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Pesticide Action Network Updates Service (PANUPS)
A Weekly News Update on Pesticides, Health and Alternatives
See PANUPS archive for complete information.
November 12, 2009
- ‘Superweeds’ jam the pesticide treadmill
- Philippines Dept. of Health: No aerial spraying on banana plantations
- Endocrine disruptors disrupt common wisdom
- GM crops kill lady bugs; science suppressed
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‘Superweeds’ jam the pesticide treadmill
The introduction of genetically modified, herbicide-tolerant crops has created a dire situation in the U.S. south – as weeds become more herbicide-resistant, farmers trying to maintain their 10,000-acre-plus “megafarms” are forced to apply increasing amounts of weedkiller. According to Tom Philpott and others, this pesticide treadmill is beginning to break down. Nine strains of amaranth (a.k.a. pigweed) have been labeled as noxious weeds in the U.S. One variety in particular, Palmer amaranth, has become resistant to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s flagship herbicide Roundup. Amaranth and other so-called “superweeds” have thrown a wrench in the machine of industrial agriculture. Pigweed is sturdy enough to “stop a combine in its tracks” and reduce yields by up to 68%, which is forcing many farmers to abandon chemical weedkillers in favor of mechanical cultivators and hand weeding. The situation is so bad in Macon County, Georgia, that 10,000 acres of farmland were deserted. The qualities that make amaranth a particularly pesky weed are the reasons it has been cultivated as a food source by Indigenous peoples in the Americas since 3400 BC: it is prolific (producing up to 10,000 seeds at a time), drought resistant, reaches maturity quickly, and has an extended period of germination. It is also exceptionally nutritious; containing 30% more protein than other cereal grains and, like quinoa (a pseudocereal), it is a complete protein. The Aztecs used it as a food staple but when the Spanish priests discovered that they were also using it in religious ceremonies, they banned the
sale, consumption, and cultivation of amaranth. The plant has outlasted the Spanish, bested Roundup and is being reintroduced in many places throughout Mesoamerica as an inexpensive, healthy, localized solution to hunger problems.
In response to its current superweed crisis, Monsanto blames farmers for the overuse of glyphosate, and recommends mixing glyphosate with older herbicides like 2-4,D — one of the active ingredients in Agent Orange. They are right about the overuse part — in the ten years after “Roundup Ready” crops were introduced, glyphosate use went from 7.9 million pounds per year to 119 million pounds per year. And as for mixing glyphosate and 2-4D? Monsanto appears to have anticipated the superweed dilemma, as they patented that combination in 2001.
shareMORE Rodale Institute: ‘Superweeds out-flank glyphosate’ | Digg This
Philippines Dept. of Health: No aerial spraying on banana plantations
“This is a significant victory,” said Dr. Romeo Quijano of Pesticide Action Network Philippines. “But the campaign continues since the Supreme Court has not yet decided on the issue and the companies continue their aerial spraying.” As PAN North America members know, Dr. Quijano and Ilana Ilang Quijano, his daughter, have been targeted by banana plantation owners with threats and in libel suits for documenting and publicizing the continuing exposure of plantation residents to pesticide poisoning. According to Medha Chandra, PAN North America Campaigner, “It is critical that we develop and implement policies that prevent chemical trespass via pesticide drift. Sensitive sites — such as schools, homes and playgrounds — must be our first priority for protection. Long-term, a transition to agroecological pest management is the best solution to protect health, food and livelihoods of farm and rural communities around the world.”
shareMORE All About Airborne Pesticide Drift |
Endocrine disruptors disrupt common wisdom
Increasingly, toxicologists and now — surprisingly — the American Medical Association, are poised to take up the public health paradigm challenge posed by EDCs. In the latest issue of Environmental Health Perspectives Linda Birnbaum, Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, presents a summary of recent research that together refutes the commonly held notion that the dose makes the poison. Birnbaum explains how a growing number of studies show that many environmental toxicants can have significant consequences, including dysfunction and disease, at very low-level exposures. Many of these low-dose studies (including with the pesticides hexachlorobenzene and atrazine) demonstrate that “the timing of exposure is critical to the outcome and that exposures during early life stages (fetal, infant, and pubertal) are particularly important. This recognition of critical windows of vulnerability not only demonstrates the developmental basis of disease but also that the timing, as well as the dose, makes the poison.” In addition, the effects of environmental toxins on the human hormone system, for example, are frequently non-linear such that “high doses may not be appropriate to predict the safety of low doses when hormonally active or modulating compounds are studied.” Birnbaum describes this body of research as responsible for disruptive “paradigm shifts in our understanding of the relationship between environmental toxicants and disease.”
takeACTION Safer Chemicals Campaign |
GM crops kill lady bugs; science suppressed
shareMORE Scientific American editorial: “Do Seed Companies Control GM Crop Research?” |
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