Why Is Damning New Evidence About Monsanto's Most Widely Used Herbicide Being Silenced?

[G_j]

http://www.alternet.org/food/150733/why_is_damning_new_evidence_about_monsanto's_most_widely_used_herbicide_being_silenced/

AlterNet / By Jill Richardson

Why Is Damning New Evidence About Monsanto's Most
Widely Used Herbicide Being Silenced?

It turns out that Monsanto's Roundup herbicide might not be nearly as safe as people have thought, but the media is staying mum on the revelation.
April 27, 2011

Dr. Don Huber did not seek fame when he quietly penned a confidential letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in January of this year, warning Vilsack of preliminary evidence of a microscopic organism that appears in high concentrations in genetically modified Roundup Ready corn and soybeans and "appears to significantly impact the health of plants, animals and probably human beings." Huber, a retired Purdue University professor of plant pathology and U.S. Army colonel, requested the USDA's help in researching the matter and suggested Vilsack wait until the research was concluded before deregulating Roundup Ready alfalfa. But about a month after it was sent, the letter was leaked, soon becoming an internet phenomenon.

Huber was unavailable to respond to media inquiries in the weeks following the leak, and thus unable to defend himself when several colleagues from Purdue publicly claiming to refute his accusations about Monsanto's widely used herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) and Roundup Ready crops. When his letter was finally acknowledged by the mainstream media, it was with titles like "Scientists Question Claims in Biotech Letter," noting that the letter's popularity on the internet "has raised concern among scientists that the public will believe his unsupported claim is true."

Now, Huber has finally spoken out, both in a second letter, sent to "a wide number of individuals worldwide" to explain and back up his claims from his first letter, and in interviews. While his first letter described research that was not yet complete or published, his second letter cited much more evidence about glyphosate and genetically engineered crops based on studies that have already been published in peer-reviewed journals.

The basis of both letters and much of the research is the herbicide glyphosate. First commercialized in 1974, glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the world and has been for some time. Glyphosate has long been considered a relatively benign product, because it was thought to break down quickly in the environment and harm little other than the weeds it was supposed to kill.

..more..

[Botany]

1. The "science" behind this article is b.s.

"But Huber says this is not true. First of all, he points out, evidence began to emerge in the 1980s that "what glyphosate does is, essentially, give a
plant AIDS." Just like AIDS, which cripples a human's immune system, glyphosate makes plants unable to mount a defense against pathogens in the
soil. Without its defense mechanisms functioning, the plants succumb to pathogens in the soil and die. Furthermore, glyphosate has an impact on
microorganisms in the soil, helping some and hurting others. This is potentially problematic for farmers, as the last thing one would want is a buildup
of pathogens in the soil where they grow crops."

That is pure hogwash. Glyphosates stops cellular growth and division it does not give the plant aids.

[happyslug]

6. The Last time I check, they did NOT know how Gyphostates works

They just know that it works, everything else was a guess. Present theory is sited in Wikipedia:

Glyphosate's mode of action is to inhibit an enzyme involved in the synthesis of the aromatic amino acids: tyrosine, tryptophan and phenylalanine. It is absorbed through foliage and translocated to growing points. Because of this mode of action, it is only effective on actively growing plants; it is not effective as a pre-emergence herbicide.

HOW Glyphosate "Inhibits" the synthesis of amino acids is unknown, thus how Glyphosate works is still unknown. Please note Amino Acids are used as part of the defense mechanism of Cells and thus all living things, thus the author may be right, just looking at HOW Glyphosate works in a different way then most people, i.e. saying Glyphosate works by preventing the plant from growing, which is another way to look at how AIDS works, i.e. force the body to put more and more resources into fighting AIDS or other pathogens, that the body does NOT have the resources to build up its own strength.

[Botany]

7. Yes they know how round up works

Glyphosphate-based herbicides all work on the same biochemical principle -- they inhibit a specific enzyme that plants need in order to grow.
The specific enzyme is called EPSP synthase. Without that enzyme, plants are unable to produce other proteins essential to growth, so they yellow
and die over the course of several days or weeks. A majority of plants use this same enzyme, so almost all plants succumb to Roundup.

http://home.howstuffworks.com/question357.htm

aka the plant can longer produce new cells by mitosis (cell division and replication)

The physiology of plants and human are very different and in aids a retro virus, which suppresses the # of t-cells in the body which in turn allows a multiple
# of pathogens and mutated cells to develop unchecked in human body is not the same as when you spray a plant w/ round up which stops cellular growth
and then the plant dies ..... now dying and plants under stress are much more likely to be invaded by pathogens or predatory "critters" but that does not
mean the plant has aids.

[Pharaoh]

2. Of Course....

Monsanto along with banks and oil company's etc, own the US government. They are now focusing on owning the states, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Florida, this is just the beginning of a total fascist takeover of the US.

[Le Taz Hot]

3. An alternative to herbicides:

hot, boiling water. Note: This method is not usable in all situations (can't do it around your planted plants) and certainly not practical if you have acres and acres. This is it: Water the soil beneath the weeds. When the soil is soft, physically pull out the weeds. Pour hot, boiling water into the resulting hole. Let it sink in good and then do it again. It's a little more time-consuming but it lasts longer than herbicides and it isn't poisoning your land.

[proverbialwisdom]

4. Duplicate thread.

Earlier thread (59 comments) with identical title here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x600386#600665

Don't miss it!

[L0oniX]

5. Lots of shilling going with that one.

[proverbialwisdom]

8. I disagree. The other thread is highly informative (and revealing). NFM.

[RegieRocker]

9. The almighty buck, what else?

[ensho]

10. because Barons rule

nt