Herbicide tolerant GM soya is insecticidal too

June 2022

Glyphosate-tolerant GM crops aren't something that usually bring insecticides to mind.  Indeed, historically, US soyabeans were only sporadically challenged by insect pests.  Things changed around 2000 with the arrival of the soybean aphid which can only be controlled by foliar spraying.  Hot on the heels of this pest invasion came dramatic increases in bean leaf beetle which prompted the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue an emergency exemption for neonicotinoid insecticidal seed treatments. 

Microbes on the chopping block

June 2022

It's being increasingly recognised that the diversity and stability of the microbial community in our gut (our gut microbiome) are closely linked to health [1]. For example, some bugs create important nutrients from our food, while others detoxify undesirable elements in our food: both are necessary for our health.

"... reductions in microbial diversity are directly associated with altered functionality of the gut microbiome, and are thought to represent a major instigating factor behind the growing global epidemic of chronic, non-communicable, metabolic disease. Such metabolic disorders include irritable bowel syndrome, type-2 diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis, and several types of cancer." (Daisley et al.)

Regulators, manufacturers of glyphosate-based herbicides, and suppliers of glyphosate-tolerant GM seed all maintain there are no human health concerns with glyphosate exposure when the products are used as intended. This assurance includes the glyphosate residues in our diet.

Let's hope they're right because glyphosate is the most frequently detected pesticide in food. Also, testing has revealed traces of glyphosate and its breakdown produce, AMPA, in the urine of up to 90% of farmers in one US State, up to 95% of the general public (including children) in America, 30% of babies less than one month old in one US State, and up to 50% of people in Europe. These figures suggest there's a constant daily exposure to glyphosate from multiple sources, and that there may no longer be any unexposed population to use as a comparator.

The approval of glyphosate is based on the absence of acute toxic effects plus the assumption that because the herbicide disrupts an enzyme essential to all plants but entirely absent from animals, it can't possibly harm humans.

Researchers have pointed out that the major source of our exposure to glyphosate is residues in food and water, while the primary route of elimination of the herbicide from our bodies is in faeces. This makes our digestive system the part of our body exposed to the highest concentrations of the herbicide. Moreover, although glyphosate isn't directly active in human cells, many of the microbes in our gut depend on the very enzyme which glyphosate targets: these could certainly be harmed.

Broad measurements of, for example, gut microbe sensitivity to glyphosate, or the prevalence of different types of bugs known to be linked to health or disease, don't reveal any obvious problems. However, recent research using up-to-date, more sophisticated, analytical methods is telling a rather different story:

• A universal finding seems to be that commercial formulations, which have additives to make the glyphosate more toxic to plants, also make glyphosate more toxic to microbes. Because the additives vary between formulations* any research based on a single brand name or on pure glyphosate can't be generalised to any other version of glyphosate-based contaminant in our diet. * In 2010, there were 750 kinds of glyphosate-based herbicide on the market in the US alone. Now, there are probably thousands world-wide
• One study based on chemical glyphosate identified at least four different enzymes which perform the same role in different species of gut microbe but have different sensitivities to the herbicide. It concluded that 54 percent of species of the bugs in the human gut, or up to 25 percent of the total, are negatively affected by glyphosate.
• Rat and human studies of gut microbes have found that, besides the known negative affect on the ability to form essential proteins, it seems glyphosate can be toxic to energy production, and can generate reactive stress chemicals which have been linked to cancer and other diseases.
• Because it blocks a key biochemical pathway, glyphosate causes the accumulation of 'shikimate'. Shikimate can be beneficial in small doses but in high doses has been linked to cancer.
• And, as if all this wasn't enough, it seems glyphosate can imbalance our gut microbes by boosting certain species which are able to use the herbicide as food.

All these effects are part of a vast, interactive community of microbes some of which vie with each other for supremacy and some of which help each other to thrive.

OUR COMMENT

When all's said and done, epidemiological surveys may be the only thing available to tell us what damage glyphosate-based herbicides (and the staple GM crops dependent on their use) are really doing to us. The findings of these so far haven't been too encouraging [2,3].

In fact, lack of regulatory independence, care and common-sense may have dug our health into a hole it will be very difficult to climb back out of.

HINT: The sooner regulators can be persuaded (by you) to look for and at the evidence of harm from glyphosate-based herbicides, the sooner we can correct our glyphosate-damaged health.

Background

[1] A TALE OF MICROBES, YOUR GUT AND DISEASE - December 2019
[2] HOW MUCH DISEASE IS ROUNDUP CAUSING? - December 2014
[3] WHAT GLYPHOSATE HAS ACHIEVED IN ARGENTINA - June 2018

SOURCES:

• Carey Gillam, New glyphosate papers point to "urgency" for more research on chemical impact to human health, USRTK, 23.11.20
• A. H. C. van Bruggen, et al., October 2021, Indirect Effects of the Herbicide Glyphosate on Plant, Animal and Human Health Through its Effects on Microbial Communities, Frontiers in Environmental Science
• Glyphosate and Roundup disturb gut microbiome and blood biochemistry at doses that regulators claim to be safe, GM Watch 27.01.21
• Robin Mesnage, et al., January 2021, Use of Shotgun Metagenomics and Metabolomics to Evaluate the Impact of Glyphosate or Roundup MON 52276 on the Gut Microbiota and Serum Metabolome of Sprague-Dawley Rats, Environmental Health Perspectives
• Brendan A. Daisley, et al., 2021, Deteriorating microbiomes in agriculture - the unintended effects of pesticides on microbial life, Microbiome Research Reports
• Lyydia Leino, et al., 2020, Classification of the glyphosate target enzyme (5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase) for assessing sensitivity of organisms to the herbicide, Journal of Hazardous Materials
• Patrick Holden, Are glyphosate-based herbicides poisoning us and the environment? Chemicals in Agriculture, 5.02.21

Photo Creative Commons

Universal microbiome decline

June 2022

" ... there is a microbial component inherent to all known systems on Earth with cumulative evidence supporting that niche-adapted microbial communities ('microbiomes') play unequivocally important roles in total ecosystem functioning

... Emerging ideologies such as "Planetary Health" and "OneHealth" emphasize these fundamental roles of microbial metabolic processes in supporting macroscopic reality at the systems-level, and further suggest that microorganisms should be viewed as unified constituents rather than as separate entities, as they have been historically regarded."

(Daisley et al.)

How likely is it that glyphosate, an agricultural product with the capacity to kill all green plants, except those genetically modified to resist it, will have no adverse effects on the health of other living things?

Because glyphosate disrupts a vital enzyme present in all plants, but entirely absent from animals, it has always claimed a reputation for safety. Indeed, the herbicide appears to have no acute toxic effects on animals (including humans). However, many kinds of micro-organism do have the enzyme targeted by glyphosate, and it is certainly harmful to them. By extension, the individual 'microbiomes' - the functional communities of diverse microbes which live around, on and inside all animals and plants - will be altered by this herbicide: the inevitable adverse health effects of this have never been considered.

We have only recently become aware of the functional interdependence between an organism and its microbiome. Micro-organisms play a key role in making nutrients available, in excluding pathogens, and in the immune systems of all higher forms of life.

Our crops need the support of a healthy microbiome in a healthy soil for their own health. In many GM and non-GM fields, the soil is subject to glyphosate from multiple sources, such as, spraying, GM root exudates, treated plant debris, and in some soils the release of accumulated mineral-bound herbicide residues.

Unaccountably, regulators seem to ignore the fact that fungi are plants and are a vital sector of the soil microbiome. The anti-fungal effects of glyphosate lead to long-term stunting of plant growth and a gradual reduction of crop yields.

Many plants also depend on visits from healthy insect pollinators. Insects with a glyphosate-damaged gut microbiome don't do much foraging, or help much with our food supply.

Since 2000, feed rations of UK farm animals, particularly poultry and dairy cattle, have included significant quantities of GM maize and soya, both likely to be laced with glyphosate which will damage to our livestock's gut microbiome and health. Indeed, the herbicide has been detected in the urine of up to 96% of farm animals.

Shockingly, animals have been exposed to glyphosate and other microbe-killing chemicals for so long that we no longer have access to any baseline healthy microbiomes with which to compare and investigate the extent of the damage. It's possible that there's already been a mass-extinction of the microbes essential to health.

Indirectly, humans are on the receiving end of all the glyphosate-induced disruption to the health of our plant- and animal-based foods.

Modern industrial-age populations have undergone a systematic depletion of their essential microflora due to the use of antibiotics and disinfectants. Pesticides in our food and water are just another nail in the microbiome coffin.

Glyphosate and its derivative, AMPA, were found frequently in the urine of dogs and cats too, reflecting the GM components in pet food brands. How healthy are our pets?

Regulators have defined an 'acceptable daily intake' (ADI) which is the amount of glyphosate judged safe to ingest on a daily basis over a lifetime. The ADI is one hundredth of the largest dose at which no adverse effect has been observed (i.e. the 'no observed adverse effect level' or NOAEL). Perplexingly, the US 'no adverse effect level' is three and a half times that in Europe.

The amount of glyphosate residues legally allowed by US regulators in food has increased dramatically over the years. These approved increases seem to be in response to commercial farming demands rather than any science-based safety considerations.

A recent study on rats fed three regulatory-relevant doses of glyphosate (the ADI, the EU NOAEL, and the US NOAEL) and using up-to-date analytical methods ('omics'), found alterations in the gut microbiome at all levels of the herbicide tested.

Glyphosate is not, of course, the only suspect but, with its use boosted by the widespread growing of herbicide-tolerant GM crops, is the most frequently applied agrichemical in the world. Much the same issues arise for all the other GM-linked weed-killers now emerging on the market [1,2,3].

Canadian scientists, Daisley et al., who have carried out a detailed analysis of the "Deteriorating microbiomes in agriculture" due to the "unintended effects of pesticides on microbial life", conclude there is a pressing need to reassess the use of agrichemcials "through the lens of microbial ecology and the ... effects on host (animal and plant) physiology". This reassessment should include the updating of the legislative framework and long-term studies to reveal subtle, accumulative consequences.

OUR COMMENT

To protect your long-term health , you might like to draw your regulators' attention to the call for legislative improvement to include all levels of microbiome damage.

If you're interested in knowing more about the effects of glyphosate on people, check out MICROBES ON THE GLYPHOSATE CHOPPING BLOCK - May 2022 (coming up next).


Background

[1] DICAMBA - WORSE THAN GLYPHOSATE - October 2021
[2] ISOXAFLUTOLE - THE NEXT HERBICIDE HEADACHE? - October 2021
[3] 2,4-D ON THE MENU TOO - October 2021

SOURCES:

• Brendan A. Daisley, et al., 2021, Deteriorating microbiomes in agriculture - the unintended effects of pesticides on microbial life, Microbiome Research Reports
• Patrick Holden, Are glyphosate-based herbicides poisoning us and the environment? Sustainable Food Trust, 5.02.21
• Robin Mesnage, et al., January 2021, Use of Shotgun Metagenomics and Metabolomics to Evaluate the Impact of Glyphosate or Roundup MON 52276 on the Gut Microbiota and Serum Metabolome of Sprague-Dawley Rats, Environmental Health Perspectives
• Carey Gillam, New glyphosate papers point to "urgency" for more research on chemical impact to human health, USRTK, 23.11.20
• A. H. C. van Bruggen, et al., October 2021, Indirect Effects of the Herbicide Glyphosate on Plant, Animal and Human Health Through its Effects on Microbial Communities, Frontiers in Environmental Science
• Glyphosate and Roundup disturb gut microbiome and blood biochemistry at doses that regulators claim to be safe, GM Watch 27.01.21
• Don M. Huber, AG chemical and crop nutrient interactions - current update, Fluid Fertilizer Foundation Proceedings Fluid Fertilizer Forum, Scottsdale, February 2010

Photo Creative Commons

Avoiding evidence about cancer (linked to Glyphosate of course)

October 2021

Because humans can't be subjected to experimentation, regulators assessing the safety of a chemical have to weigh whatever other, imperfect, evidence they have at their disposal. Safety assessment is particularly challenging when dealing with a possible carcinogen, such as glyphosate herbicide [1]. It's even trickier, it seems, when the chemical is, like glyphosate, a major money-spinner produced by the powerful biotech industry for use on its commodity GM crops [2].

There are two important types of evidence available to regulators: laboratory experiments using animal models, and epidemiological studies. Neither can yield definitive conclusions, and their limitations are particularly evident in investigations of suspected carcinogens.

The shortcomings of animal models stem from the biology of cancers.

Dicamba - Worse Than Glyphosate

October 2021 

 

After all the whitewashing of glyphosate herbicide revealed when its manufacturer, Monsanto, was taken to court by users who now have cancer [1], it should come as no surprise that dicamba herbicide [2] looks like being a re-run of the same story.

Glyphogoats

September 2021

As glyphosate's reputation disappears down the drain [1,2], and European countries progressively tighten regulations on the use of this herbicide, various new and old alternative approaches have been proposed to deal with weeds. These have included hot foam, blow-torching, hot water, old-fashioned hoeing and hand-weeding, or even simply tolerating weeds if their presence isn't causing a problem except to the tidy-minded.

Another way to get rid of weeds is to eat them, or rather get something that likes the taste of weeds to eat them for you. 

The Glyphosate Cancer Lag Phase is over

September 2021

Cancer is, without doubt, one of the most devastating of modern diseases. Treatment is limited and unpleasant, and prevention is difficult because of the biology of cancers.

Cells become cancerous when physical and/or chemical stressors disturb gene function to the point where the normal protective cell repair and rebalancing mechanisms are overwhelmed. The prevention problem arises because there isn't one single cause, but rather a whole raft of contributing factors which combine in complex ways to trigger the disease of the cell. For example, exposure to stressors at a low intensity for a long time may cause cancer just as surely as a high dose of the same stressor for a brief period. A variable lag phase, ranging from months to decades makes identifying the cause of any cancer particularly tough.

All these complications are bad news for people whose food, water, air and environment are laced with potentially carcinogenic agrichemicals. They're even worse news for the people whose job it is to spray the world with these chemicals. However, they're excellent news for agrichemical and biotech companies who don't want any evidence that their top moneyspinners may be guilty of causing cancer.

Glyphosate is damaging our children

September 2021

 

Glyphosate-based herbicides have become ubiquitous in our food chain and in our environment. Their presence has been boosted, especially, by GM glyphosate-tolerant commodity crops such as soya, maize, sugar-beet, cotton, and oil-seed rape.

How much damage are these herbicides doing to our children? Even before they've been born? And even threatening their very existence?

Epigenetic mayhem courtesy of glyphosate

September 2021

 

Epigenetics are defined as 'molecular factors and processes around DNA that regulate genome activity, independent of DNA sequence, and are. stable (during cell division)'. They regulate gene activity by turning specific genes on and off.

So far, at least five epigenetic processes have been identified, including chemical groups which attach to DNA or to the RNA expressed by the DNA, besides structural effects on the chromosome. Such processes are reversible, but can also be passed down through many generations.

The epigenome (totality of epigenetics) plays a key role in health and disease. Individuals (animals or plants) are the outcome of the integrated actions of all the epigenetic processes they have inherited or acquired during their life-time.

Known causes of epigenetic changes which are passed on to the next generation in humans include environmental toxins, nutrition, stress and smoking.

Scientists in the Center for Reproductive Biology in Washington State University have carried out an experiment which suggests that glyphosate herbicide could be a significant contributor to the current escalating incidence of chronic disease. If they're right, it means that we're still near the beginning of that wave of disease which will continue to surge for the next two generations and beyond, unless we do something about it.

Herbicide headache II

March 2020

"...we used to sit next to the neighbours in church on Sunday. We don't even want to be in the same congregation with them anymore" (Ruff). This is what the latest GM soya is doing to the US farming community.

Just as biotech giant, Bayer, is coming to grips with the glyphosate lawsuits it acquired when it bought Monsanto in 2018 [1], it's finding itself with another herbicide headache.

The first of several suits against BASF (makers of older brands of dicamba herbicide) and against Bayer (makers of dicamba-tolerant GM soya seed and the dicamba formulations to go with them) came to court in January [2].  Compensation sought is $20.9 million plus punitive damages.

Glyphosate on the plate

March 2020

Food-related uses of glyphosate-based herbicides in a nutshell:

The vast majority of commercial GM food crops - including maize, soya, canola, sugar-beet and cotton (consumed as cotton-seed oil) - are glyphosate tolerant and therefore sprayed with glyphosate-based herbicides. Applications of the herbicide on these crops have been stepped up year-on-year due to evolving weed resistance.

Besides GM crops, glyphosate-based herbicides are used as a pre-harvest desiccant on wheat, barley, oats (and other grains), sugar cane, lentils, beans, peas, chickpeas, sunflower, mints, potatoes and cantaloupe.

Glyphosate on the road

March 2020

After the World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded there's enough robust scientific evidence to consider glyphosate herbicide "probably carcinogenic to humans" [1], Edinburgh and Barcelona City Councils announced their intention to take action [2].

Edinburgh commissioned a report on the options and costs of alternative weed control methods such as special blow-torches, hoeing and hot water.  Barcelona was looking at a ban on the herbicide in favour of a sustainable, ecological style of management for its gardens.

Four years later, where have these flagship initiatives led?

Glyphosate attack by stealth

February 2020

As pointed out before, there's a huge scope for current GM foods to impact on the microbes inside our gut and, along with that, our health [1].

Besides the novel nature of the foods themselves, there's the glyphosate-based herbicides sprayed on and accumulated by most commercial GM crops. Glyphosate blocks a vital biochemical pathway in green plants, but the pathway is also present in many bacteria. This suggests a very real possibility that the herbicide in GM foods could be devastating our health by stealth.

What is the science telling us about this?

The plight of the honeybee

January 2020

"New evidence is revealing we are teetering on the edge of an era of massive extinction, propelled in large part by the very pesticides and practices used with genetically engineered crops ... In a groundbreaking new study, researchers estimate that 40 percent of insect species face extinction - and we could be looking down the barrel of total insect population collapse by century's end, primarily as the result of the agricultural pesticides and mega-monocultures of industrial agriculture. Designed specifically for intensive chemical use, genetically engineered crops are key drivers of this impact" (Lappé) .

A huge proportion of our food supply is dependent on insects for pollination. In agricultural settings, one of the most abundant pollinators is the honey bee: in fact, one estimate reckons that one in every three bites of food we eat is from a crop pollinated by honeybees; and according to the United Nations Environment Programme, of the 100 crops that provide 90% of the world's food supply, 71 are pollinated by bees. Across America, commercial beekeepers are suffering astronomical hive losses averaging 40-50% annually, with some as high as 100%. This severely cripples their ability to meet pollination needs. At least one source of the disaster isn't difficult to find: honeybees are one of the non-target organisms impacted by the use of agrichemicals, and the impact is growing.

Impossible, incredible, awesome, beyond...

January 2020

'... common sense?

The 'Impossible' bleeding plant burger started out back in 2017 as textured wheat protein with fake soyabean 'blood' from GM yeast and some other stuff collectively described by its manufacturer, Impossible Foods, as "simple, all-natural ingredients" [1]. By 2019, Impossible Foods had realised their Impossible burgers weren't sufficiently beef-like and were unpopular with the gluten-intolerant sector of the population. The non-meat burgers were accordingly re-formulated with soya protein.

It seems, however, that sourcing sufficient quantities of affordable non-GM soya to suit its clean, green image and marketing aspirations proved impossible: Impossible Foods' answer was to switch to cheap and plentiful GM soya and hype its way out of the image problem [2].

A tale of microbes, your gut and disease

December 2019

Scientists who have escaped the distortions of the reductionist mindset, in which 'life' is a mixture of chemicals dictated by genes, are beginning to recognise that organisms have two genomes*: the 'primary' genome is inside cells and is responsible for cell structure and function; the 'secondary' genome may consist of more genes than the primary one and is contained in the wealth of microbes inside and outside the organism, effectively a dynamic interface between the environment and the individual.

*The genome is the total complement of DNA including genes and other gene-regulating sequences in the individual (US National Library of Medicine)

There's increasing awareness that the quality, proportions and diversity of microbe species in our gut is closely connected to health and disease. Disturbances in our digestive tract flora have been linked to numerous chronic diseases, for example, allergies, autoimmune disorders (such as type 1 diabetes), arthritis, obesity, cardiovascular problems, cancer, learning and memory impairment, anxiety, stress, depression, autism and dementia. Our gut bugs play a leading role in neutralising a huge range of environmental pollutants before they can harm us, and in keeping pathogens at bay.

Does Glyphosate cause breast cancer?

December 2019

Does glyphosate herbicide, sprayed on most GM crops and widely present in our bodies, cause cancer?

The answer is YES, but it's not that simple.

Pesticides in the population

October 2019

In 2017, a study was published indicating yet another possible chronic health effect from eating glyphosate, the herbicide sprayed on, and accumulated by, most GM crops.

The biotech industry has tried to claim that the presence of glyphosate excreted in urine proves the weedkiller is safe because the body is able to clear it out. However, tests on cows (not possible on humans) have shown glyphosate is distributed evenly in their organs and urine, suggesting the herbicide is retained in the body.

Weeds designed to rove

September 2019

Scientific weed wisdom assured farmers that there would never be a weed able to resist 'Roundup' glyphosate-based herbicide because it required too big a change in a plant's biology.  The humanly-devised Roundup Ready GM crops were thought smarter than weeds could ever be.  Glyphosate-based herbicides became crucial to the productivity of American agriculture.

From this came an entrenched attitude that any Roundup-tolerant weed which chanced to appear in a location would be a one-off: it would have evolved independently and would remain a local problem.

The dramatic increase in both the quantity of Roundup used and the area sprayed after the advent of GM crops was accompanied by a dramatic emergence of glyphosate-tolerant weeds which took everyone by surprise.

Weed scientist wisdom didn't, it seems, factor in the qualities which make a weed a weed.

The cost of not testing

September 2019

President Trump and his administration view environmental regulations as a hindrance to economic productivity.

One US Professor of paediatrics and expert in children's environmental health has pointed out however, that history suggests the opposite.  For example, the phasing out of toxic lead in petrol to protect children's brains, now adds "a $200 billion annual economic stimulus package" to the US.

The true cost of environmental toxins, measured in terms of loss of economic productivity due to cognitive damage, comes to a staggering $20,000 per IQ point over a lifetime.  Add to this the costs of health care and the societal burden (not to mention personal suffering to which a figure can't be attached).

Most insidious among all the environmental toxins are the endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) which cause hormone dysfunction at very low levels of exposure.  Their damaging effects are often permanent and can harm future generations.