April 29 2016 – Moms Across America are actively asking Americans to weigh in on the use of the commonly used herbicide and crop ‘glyphosate’ before the EPA votes on its continued licensure. In the meantime, the EU just voted to ‘limit’ the use of glyphosate-outlawing its use as a dessicant and in public areas to include playgrounds and gardens, and limited its licensure until while more studies are done. However, the facts remain–it is ubiquitous in the environment, in water, and humans–and it has been linked to large and rare tumors in animal studies. Most importantly, the studies conducted on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO) in March of 2015 by an independent team of scientists from the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). That International Agency concluded that “glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans.”
In contrast, in November 2015 the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) concluded that it was safe to use – but given that this review of glyphosate relied in part on industry funded, and unpublished studies, the public, and many European politicians no longer trust the EFSA’s judgement.
This significant inconsistency between these two organizations has in fact spurred 96 prominent scientists from 25 countries to voice strong opposition to the EFSA report.Most importantly, the EFSA studies only tested ‘glyphosate independently’ of the other ‘adjuvants’ used in its delivery method–unlike the real life application type studies done by the IARC which measured its synergistic effects. All said and done–it needs to be banned, we need to find sustainable methods of crop protections, and we need to get back to basics. Otherwise we continue down this path of perpetuating the ‘least-known’ harmful toxicant until another takes its place.
