Re: Health risks [was Re: Biotech rice (roundup)]

CurtAdams@aol.com
Tue, 24 Aug 1999 12:31:03 EDT

On Tue, 24 Aug 1999 Entropyfoe@aol.com wrote:

> Monsanto's new genetically engineered soybean has been modified so
> that it can survive heavy doses of Monsanto's poisonous weed-killing
> herbicide, Roundup (glyphosate).

Wrong. Roundup kills dicots, which includes most weeds, but also some crops like soybeans and potatoes. The soybean isn't engineered to take particularly high doses, just the same kind of dose as corn already gets. Corn, a monocot, is not much affected by Roundup.

> Agribusiness already dumps more than 500 million pounds of
> herbicides on U.S. farmland each year, with Roundup leading the toxic
> parade. Herbicides contaminate ground water and the food chain,
> contributing to the cancer epidemic which now strikes one in
> three citizens.

You are aware that both the incidence of and the mortality from cancer have been dropping for several years and that the age-adjusted risk of cancer is probably lower than it's ever been before, right?