What’s Wrong With 2,4-D Herbicide? - Eden BlueGold®
(NaturalNews) Western civilization is facing a health crisis of unprecedented proportions, with chronic disease rates continuing to surge all throughout the developed world with no end in sight. And a new research study published in the peer-reviewed journal Entropy suggests that one of the world’s most widely used crop herbicides, Monsanto’s Roundup formula, is more than likely the leading cause of this new culture of disease and death here in the West. First introduced back in the 1970s, Roundup, the active ingredient of which is glyphosate, has continually turned up in the scientific literature as a slow-killing poison for humans. Though the chemical industry insists that it is safe, glyphosate has repeatedly been linked to damaging the fundamental biochemical reactions that normally occur within a healthy human body, a fact reiterated in this latest study. While scientists for years have been running in circles trying to figure out why Western society is now plagued by things like diabetes and autism, the answer has apparently been sitting right under our noses the whole time. Since its advent, the rising use of Roundup in agriculture has coincided exactly with a rise in allergies, dementia, gastrointestinal (GI) disease, cancer and a host of other ailments, all of which can be traced back through specific biochemical pathways damaged by glyphosate. Dr. Pamela Coleman, Ph.D., a farm and food policy analyst at the non-profit Cornucopia Institute, highlights some of the main points of the study in a recent summary, explaining how chronic, low-level exposure to glyphosate eventually leads to the formation of corresponding chronic disease. It does this by obstructing the synthesis of amino acids during digestion, depleting existing amino acid reserves within the body and damaging probiotic bacteria in the gut. Glyphosate also depletes the body of the enzymes it needs to detoxify other harmful poisons, including other pesticide formulas and heavy metals. So not only does glyphosate destroy the body’s ability to protect itself against disease by depleting nutrient reserves and blocking nutrient absorption, but it also tells the body to essentially stand down in terms of guarding itself against a toxic invasion. “Contrary to the current widely-held misconception that glyphosate is relatively harmless to humans, the available evidence shows that glyphosate may rather be the most important factor in the development of multiple chronic diseases and conditions that have become prevalent in Westernized societies,” emphasize the authors of the new study about their findings. Glyphosate: A global holocaust without the gas chambers Those familiar with history may recall the use of Zyklon B, another type of pesticide, during World War II. It is said that the Nazis used this poison, which was originally developed to treat buildings, ships, and machinery for rodents and insects, on human prisoners being detained at Nazi concentration camps. Zyklon B, of course, was the chemical added to the gas chamber showers that were used to exterminate untold millions of people. Zyklon B was also primarily produced by IG Farben, a conglomerate that included chemical and pharmaceutical companies like BASF and Bayer. Fast forward to today and we have a similar mass poisoning taking place via commercial agriculture, but without the gas chambers. Glyphosate, for all intents and purposes, appears to be the new Zyklon B when it comes to what this chemical is accomplishing in the extermination of the planet. Untold millions of people are being exposed to glyphosate on a daily basis, and this exposure is leading many of them to fall chronically, and in many cases terminally, ill. “Glyphosate’s inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals,” add the authors, suggesting that glyphosate was intentionally designed to cripple the body’s defenses against toxicity. “[G]lyphosate is the ‘textbook example’ of exogenous semiotic entropy: the disruption of homeostasis by environmental toxins.” Dr. Coleman’s full paper on the new study can be accessed here: https://www.cornucopia.org.
Is Glyphosate The New Zyklon B For All Of Us?
October 19, 2016
Dr. Professor Philip Callahan; LSU leading Agronomist, said, “No method of insect control will ever work as long as poisoned crops outgas ethanol and ammonia in small parts per million. Those two powerful fermentation chemicals are the mark of a dying, decaying plant and serve as attractants to all plant-eating insects.”
“No Method Of Insect Control Will Ever Work…”
November 4, 2016

What’s Wrong With 2,4-D Herbicide?

(Mother Earth News) In seemingly unrelated stories, activists from Oregon to Mexico City to Berlin have taken to the streets protesting genetically modified (GM) crops, and the Australian government has decided to ban the future sale of most 2,4-D herbicides because of risks to the environment. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to deregulate new strains of GM corn and soybean engineered to tolerate spraying with 2,4-D, which experts say will result in profound increases in how much 2,4-D is applied to American farmland.
What’s Wrong With 2,4-D Herbicide?

Photo by Fotolia/Sandra Cunningham

What’s wrong with this picture?

So far, comments on the USDA’s plan are mostly from alarmed citizens who want neither genetically modified varieties nor 2,4-D involved in their food supply. Many sound very surprised!

“You obviously don’t care about your children or their children, or the future of America.” “Growing food with toxins built in, in the long run, is dangerous at best
and potentially deadly. Just because you can do something does not mean you should.”

You can post your opinion on this matter here; additional details on the USDA’s proposed action are included in my previous post on this topic, Take This Chance to Speak Up on Genetically-Modified Crops and 2,4-D herbicide.

Dangers of 2,4-D Herbicide

The Threat of 2,4-D Herbicide Drift

So, what’s wrong with “a profound increase” in the use of 2,4-D herbicide? First, some scary information, copied verbatim from the National Pesticide Information Center’s fact sheet on 2,4-D:

Because 2,4-D has demonstrated toxic effects on the thyroid and gonads following exposure, there is concern over potential endocrine-disrupting effects.

Work examining incidents of exposure to 2,4-D without simultaneous exposure to 2,4,5-T [which has been banned] has found some association between 2,4-D and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

2,4-D was detected at low concentrations in urine samples collected from all age groups in a large study of the American public.

Traces of 2,4-D were detected in 49.3 percent of finished drinking water samples and 53.7 percent of untreated water samples.

Looking beyond the imminent threats to clean water and health posed by much heavier use of 2,4-D, there is an unanswered question about 2,4-D and dioxins, one of the most potent and persistent group of carcinogens on the planet. Although many known sources of dioxins have been eliminated or controlled, nobody can explain why right now, today, there are enough dioxins in a conventionally produced hot dog to exceed a child’s dietary maximum for the day.

It is suspected that dioxins may be entering the food chain through tainted or substandard batches of 2,4-D, which is sold under more than 80 trade names, often combined with other herbicides, and it is widely available as a generic herbicide at farm supply stores nationwide. The chemical was once manufactured close to home, but current supplies often have international origins and come from chemical plants in Argentina, China, India or Russia. The United States government has decided that these are all trustworthy sources, and has no reality check in place to validate this belief.

The dioxin issue came into sharp focus in Australia last year, when investigative journalists found high levels of dioxin in supplies of 2,4-D (the same supplier that provides 2,4-D to American customers). Australia subsequently cancelled registration of most formulations. The dioxin concern is also made clear in a multinational analysis of 2,4-D sponsored by the Munich-based Institute for Independent Impact Assessment in Biotechnology, as well as the brief submitted to the EPA by the Center for Food Safety. It said:

“EPA should undertake a comprehensive review of 2,4-D-related dioxin. … To briefly summarize, CFS found that EPA is relying heavily on pesticide industry assurances of reduced levels of dioxin contaminants in 2,4-D; that independent scientific testing casts great doubt on such assurances, suggesting that dioxin levels in 2,4-D have not declined as claimed by industry; that EPA should itself conduct, or commission independent scientists to conduct, a comprehensive testing program for dioxins in a broad array of 2,4-D formulations; that EPA should consider dioxins generated during the manufacture of 2,4-D, and dioxins emitted during incineration of unwashed 2,4-D jugs, in its overall assessment of dioxins related to 2,4-D.”

Is this not common sense? Isn’t this the sort of thing the EPA is supposed to do? If the EPA and USDA have their way, a whole lot more 2,4-D imported from Argentina, China, India, Russia and other nations will be drenching American soil and polluting our water, with no monitoring for possible dioxins.
One of the characteristics that has limited 2,4-D use in the past is that it will injure or kill many broad-leafed crops, including cotton, soybeans, tomatoes, roses, grapes, fruit trees, and many other home garden crops. It does not have a history of safe use, but rather of one drift accident after another. According to a story in the Des Moines Register, drift from 2,4-D used by farmers after World War II is one of the reasons the Midwest lost its grape industry. More recently, Wisconsin grape growers have lost vineyards to 2,4-D drift, and 250,000 acres of Arkansas cotton were damaged by 2,4-D drift in 2012. In California, 15,000 acres of the San Joaquin Valley were accidentally treated with a fog of 2,4-D in the same year.

In home gardens, herbicide drift damage can occur when a neighbor has their lawn treated with herbicides containing 2,4-D, including granular products. In addition to droplets carried on the wind, damage can occur when the herbicide vaporizes and a persistent chemical cloud forms close to the ground. This is what happened last year to organic farmer Will Reed in Tupelo, Miss., who lost his heirloom tomato crop to herbicide drift that came out of nowhere.

Damage to home gardens from herbicide drift is common enough to merit bulletins from numerous state extension service offices, though gardeners have little hope of recovering their losses. As explained in this advisory from the University of Minnesota, “The ‘garden variety’ dispute between neighbors is usually not taken through the trial and appeal process, because of the financial realities of paying for lawyers, expert witnesses, scientific analysis, and other litigation costs.” There are no public resources for residue testing, which can cost $100 to $300 per sample. Tired of being put in this no-win situation, Iowa farmers who don’t want herbicides drifting onto their land are arming themselves with “drift catchers” that capture air samples for analysis.

Rather than forcing organic gardeners and farmers to defend themselves against 2,4-D drift, the USDA needs to change its priorities, get out of bed with Big Ag, and start working to protect our environment and help farmers farm without poisons. Do you feel the push to do something, to share your opinions on GM food crops and ever-present pesticides? You have until midnight on February 24, 2014, to make your voice heard on the deregulation of genetically modified crops that tolerate treatment with 2,4-D. The only thing that will overcome the pressure from chemical companies will be greater pressure from you, the public.
Read Barbara Pleasant's full article here.

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