Roundup® Tolerance Levels on Food are Being Raised by EPA

The EPA is raising its tolerance levels for glyphosate(Roundup®) use on crops.

For example teff use to be 5 ppm (parts per million) and now will be 100 ppm

Root vegetables have been raised from 0.2 ppm to 6.0 ppm (30 times more than before)

Oil seed crops have been raised to 40 ppm (canola is an oil seed crop and was 20 ppm previously)

Why are they raising the tolerances? Well, GMO farmers are spraying way more glyphosate (Roundup^®) since they started planted Roundup^® resistant crops. It would make it much easier for the GMO farmers and conventional farmers to be allowed to have higher limits of glyphosate on their crops.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup^®, is the most popular herbicide used worldwide. The industry asserts it is minimally toxic to humans, but this is just not true. Residues are found in the main foods of the Western diet, comprised primarily of sugar, corn, soy and wheat. Glyphosate's inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes is an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals. CYP enzymes play crucial roles in biology, one of which is to detoxify xenobiotics(a chemical compound in the environment). Thus, glyphosate enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body. Here, we show how interference with CYP enzymes acts synergistically with disruption of the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids by gut bacteria, as well as impairment in serum sulfate transport. Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. 

For more information go to this Link where you will be able to download a full article by Stephanie Seneff and Anthony Samsel on Glyphosate hazards. They go over the effect of glyphosate on the  cytochrome P450 pathway, obesity, cardiovascular system cancer, gastrointestinal system,  Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease.

If you wish to join others in telling the EPA you do not want to see this go into effect, you must act before July 1st. Click on this link to sign a petition to the EPA.

New Pig Research Shows GMOs Harmful

Genetically engineered food once again has been shown to harm animals. New research published June 11th (Judy A. Carman, Howard R. Vlieger, Larry J. Ver Steeg, Verlyn E. Sneller, Garth W. Robinson, Catherine A. Clinch-Jones, Julie I. Haynes, John W. Edwards (2013). A long-term toxicology study on pigs fed a combined genetically modified (GM) soy and  GM maize diet. Journal of Organic Systems 8 (1): 38-54. Open access full http://www.organic-systems.org/journal/81/8106.pdf )

This research shows severe gastrointestinal and uterine damage to pigs when fed a combination of GE foods. A review with photos can be found at this link.

Latest Honey Bee News

The Russians are spitting mad at President Obama for protecting Monsanto & Syngenta. The minutes from President Putin's meeting this past week with US Secretary of State John Kerry reveal the Russian leaders " extreme outrage" over the Obama regimes continued protection of global seed and plant bio-genetic giants Syngenta and Monsanto in the face of a growing " bee apocalypse" that the Kremlin warns " will most certainly" lead to world war. You can read more HERE.

The EPA loves those neonicotinoid poisons: The EPA has a lawsuit filed against them by honey bee keepers who say they have lost as much as 50% of their bees this last year. I personally side with them as a small beekeeper. I lost my bees to neonicotinoids a few years back. They are  the underlying problem causing the death of our bees. These pesticides both kill them outright as well as add to the insidious breakdown of their immune systems. : "Beekeepers and environmental and consumer groups have demonstrated time and time again over the last several years that EPA needs to protect bees. The agency has refused, so we've been compelled to sue," said Peter Jenkins, a lawyer for the Center for Food Safety who is representing the coalition of plaintiffs. Read about this problem Here.

The EPA announced that they had granted full registration to sulfoxaflor, foregoing conditional regulation. While not a neonicotinoid, many scientists believe it should be classified in that family since it targets the same neural receptors as the neonicotinoids. It is being used in place of  clothianidin (neonicotinoid) which insects have built up a resistance to.

The GOOD NEWS is that neonicotinoids have been banned in the European Union for two years. You can read about it HERE. Will we all wake up in the United States and refuse to purchase these nasty chemicals that are now everywhere in our soil, and water? Chemicals that have a half life of 10 years. (This means it takes ten years for 50% of it to be out of the soil.) Our government is protecting the companies making these products, not us. It is up to us to educate others  regarding these toxins. If we don't buy the poisons, they will not make them. Read the link below for a list of the names of the chemicals and more details on them. We can also help change our neighbors and friends minds about using toxic chemicals, by showing them how to garden and farm organically.

Most of the things that are making our world difficult to live in come down to this fact. If we don't buy it, they won't make it. 

If you are having trouble trying to figure out how to do something without chemicals. Let me know and I will post a blog about it.

This blog I wrote back in 2011 is still relevant as to how we can save the honey bees: http://dreamingabeautifulworld.blogspot.com/2011/03/save-honey-bees.html