Guest Columnist
In many gardens today, growers reach for synthetic chemicals at the first sign of trouble, whether they be insecticides, herbicides, or pesticides that just kill everything, linger on/in the vegetable, pollute our water supply, and endanger our health.
With weeds considered to be public enemy #1, the #1 cure is Roundup. Roundup makers have engineered a DNA change to several vegetable seed types (corn, cotton, wheat, and others), so they’re not affected by Roundup, particularly its main ingredient glyphosate.
The first problem with genetic engineering (impossible to occur in nature), is that changing a single gene sets off a chain reaction that seriously modifies a plant seed’s overall genetic structure. Also, Roundup is systemic, meaning it penetrates the vegetable/fruit and the glyphosate cannot be washed off.
When Roundup came on the scene in the early 90, it was predicted that pesticide use would drop. It did for a while, but now, growers are using more than ever before. Farmers and gardeners are annually applying approximately 5 billion pounds of products containing glyphosate worldwide, with some 300 million pounds being used in the United States. As for crops, it’s “everywhere.”
Glyphosate is sprayed on pastures where meat and dairy animals graze. It’s sprayed on grain and vegetable food crops. It’s sprayed on fruit orchards. The amount of glyphosate in today’s urine is 1,200% higher than in 1993.
Glyphosate, while a very potent weed killer, is, in itself relatively mild. When combined with its other so-called inert ingredients, however, its toxicity goes up several hundred percent. Glyphosate is something you don’t want to find in baby’s umbilical cord blood supply, baby food, breast milk, daily cereal, fruit, meat and water, but it’s there in all of them.
Finally, glyphosate is a probable carcinogen. That’s just one more reason to always grow organic.
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