A Billion Go Hungry Because of GMO Farming: Vandana Shiva

GMO farming practices heavily dependent upon glyphosate herbicide formulations such as Roundup have serious, unintended adverse effects on human and environmental health. New research indicates glyphosate does not break down rapidly, as the manufacturer claimed, but is accumulating in the groundwater -the source for most of the world’s drinking water.

The Australian government, in the form of its science research arm, is joining Agribusiness profiteering by designing a GM wheat that could kill people who eat it & be inherited by their children.

An Indian high-profile parliamentary panel has recommended that GM crop “field trails under any garb should be discontinued forthwith,” and that further GM agricultural research should “only be done under strict containment.”

Two studies published in the past six months reveal a disturbing finding: glyphosate-based herbicide formulations such as Roundup® suppress the growth of beneficial gut bacteria and lead to the overgrowth of harmful ones.

It appears that corporations such as Monsanto can special order “research” from susceptible researchers and/or research institutions and use peer-reviewed journals to transform their propaganda into seemingly legitimate scientific opinion.

2011-2012 have been watershed years, as far as scientific revelations into the nature and extent of the damage associated with glyphosate herbicide usage and exposure is concerned. But new findings indicate the problem may be far worse than previously understood. The very soil, the foundation for the entire food chain upon which we depend, may be at risk of irreversible adverse changes.

Herbicides used in GM farming like Roundup have long been understood to be toxic, that much is true, but the ongoing debate rages over to what degree they are toxic. Shocking research indicates that the so-called “inert” ingredients in these glyphosate formulations are actually highly toxic, and amplify the toxicity of the active ingredient.

In an alarming new study published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, researchers from CRIIGEN reported on the results of a 2 year feeding study in rats given either NK603 Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize, cultivated with or without Roundup, and Roundup alone, resulting in cancer and death.

While many of us are disappointed with the results of the CA proposition 37 ballot initiative, to say the least, the political process is so corrupted with unlimited corporate spending that the real surprise for me would have been if it had passed.

In an unprecedented decision, India’s National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), a government agency, declared legal action against Monsanto (and their collaborators) for accessing and using local eggplant varieties to develop their Bt genetically engineered version1 without prior approval of the competent authorities, which is considered an act of “biopiracy.”