Even worse, GMOs are now endangering our food supply by killing off butterflies.
Monsanto, maker of the shockingly toxic herbicide Roundup and developer of the GMO Roundup Ready crop seeds, points to a number of studies that claim their pesticide is safe for the environment—though of course these are mostly studies that Monsanto has funded. Unfortunately, scientists who contradict Monsanto, and seek to expose the dangers of GMO crops and Roundup, face censorship and retraction of their studies.
Gilles-Eric Séralini, of the University of Caen in France, had done a number of studies challenging the safety of genetically engineered foods—yet the food safety journal Food and Chemical Toxicology has decided to retract Séralini’s 2012 paper that showed GMO corn and Roundup can cause cancer and premature death in rats. The New York Times said the paper has been criticized as “flawed, sensationalistic, and possibly even fraudulent by many scientists, some of whom are allied with the biotechnology industry” [emphasis ours]. But if the research points to there being even the hint of a danger from GMOs and Roundup, surely this should be explored further rather than pilloried!
Dr. Nancy Swanson, a former staff scientist with the US Navy and the author of over thirty scientific publications and two books on women in science, notes in an article for the San Francisco Examiner, “It’s a sad day for science when a scientific journal bows to pressure and retracts a peer-reviewed published paper.” Her article reviews the chronology of events that led to the retraction of the Séralini paper and discusses the bias of the European Food Safety Authority and the pressure from biotech industry. She notes the double standard inherent in the criticism—Séralini was blasted for the number and type of rats that he used for the study, even though studies by the biotech industry use the same type and approximate number of rats!
Meanwhile Roundup, designed to complement GMO seeds which are engineered to withstand it, may be threatening the existence of monarch butterflies. Each November 1, millions of monarch butterflies fly to a fir forest in Central Mexico. This year, as reported in the New York Times, they straggled in a week late—in record low numbers: last year there were 60 million butterflies, but this year there were only 3 million. It appears that the butterflies are on the verge of collapse.
The US is losing its native vegetation because of Roundup. The herbicide kills virtually all plants except crops that are genetically modified to survive it.
As a result, millions of acres of native plants, especially milkweed, an important source of nectar for many species and vital for monarch butterfly larvae, have been wiped out. One study showed that Iowa has lost almost 60 percent of its milkweed, and another found 90 percent was gone.
The iconic butterflies may be just the tip of the iceberg. What about all the other insects that rely on a wide variety of plants for their sustenance? Insects are the pollinators for our food supply! We already know the bee population is in trouble—we’ve reported about the connection between Colony Collapse Disorder and the neonicotinoids in pesticides used so widely. While bees are the most well-known pollinators, butterflies can travel much longer distances for pollination, which means they play an important role in our delicate ecosystem.
If Roundup kills the food that insects need, the insects die. If the insects die, crops do not get pollinated. If crops do not get pollinated, our entire food supply collapses. It’s that straightforward.
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Of course because food safety to them is never about our health — only the health of their pockets.
Please stop killing Bees and Butterflies with your poisons
No it is NOT ok to kill off beneficial insects and animals for the mass production of FRANKENFOOD!
We’ve been on this planet long enough to know how to grow enough to provide what we need.
Farmers in the past knew how to grow food without Roundup and they can continue the same way.
Whose bright idea was it that we had to burn our corn for fuel and then turn around and poison the rest of the food with Roundup?
If Monsanto says Roundup is so “safe” for us to eat let’s have them drink it and spray themselves from head to toe with it …. in front of us.
We want proof.
Obama is really pushing the Agenda 21’issue. Killing off bees, butterflies, which is devastating to Eco system. He also pushes this Monsanto which is very harmful to people as well.
THE PEOPLE KNOW THIS.
We will continue to fight Monsanto.
Monsanto is going to give people more illnesses, more heart ache than anything else, Besides
Obamacare.
LET FREEDOM RING! No Monsanto! No GMOs Period.
Freedom from poisons!
The sad part of all of this is when money trumps safety around our food supply. Why do many people want more money than they will ever spend just to accumulate it? Greed is rampant in America.
I agree wholeheartedly-If roundup kills the food that insects need, the insects die. If the insects die, crops do not get pollinated. If crops do not get pollinated, our entire food supply collapses. Yes! Yes! Yes! This is definitely straightforward. And Greed to the enth degree. Where is the heart in all that! Some people do care. Nancy Doyle
Roundup kills food that insects need. Roundup is decimating monarch butterfly populations. Roundup has been associated with mammalian cancer. The safety of chemical treatments used on food crops should not be determined by studies funded by the manufacturer of the herbicide, pesticide, or insecticide. The butterflies and bees are dying, what’s next?
I look for bees while I used to be terrified of them, now I am painfully aware of their absence. Now butterflies too will start to go…
What are we allowing these companies to do to us?
Is it possible that we are witnessing now just part of a “master plan ” to make consumers dependent on Monsanto sourced seeds.
It is not unknown !!! for corporations to have nothing on their minds other than profit is it ?? It is also not unknown for corporations in most cases to ditch ethics for corporate ends.
As a measure of Corporate honesty note the absurd deviancy that they practice in retail pricing (e,g. $9.99, (not $10) and more grossly gasoline e.g. $3.32 AND nine tenths of a penny !!!
Did you ever drop by a garage sale and witness items marked with the 99c tags by the straightforward sellers
You are used to $9.99 methodology courtesy of manipulative corporate practice ethics begone this is corporate territory
Beware Corporations Although the Supreme court “citizens united” decision gave them equality with people they forgot to ponder conscience as a requisite for “peoplehood”
What the h*** is wrong with this sick corporation and the mad scientists that work for it? It makes my blood boil?
Well, if the food supply becomes endangered, then the government will have even more leverage to shove GMOs down our throats. They will attempt to argue that since our conventional food supply is failing, then we surely must need GMOs.
Disgusting!!!!
It is truly a sad day when companies who have a vested interest in a subject can have such control of what is published about that subject.
Science is in danger from “Corporatism” When an attack brings removal instead of scientific rebuttal.
God Help Us….what can I say…bees , butterflies, no pollination, what’s wrong with people,,, the drug companies, pesticide companies are related and just plain have toooo much power at the federal level –doctors push the chemical drugs on people and the farmers are pushed to use the chemicals on plants….. I’m much more concerned about the use of chemicals on people and plants than I am about global warming which has happened before people had cars or factories; but the issue has made Gore rich for sure…..
It is obvious that Roundup and GMO crops are dangerous. It is also obvious the FDA and USDA are not interested in protecting the public. Mone-wrenching may be in order, and an almost total turning out of Congress wioll be necessary.
Please outlaw Roundup. It is obviously having a domino effect on food sources as well as our
beautiful wildlife. when will mankind ever learn about the sacredness of all life forms? I am afraid .. they never will
This pesticide is a very serious problem for the food supply in our country, and so many around the world who have used it on crops—it is ruining them and also killing off butterflies and other insects that are important pollinators of our food crops—it has to be banned, with no loopholes.
I’ve tried to alert the sheeple to the cancer hazards of GMO corn with plenty of French study rat tumor pictures and I keep encountering indifference and requests to stop sending disturbing emails. It’s sad that the sheeple also don’t even care they are losing butterflys and bee pollinators. Most simply say “I don’t believe it. Particularly the elderly.
Soon the $700 Trillion dollar fraudulent Banker Derivative Time bomb will detonate and the sheeple won’t know what hit them. Read about it on zerohedge.com. Hopefully funding for the corrupt agencies like the FDA and USDA promoting toxic GMOs will collapse in this detonation also. Massive change is coming so there’s hope for the prepared survivors and the innocent butterflies and bees.
As a person with MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity) to pesticides, acetone/formaldehyde, man-made fragrances, and other man-made chemicals I can attest (even though I’m over 60) that Roundup and other toxic chemical pesticides will indeed harm humans with debilitating and deadly consequences.
The chemical companies are in it for mega-profits. It has been reported that the people running those companies do NOT let their own families eat conventionally grown produce and meats, or farmed fish. What does that tell you?
We are losing beneficial insects, animals, and pollinators which will severely reduce available food sources even from organic farmers. Consequently vast numbers of people could die from starvation worldwide. Conspiracy theorists believe this is part of a worldwide plan for the New World Order. I don’t know about that but I do not like the idea that the environment is being poisoned so that a few people can make lots of money (which will be worth little when there is no food, poisoned water, and worthless soil).
Arden B. Andersen, PhD., a Nutritionist and an expert on agricultural environments, published a book in the 1990’s titled Science In Agriculture – The Professional’s Edge. He has facts that show how chemical companies have convinced the agricultural community, and subsequently the public, that using these toxic chemicals is a good thing! That was 30 years ago. I recommend reading his books to get the background on this situation.
STOP manufacturing RoundUp…..PLEASE!!!
I agree completely with stopping Round-up and other Natural plant violations! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Many complements for you promoting such needed factual knowledge and legislature change! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Again why impose such limitations on what wording is abusive, foul language, personal attacks, discourteous and uncivil unless it is discriminatory to one’s rights! ! ! ! ! ! ! ? ? ? ? ? ?
There’s a reason that thirty nations of the developed world have absolutely banned the growing or importation of GOM products. Why is it that the U.S. government embraces Monsanto? Could it be the ties created during the Vietnam war when Monsanto was pumping out Agent Orange and other chemical weaponry and that they hold “secrets” about certain government operations that might embarrass high officials if these secrets were released? The FDA is propagating the $200 billion dollar per year cancer industry. The out-of-control growth and use of GMO products is doing little more than feeding and seeding cancer to support the enormous industry of misery, all while supported by three things: The USDA, the FDA and the ignorance/complacency of Americans.