Brian D Williams wrote:
>
> This is from the Seeds of Change eNewsletter #12 I was tempted to
> post the whole thing, but restrained myself, it can be found at
> www.seedsofchange.com
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> *A farmer's lament
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Don Dunklee, an organic grower in Michigan, submitted the following
> article to our eGroup Forum
>
> Before
> Roundup Ready genetic engineering, it was difficult to kill
> milkweed in crops. My milkweeds are gone. My neighbor's milkweeds
> are gone. Farmers using Roundup Ready genetics in soybeans, cotton,
> corn and sugar-beets are eradicating milkweed from their field
> nationwide, forcing the monarch butterflies to lay their eggs on
> milkweed in field borders and ditches. Have we done well? Perhaps
> not by the butterflies.
Who ever said they deserved a free lunch? A better question: what amount
of milkweed is usually found in natural prairie? Much as a second growth
forest is much different from an old growth forest, a natural original
prairie is far different from a field left fallow for a few years.
Milkweed is not typically that prevalent in natural unirrigated prairie,
so consequently the natural population density of monarch butterflies
should actually be lower than the level at which we 'subsidize' their
current population, so reducing the available food supply for them
should only bring them back to their more natural population levels...
Moreover, although some people have wondered whether corn pollen caught
by the milkweed strands is eaten by the butterfly caterpillars, but no
mention is made of any facts about whether the pesticide is actually
present in the pollen, since the crops are not sprayed during pollen
season, but earlier.
> Published Monday, May 8, 2000
> ) Copyright 2000 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> >From Organic Gardening magazine website: What's Wrong With
> RoundUp?
> http://www.organicgardening.com/watchdog/roundup.html
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> >From the Organic Trade Association comes this report:
> Glyphosate (commonly known as Roundup) linked to Non-Hodgkin's
> Lymphoma
>
> A population-based case-control study conducted in Sweden between
> 1987 and 1990 by oncologists Dr. Lennart Hardell and Dr. Mikael
> Eriksson concluded that exposure to herbicides and fungicides
> resulted in significantly increased risks for non-Hodgkin's
> lymphoma (NHL), a form of cancer. In the study, published in the
> March 15 Journal of American Cancer Society, the researchers
> concluded that in particular, exposure to glyphosate "yielded
> increased risks for NHL". Glyphosate is the world's most widely
> used herbicide. It is estimated that over 112,000 metric tons were
> used worldwide during 1998. Companies developing
> herbicide-resistant crops also are increasing their production for
> herbicides such as glyphosate and requesting permits for higher
> residues of these chemicals in genetically engineered food.
> Monsanto, for instance, has received permits for a threefold
> increase in herbicide residues--from 6 parts
> per million to 20 parts per million on genetically engineered
> soybeans in Europe and the United States.
I notice that there was no mention by the writer about what levels of
exposure the Swedish oncologists found to be contributory toward
increased NHL. There had to be some level of exposure they determined
was bad, but I imagine that the bad exposure level is probably at the
very least several times, if not hundreds of times, higer than the 6-20
ppm level Monsanto is talking about, but if they actually admitted that,
the greens would have to admit that its not actually a threat to human
health.... See, thats the sort of way that these greens twist facts in
lies.
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