Leaders of What?

First published in my print column, The Nature of Things

It must have been back in 2007 or thereabouts when, as a reporter with the Press & Dakotan newspaper and handling the ag beat, I first wrote about the potential hazards of glyphosate—the main ingredient found in weed-killing pesticides used around the world, including the ever-popular brand, Round-Up.

Now, a decade and a half later, we’re finally starting to see actual data on the subject.

According to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) it’s likely that up to 80 percent of the US population has detectable amounts of glyphosate in their urine.

Eighty percent!

In a recent study, 2,310 urine samples where taken from a group of Americans intended to be representative of the US population, and of those, 1,885 were laced with detectable levels of glyphosate—almost one-third of the study participants were children ranging in age from six to 18.

Granted, private researchers have been noting high levels of this herbicide in human urine samples for many years now, but the CDC has only recently started examining the extent of human exposure to glyphosate in the US.

Before you go and wipe your brow in relief of the “better late than never” variety, you should know that the CDC report makes no observation on how these detected levels of glyphosate might impact human health. The fact is, health impacts of glyphosate are disputed by the CDC, despite research conducted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer which officially named glyphosate as a human carcinogen in 2015.

Both the amount and prevalence of glyphosate found in human urine has been rising steadily since the 1990s when Monsanto—which was bought out by Bayer in 2018—introduced “Round-Up Ready”genetically engineered crops.

Today, more than 200 million pounds of glyphosate are used annually by US farmers, sprayed directly over genetically engineered crops such as corn and soybeans, and also over non-genetically engineered crops such as wheat and oats as a desiccant to dry crops out prior to harvest. Many farmers also use it on fields before the growing season. It is considered the most widely used herbicide in history.

Another topic I remember writing about in an editorial during roughly that same period was the new Dean of Agriculture appointed to South Dakota State University—one of the top agricultural colleges in the US. I don’t remember his name but I do recall with clarity the fact that he also sat on the board of directors for Monsanto Corp., and came to the school with a big fat check in hand for a million dollars to help set up a new research lab.

What no Monsanto-funded institution will teach in its agronomy classes is that plants raised in soil containing the proper balance of minerals, enzymes, microbes and beneficial species will grow to maturity with stable cell structure and natural protection against insect, bacterial and fungal attack — that there is, in fact, life beyond RoundUp.

The technology behind our current intensive monoculture of the industrialized agriculture model is best described as toxic rescue chemistry. It deploys elaborate and expensive chemical interventions to save crops which are not fit to live, and not fit to eat.

The world did not start growing food when petroleum-based products took over agriculture, even if the current farm establishment thinks it did. Neither did research aimed at assisting nature rather than beating it into submission come to an end.

In other parts of the world, ecologically sound agriculture still exists, and it is backed by legitimate (not purchased) research, and it produces nutritionally superior and safe food, and doesn’t poison people in the name of higher yields.

Given our wealth of resources, educational opportunities and technological advancements, we should be one of them.