Dave Murphy - Glyphosate: Unsafe On Any Plate

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In November, a very concerning report -- Glyphosate: Unsafe On Any Plate -- was released by The Detox Project and Food Democracy Now!, raising the alarm of the high levels of glyphosate in the US food supply and the (deliberate?) low levels of awareness of its associated health risks.

Dave Murphy, executive director of Food Democracy Now!, joins us this week to explain the finding of this new report on the world's most-used herbicide (more commonly known by its retail brand: Roundup). As happened in past decades with the alcohol and tobacco industries, there's compelling evidence that profits have taken a priority over consumer safety -- and as public health concerns are being raised, Big Ag is circling its wagons and attacking the questioners rather than embracing open scrutiny.

Are we being poisoned in the pursuit of profit?

Look at the chemical and what actually it does. Monsanto has three patents for glyphosate and the first one is from 1964 from the Stauffer Chemical Company in Westport, Connecticut. It was originally used to clean pipes. It's like Drano: it basically strips minerals out of and heavy metals out of a pipe. Scientists have found that it actually chelates those same minerals in soil and makes them unavailable into the plant. At some point in the 1960s a Monsanto chemist discovered that it would also kill weeds. Monsanto applied for a patent in '68 or '69, was awarded that patent in '74, and that is when Roundup first went on the market.

It was used you know in forests and to kill weeds on road sides and that kind of thing. It was used in forest management for a long time and in public parks.

Today, 300 million pounds of glyphosate-based herbicides are used here in the United States each year. In our report ,we have one graph showing how from 1992 (four years prior to Roundup Ready crops being introduced) to 2014 -- I mean -- the states of Minnesota becomes three quarters covered in all black. Iowa is fully blotted out. Illinois is fully blotted out. North Dakota is mostly blotted out and so is South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. And this is just showing you how widespread glyphosate use is. T

The US geological survey did tests in 2007 and again in 2011, showing that 75% of the rain water and river and stream samples in the Midwest contained glyphosate, which is pretty alarming. This chemical is being sprayed on our food and then is evaporating into the air and going downwind and being taken up into clouds. It can fall hundreds of miles away from where it is originally applied.

The reason we took our time with this report and why we made it so detailed is because the highest level of glyphosate found today is in Cheerios, which is often the first solid food that a mother will feed her child as they are transitioning from breast milk or formula. Cheerios is an iconic brand, and all the mothers I talk to explain how their babies love to grab onto them. They are a perfect finger food because they have that hole in the center. And so it is a common food for a mother to automatically give her child. The only problem is a single serving of Cheerios to a one year old child would subject them to a harmful dose of glyphosate.

Click the play button below to listen to Chris' interview with Dave Murphy (81m:26s).

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://peakprosperity.com/dave-murphy-glyphosate-unsafe-on-any-plate/

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Thank you for giving voice to the concerns being expressed by the pervasive use of Roundup herbicide by conventional agriculture. It is simply unbelievable that Roundup is cleared to be used on grains as a desiccant right before harvest, hence the residuals found in bread and cereals.
Roundup technology has not only allowed Monsanto to corner the chemical and seed market, but has also enabled the proliferation of industrial scale farming by simply spraying in response to weed pressure, instead of using cultural practices and mechanical cultivation.
Recently a meeting was held in our community warning the populace that a factory farm was planning to expand from 6000 to 10,000 animal units in a quest to attain profitability. There is little or nothing that can be done to stop this operation from growing this large. In the last 3 years large farms in this area, with liquid manure systems, have contaminated local water sources with over a million gallons of liquid manure slurry. Roundup technology has greatly enabled these operations to grow to become potential environmental disasters.
What most conventional farmers fail to realize is that the economic benefits of these chemical and seed technologies accrue mostly to the businesses that buy from and sell to farmers. The farmer, having no economic clout, is left with little or no economic benefit, yet will fight to the death his right to continue on this ever speeding up technological treadmill and economic system that could care less if he or his customers live or die.

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Thanks Chris for this extremely informative interview with Dave Murphy.
Having just finished listening to the whole podcast, I’m feeling more than a little sick right now thinking about the implications.
First review is diet and food sources - I see a lot more home cooking ahead in 2017! smiley

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Halfway through the interview Chris just mentioned that we get rained on with glyphosate. Possible sources that come to mind are airborne soil erosion and corn based ethanol vehicle emmisions. Does anyone have data on this? Buying an organic hoodie probably won’t help.

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PP.com is going from strength to strength!
I’ve been concerned about glyphosate for years now after reading an article in Acres USA by Dr. D. Huber. Agree that eating organic is essential, the additional cost easily justified by preventative health benefits as Dave Murphy noted in the interview. Still enjoy meals at good restaurants but knowing the fare is mostly not organic takes some of the pleasure out of it.
One of the funniest things that happened to me last year was my bank, in error, showing a Syngenta (aka the Swiss Monsanto) bond position in my portfolio. Uh, no thanks.
Poison for profit indeed! This dystopia that we live in makes my head spin…

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http://www.triplepundit.com/2016/04/residue-herbicide-glyphosate-found-c…

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Hi all, great podcast! Here is a picture of a simple 2-month experiment which has been replicated, and then also redone with romaine lettuce. It provides a dramatic visual of what is in non-organic broccoli. After 2 months of the decomposition process it seems that a noticeable amount of ‘some brown liquid’ is expelled from the non-organic broccoli. You can very easily and cheaply replicate these results in your kitchen.

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Poisoned Agriculture: Depopulation and Human Extinction (GlobalResearch.ca)
The sixth mass extinction and chemicals in the environment: our environmental deficit is now beyond nature’s ability to regenerate (Source Article, PDF, Dr. Rosemary Mason Author)
A personal witness to the devastating demise of wild pollinators and other species as glyphosate herbicide residues increase in the environment (Dr. Mason)

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As I clicked on the PP Featured Voice interview with Dave Murphy, what should pop up but an ad banner for, guess what, Kellogg’s Froot Loops. Bon appetite!

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I just finished listening to the podcast. I remembered seeing a post on the Daily Digest a couple of months back about glyphosate. Searching for “FoodDemocracyNow” returned the Daily Digest of 11/16/2016 along with a few other links. Time2Help posted the processed food chart listed in FoodDemocracyNow.Org’s report (but from another source) in this post: https://peakprosperity.com/comment/201440#comment-201440. I remember others commenting on T2H’s link, but those comments aren’t on this thread. I can’t remember who first alerted us to this potential danger. Sorry.
I don’t normally eat any of these products other than Raisin Bran on an occasional basis. After reading the post and following links including FoodDemocracyNow.Org, I have reduced consumption of this product. I have a box in my pantry that may be the last one I buy.
I used to include Quaker Oats in my diet. I went to QuakerOats.com to see what they had to say about glyphosate. They had a FAQ that said that they don’t use glyphosate in their production; however, farmers use it while growing oats. They noted that the concentration was low enough that a typical person would have to eat more than 1,000 bowls of oatmeal per day to reach FDA limits. I just went to their website to copy that answer verbatim … only to find out that they no longer have a FAQ. When I just searched for “glyphosate” or “FAQ”, I was sent to their recipe page instead. Hmmmm!
I don’t like governmental regulations … simply because regulations can become (usually are) corrupted by the moneyed interests who hide behind them. I prefer market solutions. Farmers use glyphosate as a desiccant because it is cheaper and more predictable than processing their oats the old fashioned way. As long as they have a market for their products, they will continue this practice. It is a purely pragmatic decision. There isn’t any evil involved.
I contacted Quaker Oats through their contact form to tell them that I will no longer buy their product as long as they include oats treated with glyphosate as a desiccant. I received the typical response thanking me for contacting them. I haven’t heard anything since.
If these big corporations hear from enough of the little people, they will change their practices. If you are concerned about your gut biome’s health and you eat any of these products, please consider lodging a similar complaint. Tell your friends what you did and why. That’s a way to make the free market work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikimate_pathway The shikimate pathway (shikimic acid pathway) is a seven step metabolic route used by bacteria, fungi, algae, some protozoan parasites and plants for the biosynthesis of folates and aromatic amino acids (phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan). This pathway is not found in animals, which require these amino acids, hence the products of this pathway represent essential amino acids that must be obtained from bacteria or plants (or animals which eat bacteria or plants) in the animal's diet.
For full disclosure, I use generic versions of RoundUp mixed with 2,4-D on my gravel driveway and along fence lines to control weeds. I don't use it in my garden. I've read how glyphosate breaks down in the soil; however, I don't have any information on the "inert" ingredients. Those inert ingredients may be more problematic than glyphosate. Sheesh. Something else to worry about. Grover
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The royal agricultural society recommend green cestrum in your garden as it’s very hardy, however it’s also fatal to anything that eats it. I have frequent outbreaks and I have to control it or the horses and cows die an ugly death. Now my feelings about people who think fatal plants in ornamental gardens that are allowed to invasively spread aside, I have to remove and control cestrum. I do that using glysophate. It’s my only use of the product, still given the alternative I would still elect to use it, because the alternative is messy.
As per the golden mean, all things in moderation, small selective use of the chemical, managed in a thoughtful way can do more good than harm.
My question is,what can safely replace it? Would not an alternative like grazeon, or salt based solutions contain their own issues, as yet undiagnosed? I’ll have to listen to this podcast, it’s sure to be interesting.

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This was covered years ago in the book “The World According to Monsanto”.
It’s since been made into a documentary movie. You can watch it online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6_DbVdVo-k

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Great podcast, certainly on our farm we have had to develop different farm practices and talking to the “old timers” on how to manage without round up. We have thought for years that round up affects the soil as we needed increasing amounts of seeds per acre.
What is the cause of the obesity epidemic? Again governments interests and the food industry paying to get their industry favored. Is the problem the food industry or rather the government and politicians being bought off.
Consider our body contains 5 liters of blood and in a normal state has 5 gram of sugar in the entire 5 liters. A typical breakfast might be a bagel (50g), banana(30g), and glass of orange juice(40g) . That is 120 grams of fast absorbing sugars coming down on your 5. The bodies response is to make insulin which in a healthy individual works well and fast. As we get older and this process goes on the tissues become resistant and your body must make more insulin to clear the blood sugar.Thus your end up with higher and higher levels of insulin. Metabolic syndrome equals insulin resistance.
Bread has a higher glycemic index than table sugar. Simply put, you would see less of a rise in blood glucose eating 5 teaspoons of sugar out of the bowel than eating 2 slices of bread.
Next consider a fat cell. This cell either takes up of gives of fat but will do nothing unless it has a signal from your body. Insulin is the main hormone that signals your fat cells and this message is hoard fat. Thus with our high carb diet and thus high circulating insulin we have the fat cell sucking energy from your body and leaving the metabolically active part of your body in calorie deficit. In addition the insulin locks the out door of the fat cell. This explains an overweight individually eating 1500 or even less calories per day exercising like a fiend and not able to loss weight. They are tired, always hungry, and miserable. For this person a calorie reduced diet is guaranteed to fail. Thus in the late 1970’s when the McGovern Commission, American Heart Associations, and NIH all supported by generous food industry financial support all came out and recommended a low fat diet, this fix was in. If you tell people to eat less fat are they just going to eat less or replace the calories with something else. Anyone interested in this issue I would recommend Gary Taubes landmark book Good Calories Bad Calories. Also lighter reading but still excellent My Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teichotlz

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We’ve submitted this important podcast for review to Slashdot.org's editorial team. If you’re not familiar with Slashdot, it’s a highly-trafficked news website with a heavy sciences bent.
Only a small fraction of submitted stories get featured on Slashdot’s home page. The editors say the odds they’ll pick a story is heavily influenced by how many upvotes it has.
So we want to try an experiment. We’re asking the PP.com audience to click on the link below and upvote the podcast:
https://slashdot.org/submission/6625059/glyphosate-unsafe-on-any-plate
With your help, maybe we can make Slashdot’s front page. If we can, we may be able to use our collective firepower for other future stories we deem particularly worth getting the word out about.
Let’s give it a try and see if we can make our voice heard!

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I am so glad this podcast is now out, because it helps to highlight a really important issue.
Very recently a man from my community who works in the moving business, said a long-haul trucker friend of his said, out of the blue, that the lack of insects on his windshield was “really weirding him out.” They used to say the “air was really wet today” when the insects were coating the windshields.
And how could this not be weirding out an observant person? One does not simply reduce or even remove whole blocks from the bottom of the food chain pyramid. The widespread loss of insects really ought to be considered something of a big emergency, somewhere if not everywhere important. At least that’s my view.
I’ve been far more careful of my intake of non-organic grains and the whole family is going on a grain free existence for a while, more for a dietary reset than to avoid glyphosate, but it will be interesting to track what else results from removing a major source of glyphosate from our diet.
At any rate, maybe time for a bit more curiosity and humility especially when it comes to major ecosystem disruption?

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Economic collapse is always a subset of some other underlying support. What would be the Wall Street spin if it turned out to be bugs this time!?
I’d rather it be oil.
A world without bugs is freaky, sterile, post nuclear detonation bizarre. It’s a sneak preview of a show coming to you soon, ‘Your Own Demise!’
I’m hoping that it’s limited to Interstate highways.

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While the glyphosate podcast has yet to make the Slashdot front page, we have successfully caught the attention of Slashdot’s editorial team. I received the below from the site’s editors last night:

Thanks for your submission to Slashdot ("Glyphosate: Unsafe On Any Plate"). Your submission has been favorably rated by Slashdot editors and readers. We get a lot of submissions, and can't run them all; all of them inform the stories that we do select, though, and we'd like to thank you for being a part of it. Contributions like yours are what power our site.
So I take this as evidence that we have a shot at getting future content onto the front page; it's just a matter of persistence, and perhaps of matching our submission topic to the gestalt of what's going on during a given week. I've also learned through this first attempt how to better craft a submission to appeal to the Slashdot's editors' preferences. I'll be applying that knowledge on our next try. Thanks to all those who upvoted when we asked!
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Folks should be aware that glysophate use is being environmentally justified by way of its role in agricultural practices that reduce soil erosion and increase soil carbon - namely in the form of no-till farming or perhaps some kinds of conservation tillage practices. Its all under the guise of “soil health”, so if you ever see “soil health” initiatives that are backed/supported by agro-industry, you can be rest assured that GMO and glysohpate use is embedded within, even though the role of glysophate/GMO use won’t be mentioned at all.
For example:
http://soilhealthpartnership.org/

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I did my part.

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Its really disturbing to hear about a company deliberately adding poisons into our food supply. It sounds like they are just as evil as Big Tobacco was (and probably still is).
I mean, if this were a long-term Al-Queda plot to inject poison into the Cheerios of Americans babies nationwide, we’d have drones blowing up Monsanto executives in their offices and limos with hellfire missiles in under 48 hours. We’d probably invade. But because they are such large donors to literally everyone ($1M to the Clinton Foundation - anyone remember them?), we can’t even get our own regulatory bodies to look at the scientific evidence.
I wish Monsanto was based, say, in Iran. Or maybe in the border areas of Pakistan. Then we’d get some action.
I’m really happy that I have steps I can take to avoid the chemical, although like everything else, it sounds like it is just a reduction of exposure rather than eliminating it.
Ultimately for me this is a national security issue. But I guess the CIA is too busy looking for sneaky Russian hackers to pay attention.