Glyphosate Destroys Earthworm Eisenia fetida Populations

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Using glyphosate herbicide can wipe out local earthworm populations, a new study shows.

Glyphosate Sublethal Effects on the Population Dynamics of the Earthworm Eisenia fetida
Authors: Marina Santadino, Carlos Coviella, Fernando Momo

While the full paper is available on-line it is behind a pay-wall, for anyone wanting to download it and thus the summary, aka abstract, will have to do, I guess. Though there is a way to read it there via the “Look Inside” button. Find the full paper here

Abstract: Pesticides' sublethal effects are not regularly taken into account when assessing agrochemical's toxicity. With the objective of detecting chronic, sublethal effects of the widely used herbicide glyphosate, an experiment was performed using the earthworm Eisenia fetida as model organism. Earthworm adults were randomly assigned to three glyphosate treatments: control (no glyphosate), regular dose for perennial weeds, and double dose. Six E. fetida individuals were placed in each pot. Two random pots were taken weekly from each treatment and the number of adults, individual weight, number of cocoons, and presence and number of young earthworms were recorded. A matrix analysis was performed with the data. The matrix population model built showed that while the control population had a positive growth rate, both glyphosate treatments showed negative growth rates. The results suggest that under these sublethal effects, non-target populations are at risk of local extinction, underscoring the importance of this type of studies in agrochemical environmental risk assessment.

I don't think it will take much explaining as to why therefore such herbicides, such as Roundup, etc., are detrimental to everything. Without earthworms the soil will die and so will we.

Not only need the use to be reevaluated, as the authors of the report state in the conclusion of it, it needs to be banned and all other glyphosate herbicides too.

Monsanto, and some others, are becoming the greatest threat to live on this Planet and it is time that a stop be put to their game, and that not just in the realm of herbicides but also and especially in the realm of genetically modified and engineered organisms.

As said, without earthworms (and one can but wonder what it does to other beneficial organisms) the soil will die and without healthy living soil plants will die and all animal life will too, including humans, for we are but animals, though we often behave much worse than them.

It is time for a change and that time is now... in fact it really was yesterday.

© 2015

Roundup Weedkiller Found In 75% of Air and Rain Samples, Gov. Study Finds

The GM farming system has made exposure to Roundup herbicide a daily fact of our existence, and according to the latest US Geological Survey study its probably in the air you are breathing…

A new study from the U.S. Geological Survey, accepted for publication online ahead of print in the journal Enviromental Toxicology and Chemistry, titled, “Pesticides in Mississippi air and rain: A comparison between 1995 and 2007,”[i] reveals that Roundup herbicide (aka glyphosate) and its still-toxic degradation byproduct AMPA were found in over 75% of the air and rain samples tested from Mississippi in 2007.

The researchers evaluated a wide range of pesticides currently being used through weekly composite air and rain sampling collected during the 1995 and 2007 growing seasons in the Mississippi Delta agricultural region.

The researchers discovered the following:

• Thirty-seven compounds were detected in the air or rain samples in 2007; 20 of these were present in both air and rain.
• Glyphosate was the predominant new herbicide detected in both air (86%) and rain (77%) in 2007, but were not measured in 1995.
• Decreased overall pesticide use in 2007 relative to 1995 generally resulted in decreased detection frequencies in air and rain, but observed concentration ranges were similar between years even though the 1995 sampling site was 500 m from active fields while the 2007 sampling site was within 3 m of a field.
• Mean concentration of detections were sometimes greater in 2007 than in 1995 but the median values were often lower.
• Seven compounds in 1995 and five in 2007 were detected in ≥50% of both air and rain samples. Atrazine, metolachlor, and propanil were detected in ≥50% of the air and rain samples in both years.
• Total herbicide flux in 2007 was slightly greater than in 1995, and was dominated by glyphosate.

According to the report, 2 million kilograms of glyphosate were applied statewide in 2007, or 55% of the total herbicide flux for that year (~129 μg/m²⁾, leading them to state the high prevalence of glyphosate in air and water “was not surprising.”  Even though glyphosate was only tested in 2007, based on the 1995 figures on glyphosate use (147,000 kg state-wide) the researchers estimated that glyphosate added 3% of the total herbicide flux for 1995, or approximately 7 micrograms per centimeter (~7 μg/m²) per sample. This estimate, if correct, reveals that there has been an ~ 18 fold increase in glyphosate concentrations in air and water samples in only 12 years (1995-2007).   

Read more: http://www.cornucopia.org/2014/03/roundup-weedkiller-found-75-air-rain-samples-gov-study-finds

Monsanto drops GM crop plan in EU

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Biotechnology giant Monsanto is scrapping plans to win approval to grow new types of genetically modified crops in the European Union. Please note that the operative word here is “grow” and not that it is abandoning plans to get GM crops into Europe. Far from it.

Monsanto says the move is due to the lack of prospects for cultivation in the EU.

The company, the CEO of which, so it is claimed, is to have said that there will be no food crown, no crop, to which they (and others of their ilk) will not own the patent, produces GM crops and agro-chemicals which are in wide use in the US and in other parts of the world but has had problems getting permission from the legislators in the European Union to grow the plants – in trials and others – in EU countries.

In Europe there have been concerns about the use of GM food products, and approval for GM crop cultivation can take years to obtain as the cooperation between Monsanto and the legislators are not as close as they are in the USA. However, the recently introduced seed law in the European Union which, basically, makes it unlawful to grow any plant, whether from seed or from plant material, even in private gardens shows that the influence of the large seed and GM companies is growing also among EU legislators, and definitely in the UK.

The Monsanto decision related to pending requests to grow genetically modified maize, soybean and sugar beet and it comes just days after the EU began talks with the US on a wide-ranging trade deal, with agriculture likely to be one of the toughest issues.

The company said it would now concentrate on growing its conventional seeds business in Europe but it will also look to get EU approval to import its genetically modified crop varieties from the US and South America into Europe.

In 2012, Germany's BASF halted the development of genetically modified crops in Europe and moved its European research operations in this area to the US.

As said, far from giving up, Monsanto will now look to import genetically modified crop varieties into Europe and thus get GM crops into the EU by a backdoor.

While it may appear to some as a victory the facts would point to a rather devious ploy by Monsanto to, as said, get their GM crops into the European Union via a backdoor and to market, regardless as to whether or not the people in those countries want it.

Another prove of the pudding, so to speak, that we do not need a new government but a new system.

© 2013

EU food control coming?

Crop diversity under threat

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The European Union minions in Brussels/Strasbourg are working on controlling what foods we can eat. No, I am not jesting.

They are aiming to ban, as in outlaw, all heirloom and non-hybrid seeds, even for personal garden use, as well as the growing of such plants, the retention of their seeds (and seeds also from hybrid seeds for future use) and the taking and passing on of cuttings.

This way they will regulate what kinds of vegetables we can buy and even grow ourselves, and those will all have to be approved hybrid varieties and thus all only and rare vegetables will no longer have a chance.

As the collection and keeping of seeds and passing on from one gardener to another will also be punishable by law it means that we will have to – annually – go to authorized seeds merchants and buy our seeds for our garden.

Agribusiness, especially the big plant breeders, such as Monsanto, have been lobbying the EU commissioners for the last five plus years to create law that will do this and thus make it impossible for the people to avoid buying seeds from that company and others.

They have been working out, one can but guess, that people were voting with their feet and decided to grow their own food and especially here gardeners were aiming to use non-hybrid seeds and also to keep seeds from the harvests back for future use and also to share with other gardeners.

Therefore the EU commissioners have been lobbied hard to outlaw this practice and if the revised proposed seed regulation becomes EU law then we will all be forced to, if we wish to grow our own food, to grow only what they permit and keeping seeds back from the harvest for use next year will be punishable by this law.

How they are going to enforce this is, obviously, a question but if heirloom varieties are no longer available and organic seeds – for it would appear that they also will fall foul of this proposed legislation – then policing will be hardly necessary anyway.

This proposed legislation from Brussels proves yet again that the European Union is far from being a good thing for the people of Europe; the opposite rather, and the sooner it is put to death the better.

While this issue is all over the news in Germany and some other continental EU countries not a single word is mentioned of this issue in the media in the UK or Eire.

Time for a serious change to our system is needed...

© 2013