questions the WHO answered are abbreviated as follows:
Could glyphosate’s toxicity be based on other co-formulants in a weed killer?
Essentially this question targets those who want to pretend that glyphosate isn’t the culprit, but that other adjuvants added to an herbicide or pesticide are to blame. The IARC states clearly that
“the evidence for [glyphosate] causing cancer in experimental animals was ‘sufficient’ and the evidence for causing genotoxicity was ‘strong’. The real-world exposures experienced by human populations are to a variety of formulations of glyphosate with other chemicals, because this is how glyphosate is mainly sold and used. Similar results were reported in studies of different formulations used in different geographical regions at different times.”
Could the co-formulants in the herbicide products be to blame for genotoxic outcomes?
Another nice try by Big Biotech to push the blame on something other than their collectively-favorite weed killer ingredient. (Glyphosate, is the main ingredient in Round Up, which currently forms the backbone of Monsanto’s worldwide billion-dollar sales.) The IARC’s answer again is clear. NO. Glyphosate is toxic all on its own.
There is controversy over whether or not glyphosate causes non–Hodgkin lymphoma based on one study. The IARC makes it clear that hundreds of studies were looked at to draw a link between glyphosate exposure and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Sorry – once again Monsanto, you can’t weasel out of this. Data was collected on over 50,000 farmers for the IARC to come to their determination.
Was it only animals that suffered from cancer due to glyphosate exposure?
The precise answer is, “NO.” I would put an expletive before that monosyllabic response, but you get the idea.
There are many more questions addressed. Here you can read through the WHO’s glyphosate Q & A.
The original source of this article is Natural Society
Copyright © Christina Sarich, Natural Society, 2016
Monday, April 18, 2016
VETERAN FARMING BILL MOVES IN CA LEGISLATURE
For Immediate Release - (916) 454-5805
www.CSGunited.org |
 CSG Sponsored Bill Helping VETERAN Farmers Moves Forward
In a vote of unanimous
and bipartisan support, the California State Assembly Committee on Veterans
Affairs passed AB 2574 last week. This new CSGsponsored
legislation will create
opportunities for California veterans to take-up occupations in
farming and ranching.
Assemblyman, Rocky Chavez (R), a retired
Marine veteran and Colonel worked with theCSG to author the bill.
The measure moves
forward to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee this week. The bill is a landmark measure offering new incentives to California’s nearly two million veterans to become farmers and ranchers by leveraging existing state programs and resources to draw increased federal dollars and resources into California.
The 2014 United States
Farm Bill included military veterans as a distinct
classification of farmers for the first time in the history of farm bills. Congress included a variety of landmark incentives to help America’s veterans returning from military service to acquire skills to start and manage a farms and ranches. These incentives arose from recent findings by the United States Department of Agriculture that the average age of farmers across the nation is on the rise. The average age of principal farm operators is at 58.3 years, and 33% are over the age of 65. CSG President Bob McFarland said, “Through these state and federally funded programs and resources, we will help returning veterans adapt from battlefields to farm fields.
“There is a healing
benefit for soldiers working with theland. The CSG will
continue to support and encourage new generations of farmers. Our
future will depend on regenerative agricultural and access to an abundance of
healthy foods,” McFarland added.
Assemblyman Chavez, notes, “Supporting our veterans’ ability to draw down federal money and transition into a field of such demand will create security and stability for our state’s agricultural industry and for our veterans shifting to civilian life.” Lt. Bobby Ross, a retired veteran who served during the Tet Offensive in Viet Nam and has farmed since 2004, stated at last week’s hearing, “I do believe that farming and ranching requires so much commitment, physically and mentally, that a wounded veteran can truly benefit from it.” In January at USDA offices in Davis, the CSG led the first-meeting of a new coalition of state organizations supporting military veterans entering farming careers. The coalition includes representatives from the USDA, Farmer Veteran Coalition, UC Davis’ CalAgrability, Cal Poly’s Veteran Sustainable Agriculture Training, California Employment Development Department, Women Veterans Alliance, National Center for Appropriate Technology and California Department of Veteran Affairs. AB 2574 will create and strengthen incentives to help veterans returning from military service to become farmers and ranchers. These incentives include education and training, technical assistance, farm loans, and microloans to support such needs as farm equipment or other essentials. Last year, the CSG sponsored a tour of the award-winning film Ground Operations with filmmaker Dulanie Ellis, screening the film at five granges up and down the State and at the EcoFarm Conference at Asilomar. The documentary film provides numerous examples of former combat veterans successfully becoming farmers and ranchers. Copies of the film are available through the CSG. The Redwood Valley Grange will screen Ground Operations on Friday, April 22 at 6:30pm as part of their Earth Weekend celebration. For more information, contact Bill or Jaye at (707) 272-1688.
For more information
on AB 2574, phone the CSG offices at (916)
454-5805.
The CSG is
not affiliated with the National Grange or the
Grange of California’s Order of Patrons of Husbandry, Chartered. |
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