Monsanto watch

One of the best myths in ag is the "I'm organic, except for Roundup®." Or this other version, "I farm sustainably." = Roundup®.

This is often the senseless use of a chemical to get rid of weeds, and promoted by Monsanto ("Improving lives, that's what we're all about!") as harmless to the environment and people. But it doesn't take a genius to look at a vineyard that is now Biodynamic and even though it had been years since chemical farming had been used, the weeds, underneath the vines, are unruly, tenacious and impossible to get rid of, evidence of past Roundup use.

                      

 

So, what is the story beyond the super weeds that come back? Just recently The Goldman Prize was awarded to an Argentinan woman, Sofía Gatica who has been working to expose Glyphosate. She embarked on this journey who after losing an infant daughter, and trying to find out the cause.

 In January the Ithaka Journal published an account of a study on Glyphosate showing up in unsuitable amounts in human urine in urban areas. While as far as we, the eating and drinking public, know Glyphosate as an herbicide, used on the ground, the 'harmless' substance is increasingly used as a direct spray onto crops (grapes not cited in the study), for dessication, which brings the chemical directly to the plate.

"If crops can not fully mature due to excessive rain, as was the case in the summer of 2011, herbicides are used to bring the crops to maturity by means of a “deathspray”. The method facilitates the drying of the crops as well  as removing all weeds for the next sowing period, and has become common for the harvest of potatoes, cereals, canola and pulses."

You can read more about the above in a February issue of GMWatch.  

Comments

[LCFwino]

Yikes!

[Susan F.]

Thank you so much for posting about this. So few people really know (or care) what is going on in farming.

[AntiquaTours]

Yikes indeed. I never even thought about why there are so many out of control weeds. The word "deathspray" says it all.

[Peter Brackenbury]

My wife and I are in the initial stages (now that the youngest is heading to Kindergarten!) of setting up a market garden. It is so important to share this information. Everyone seems to think that Roundup is fine and defend it to crazy lengths. It is used all around me but I will never use it no matter how hard it is to tame weeds. Biodynamic IS beautiful, but I need to get more experience around horses...they can get you into some scary situations if you don't know what you are doing! Thanks for this post.

[Alicefeiring]

Susan, Antiqua and Peter, thanks for checking in and sharing and posting.