The most toxic pesticides you'll soon be eating - Page 1

The most toxic pesticides you'll soon be eating

So-called "superweeds" are taking over American farmland. Impervious to chemical herbicides, like Roundup (the most widely used herbicide in the U.S.), these weeds don't die when exposed to chemicals. Instead, they just grow taller and thicker and become so sturdy, they've been known to destroy farm equipment.

As farmers struggle to cope with these monster weeds, they turn to stronger, more potent pesticides, but even those are starting to lose effectiveness.

A new study in the journal Weed Science finds that weeds are becoming resistant to 2,4-D, just as the U.S. Department of Agriculture is poised to approve a new crop of genetically modified (GM) seeds that have been designed to resist 2,4-D. The toxic herbicide made up roughly 50 percent of the Vietnam-era defoliant Agent Orange, and in addition to potentially being contaminated with cancer-causing dioxin, it's been linked to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Farmers who are regularly exposed to the chemical are also more likely to have children with birth defects.

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The Biggest Food System Threat of 2012

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The scientists looked at a weed called waterhemp, which grows in corn-belt states like Nebraska and Illinois. After being exposed to 2,4-D regularly for 10 years, the weed no longer died after applications of the chemical, the researchers found. Even the heaviest dousings of 2,4-D were insufficient to kill 50 percent of the weeds in the researchers' test field.

The scientists even collected a handful of waterhemp seeds and grew the weed in a greenhouse. They exposed the seeds to varying levels of 2,4-D and, after 28 days, saw that herbicide resistance had increased tenfold over that time period.

Dow Agro Sciences is currently seeking approval for its 2,4-D–resistant, GM corn called "Enlist." Currently, 27 million pounds of 2,4-D are applied to non-GM corn, but the nonprofit Center for Food Safety estimates that 2,4-D-resistant corn would nearly quadruple that number, leading to roughly 100 million pounds of the chemical being used every year, leading to more resistant weeds.

Ironically, biotech companies sell these seeds under the premise that they will allow farmers to use fewer pesticides. But this is the second pesticide that seems doomed to fail, if past experiences are to be believed. When Monsanto introduced its "Roundup Ready" corn and soy, genetically modified to resist the active ingredient in Roundup (also manufactured by Monsanto), 4.4 million pounds of the pesticide were applied to U.S. farm fields every year. By 2010, that number had risen to 57 million pounds. In that same time period, the varieties of weeds resistant to Roundup grew from just one to more than 24, all of which now cover over 60 million acres of U.S. farmland.

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How You Can Stand Up Against GMOs

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Protect yourself from these toxic herbicides that don't even work by…

• Demanding organic. Organic farmers don't use GM seeds, or the toxic herbicides they're designed to resist. Instead, they use commonsense weed-control methods that are healthier for farmers and for you.

• Voting. Voters in California have the chance to deal a major blow to biotech firms this November, when Proposition 37 appears on their election ballots. The measure would require any food that contains ingredients made from GM corn, soy, cotton, or canola to disclose that on the label. Even though a "USDA Organic" label says essentially the same thing, such a label would allow people who can't afford or find organic foods to avoid GM ingredients—and the pesticides they're soaked in. And because California is such a huge state, laws that pass there typically spread across the country.

Last week, there was a big push by USDA and FDA attempting to convince the public that organic is not better for you than pesticide/herbicide saturated foods. I'm sure a whole lot of people will believe the lie, especially since the "news" report showed how expensive organically grown food is compared to chemically poisoned food. They showed that according to FDA it is a waste of money to buy organic, as pesticides/herbicides won't hurt you!!! Good ol' FDA!!!

I get this newsletter about every 2 weeks from a place called Dave's Garden. Yesterday one of the topics was arsenic in rice--white and brown--anyway it went on to talk about what you said Joanro. I eat a lot of rice so that kind of puts me off about that now. I don't like eating pesticides I don't care what the FDA says.................

Wasnt it Michelle that suggested that we all plant "victory gardens"......maybe she has the inside scoop?

Joan, I noticed that too! They were trying to tell everyone that the previous studies proving that organic and heirloom produce was more nutrient rich than the GMO's, was invalid.  I didn't believe whatever biased report they were going with, as I remember the silencing of Maria Rodale, when she was editior of Organic Gardening Magazine. She spearheaded the OG Watchdog on GMO's ... and then one day... more or less gone, as editor and the magazine became full of fluff and just a bunch of pretty pictures. I am bored with it, but DH still pays for the subscription.

Rodale, a third-generation advocate for organic farmers and farming practices, spent the last two years poring over peer-reviewed scientific research, traveling all over the country to meet with and learn about chemical and organic farmers, and interviewing the world's leading environmental health experts. What she found is that we're all living in a "great chemical experiment in which we are all guinea pigs."

http://www.rodale.com/organic-manifesto-0?page=0,1
 

I too saw a report about the wheat but it did not concern me as much as the genetic engineering that's taken over our countries farms, grains, fruits, and vegetables.

Herbicides and pesticides are a greater concern than arsenic which naturally occurs in the environment and can be tolerated by humans to a point.

Cheap labor could reduce the use of most herbicides as it is just as easy to cut weeds as it is to spray them yet so much safer.
This is what kids did in the summer when I was young, and life was good.

Planting your own garden is not political SM, it is simply better all round for everyone and everything.

It's been a shitty year this year in my garden thank you very much, food for thought when you consider what a farmer has to deal with.

At least I have plenty of acorns.....lol.

Oh... you gotta love these spybots! 

beetree, the study you're talking about was strictly nutrition.  I never heard anybody say that there were more vitamins in organic, just that it was better for you because it had no chemicals.  So no, the study wasn't skewed, it just was a study of the correct issue!

Actually no, there were studies that organic IS nutritionally healthier.... thus the media onslaught... I'm talking about studies at least a decade ago.... I read all about it, through the Rodale researches... really it was circumspect, she was leading the charge as editor of the magazine her family founded and then suddenly... the tone all changed to .... fluff.  

Cooking dinner now don't have time to verify... but yes, it was said Organic is healthier in nutruients.

k, I believe you, no need to verify.