Dr. Vandana Shiva and Regeneration International Support Mexico

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Dr. Vandana Shiva was the keynote speaker at two events on March 15 and 16 in Mexico City in support of the Mexican Government’s stand against glyphosate and GMO Maize.

Regeneration International was one of the organizers of these events in partnership with Navdanya International, the Organic Consumers Association, Via Organica, and Sin Maiz No Pais.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources hosted a scientific forum on the “Protection and conservation of biodiversity in the regions considered as centers of origin of species.” On March 15. Dr Shiva was the keynote speaker, and I was the following speaker on the importance of conserving both agricultural and endemic biodiversity.

Caption: Dr. Vandana Shiva (Navdanya), Dr. André Leu (RI), and Karen Hansen (IATP) speaking at The Department of Environment and Natural Resources hosted a scientific forum

The following day, March 16, was a well-attended public event with many speakers. Vandana gave the closing keynote address to a very receptive and appreciative crowd. Dr. Mercedes Lopez from Via Organic gave a rousing speech on the importance of maize to Mexican culture and the need to not contaminate the traditional varieties with GMOs, as this would destroy the fact that Mexico is the center of origin and diversity for this critical food staple.

Caption: Dr. Mercedes Lopez speaking at the well-attended public event on March 16

I spoke on the risks and damages associated with transgenic corn and glyphosate, presenting scientific evidence of the harm it is causing to human health.

Caption: Dr. Andre Leu from Regeneration International Speaking at the public event

I was one of the many scientists who assisted Mexico in developing a science-based case against US bullying, which aimed to force them to reverse their decision to ban glyphosate and GMO maize.

US Government Poison Cartels Puppets Bully Mexico over its Sovereign Right to Ban Glyphosate and GMO Corn

Mexico announced plans to ban glyphosate and GMO Maize in 2023. Bayer-Monsanto and Dow launched 43 lawsuits in Mexico attempting to overturn the presidential decree.

The GMO/pesticide cartels, fearing that Mexico will set a precedent for other countries to enact similar restrictions, are puppeteering agencies and officials within the U.S. government to pressure Mexico to abandon its plans. This is not the first time the German-based Bayer-Monsanto has used its captured U.S. government officials and agencies to act on its behalf. In 2019, the corporation succeeded in using U.S. officials to pressure Thailand to reverse its ban on glyphosate.

According to Reuters, the new U.S. agriculture trade chief, Doug McKalip, gave Mexico until February 14, 2024, to respond to the U.S. demand to justify the science behind the GMO maize and glyphosate ban.

Mexico responded in March by releasing a formal rebuttal of U.S. efforts to overturn their ban.

The government produced an 189-page scientific report stating, “Mexico has legitimate concerns about the safety and innocuousness of genetically modified corn … and its indissoluble relationship with its technological package that includes glyphosate,” the government’s report states. It showed evidence that the use of pesticides causes serious health effects.

Mexico states that there is “clear scientific evidence of the harmful effects of direct consumption of GM corn grain in corn flour, dough, tortillas and related products.”

The Scientific Evidence That Justifies Mexico Banning GMOs and Glyphosate

There are an enormous number of published scientific studies showing that GMOs and their associated pesticides are responsible for multiple serious health problems for people, animals, and the wider environment.

The widespread adoption of GMO crops in the U.S. has resulted in a massive increase in the application of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, as the primary method of weed control.

The Only Credible Peer-reviewed Lifetime of GMOs and Roundup

Only one credible, independent, non-industry funded, peer-reviewed lifetime feeding study of GMOs and Roundup exists. It found that mammary and other tumors, liver and kidney damage resulting from regular exposure to minute amounts of Roundup and/or a diet containing GMO corn – similar to the typical exposures people get from food.

The image above shows a rat with large mammary tumors caused by consuming glyphosate at the usual levels found in food. The tumors on the right-hand side, starting from the top, result from eating GMO corn, GMO corn with Roundup, or just Roundup. (Seralini et al.)

All the female rats in the study that were fed GMOs and/or Roundup (Treated Group) developed mammary tumors and died earlier than the rats who were fed non-GMO food without Roundup (Control Group), except for one rat who died early of an ovarian tumor.

Treated males presented four times the number of tumors that were large enough to be felt by hand than the controls, and these occurred up to six hundred days earlier.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has given glyphosate the second-highest rating for Cancer – Group 2A.

This means it causes cancer in animals and has some evidence of cancer in humans, most notably non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

A study by Flower et al. examined the levels of cancer in the children of people who sprayed glyphosate for weed control. They found that these children had increased levels of all childhood cancers, including all lymphomas, such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

A case-controlled study by Swedish scientists Lennart Hardell and Mikael Eriksson also linked non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma to exposure to various pesticides and herbicides, including glyphosate. The link between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma has resulted in significant court cases, most of which Bayer-Monsanto has lost and awarded millions of dollars to the victims.

Genetically engineered crops, glyphosate, and the deterioration of health in the United States of America

Dr. Nancy Swanson, myself, and co-authors Jon Abrahamson and Bradley Wallet published a peer-reviewed paper, “Genetically engineered crops, glyphosate and the deterioration of health in the United States of America,” showing how glyphosate and GMOs are linked to over 20 diseases in the U.S. The study searched US government databases for genetically engineered crop data, glyphosate application data, and disease epidemiological data. This was correlated with numerous diseases linked to the increased use of glyphosate and GMOs. A standard accepted statical analysis showed that the odds of glyphosate and GMOs not being the cause of these diseases was 10,000 to 1. On top of these, numerous studies are confirming the link between GMOs and glyphosate with these diseases.

We compiled this data into graphs showing the increase in diseases, glyphosate, and GMOs. We also added trend lines in green to show that these diseases are increasing due to the increased use of genetically engineered (GE) corn and soy and glyphosate.

Autism and Dementia

Autism and dementia have reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. The gap below clearly shows the link between the massive increase in the use of glyphosate and GMOs since the 1990s and the increase in these diseases.

Researchers have shown how exposure to minute amounts of glyphosate damages the normal development of nerves.

The image above shows how glyphosate damages nerve development. The glyphosate-exposed cells had shorter and unbranched axons, (the long extended ‘arms’ of the nerve) and less complex dendritic arbors (the smaller ‘fingers’ coming out of the body of the cell). It is clear from the image that the cells exposed to glyphosate do not develop properly and, therefore, cannot work effectively.

The scientists identified the cause by which glyphosate affects nerve development and stated that it cannot be reversed. The major concern is that the brain is the largest collection of nerves in the human body and is still developing in unborn, newborn, and growing children. Exposure to small amounts of glyphosate in food can adversely affect the brain’s normal development, leading to the suite of major issues that we see in children, such as autism spectrum, bipolar spectrum, ADHD, and other developmental and behavioral issues.

Adult brains are constantly renewing brain cells. These nerve cells are also adversely affected by glyphosate. The graph above shows a very strong link between the increase in glyphosate and deaths from dementia.

Endocrine Disruption – Disruption to Hormones

Gasnier et al. reported endocrine-disrupting actions of glyphosate at 0.5 ppm. According to the authors, this is “800 times lower than the level authorized in some food or feed (400 ppm, USEPA, 1998).”

Professor Séralini’s study published in Environmental Sciences Europe found that both GM maize and Roundup act as endocrine disrupters, and their consumption resulted in female rats dying –at a rate two to three times higher than the control animals. The pituitary gland was the second most disabled organ and the sex hormonal balance was modified in females fed with the GMO and Roundup treatments.

Disruption of Metabolic Pathways

One of the most significant studies was published by Samsel and Seneff in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Entropy in 2013. This comprehensive review, titled “Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases,” showed how glyphosate disrupted numerous biochemical pathways within the human body, including gut microorganisms, and consequently could lead to numerous diseases.

Studies show that disruptions of the normal hormone and metabolic pathways are major causes of obesity, in that they disrupt the normal control mechanisms that stop overeating. Science clearly shows that glyphosate is one of these chemicals.

Diabetes

The rise in diabetes is directly linked to obesity. Most obese people end up with diabetes due to overloading the hormonal mechanisms that regulate blood sugar. Over time they begin to fail, resulting in dangerous increases in blood sugar.


Disruption of the Gut Microbiome

Samsel and Seneff’s paper identified how glyphosate disrupted the gut microbiome, causing the suppression of biosynthesis of cytochrome P450 enzymes and key amino acids. In a later paper, “Glyphosate, Pathways to Modern Diseases II: Celiac Sprue and Gluten Intolerance,” Samsel and Seneff showed that the current increase in celiac disease and gluten intolerance in people was linked to glyphosate’s adverse effects on the gut microbiome. They highlighted that glyphosate is patented as a biocide, and consequently, it kills the beneficial gut bacteria, leading to a rise in intestinal diseases.

Krüger et al. showed that glyphosate affects the microbiome of horses and cows. Shehata et al. found the same effects in poultry; the researchers state, “Highly pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella Entritidis, Salmonella Gallinarum, Salmonella Typhimurium, Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium botulinum are highly resistant to glyphosate. However, most of beneficial bacteria as Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Bacillus badius, Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Lactobacillus spp. were found to be moderate to highly susceptible.” Both groups of researchers postulated that glyphosate is associated with the increase in botulism-mediated diseases in these domestic farm animals.

Inflammatory bowel diseases are rising along with deaths from intestinal infections. Glyphosate’s disruption of the gut microbiome must be seen as a significant cause.

Kidney and Liver Disease

Kidney and liver diseases are major chronic diseases. The graph below clearly shows the relationship between GMOs, glyphosate, and the rapid increase in deaths from kidney disease in the U.S. Deaths from kidney disease fell until the widespread increase of glyphosate and GMOs.

In the lifetime feeding study of rats conducted by Séralini et al. the treated males displayed liver congestions and necrosis at rates 2.5 to 5.5 times higher than the controls, as well as marked and severe kidney nephropathies (kidney damage) at rates generally 1.3 to 2.3 greater than the controls.

The image above shows kidneys and livers that have been damaged by Roundup (glyphosate), GMO corn, and both. In a later published study designed to understand why Roundup and glyphosate-based herbicides caused kidney and liver damage in rats, scientists discovered that ultra-low doses of these herbicides disrupted numerous genes’ functions, resulting in changes consistent with multiple kidney and liver disease problems.

The researchers stated, “Our results suggest that chronic exposure to a GBH (glyphosate-based herbicides) in an established laboratory animal toxicity model system at an ultra-low, environmental dose can result in liver and kidney damage with potential significant health implications for animal and human populations.”

Conclusion

Science shows that GMOs and glyphosate cause multiple chronic severe diseases in the United States. Instead of bullying Mexico to accept these dangerous products, the U.S. regulatory authorities should do their jobs to protect the American people from the harm they cause by banning them.

Changing Weather Patterns Throwing Ecosystems Out of Whack

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Day and night will soon align, marking the start of spring. But the timing of nature’s calendar is starting to fall out of sync.

Author: University of South Florida | Published: February 5, 2018

In a study published in Nature Climate Change, a team of researchers from the University of South Florida in Tampa found that animal species are shifting the timing of their seasonal activities, also known as phenology, at different rates in response to changing seasonal temperatures and precipitation patterns.

“As species’ lifecycles grow out of alignment, it can affect the functioning of ecosystems with potential impacts on human food supplies and diseases,” said lead author Jeremy Cohen, PhD, postdoctoral researcher at the University of South Florida Department of Integrative Biology. “We rely on honeybees to pollinate seasonal crops and migratory birds to return in the spring to eat insects that are crop pests and vectors of human diseases. If the timing of these and other seasonal events are off, ecosystems can malfunction with potentially adverse effects on humans.”

 

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Agroforestry Systems May Play Vital Role in Mitigating Climate Change

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Agroforestry could play an important role in mitigating climate change because it sequesters more atmospheric carbon in plant parts and soil than conventional farming, according to Penn State researchers.

Author: Penn State | Published: February 1, 2018

An agricultural system that combines trees with crops and livestock on the same plot of land, agroforestry is especially popular in developing countries because it allows small shareholder farmers — who have little land available to them — to maximize their resources. They can plant vegetable and grain crops around trees that produce fruit, nuts and wood for cooking fires, and the trees provide shade for animals that provide milk and meat.

The researchers analyzed data from 53 published studies around the world that tracked changes in soil organic carbon after land conversion from forest to crop cultivation and pasture-grassland to agroforestry. While forests sequester about 25 percent more carbon than any other land use, agroforestry, on average, stores markedly more carbon than agriculture.

The transition from agriculture to agroforestry significantly increased soil organic carbon an average of 34 percent, according to Michael Jacobson, professor of forest resources, whose research group in the College of Agricultural Studies conducted the study. The conversion from pasture/grassland to agroforestry produced soil organic carbon increases of about 10 percent, on average.

“We showed that agroforestry systems play an effective role in global carbon sequestration, involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide,” he said. “The process is critical to mitigating or deferring global warming.”

However, carbon was not stored equally in different soil levels, noted lead researcher Andrea De Stefano, a graduate student at Penn State when the study was done, now at Louisiana State University. He pointed out that the study, which was published in December in Agroforestry Systems, provides an empirical foundation to support expanding agroforestry systems as a strategy to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and mitigate climate change.

“The conversion from forest to agroforestry led to losses in soil organic carbon stocks in the top layers, while no significant differences were detected when deeper layers were included,” De Stefano said.

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New Report Shows Continued, Dramatic Losses of American Grasslands

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Published: November 23, 2016

For years, grasslands across the country have been plowed up to make way for the production of commodity crops, such as wheat, alfalfa, corn, and soybeans. The loss of grasslands is devastating for local ecosystems, and also has long-term, negative effects for ranchers, the hunting industry, and for communities that depend on them for flood prevention and water filtration.

Last week, the World Wildlife Fund published its annual Plowprint report, which uses National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) data to track grassland conversion. The report’s primary finding is striking:

“Since 2009, 53 million acres of grassland—an area the size of Kansas—have been converted to cropland across the Great Plains alone. That represents almost 13% of the 419 million acres that remained intact in 2009…In 2015, 3.7 million [additional] acres were converted to cropland.”

The highest conversion rate over the last year was found in northern Texas, which is in the southernmost portion of the Great Plains. Grassland conversion rates were also high in parts of North Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, and Kansas.

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Global Cooling by Grassland Soils of the Geological Past and Near Future

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Author: Gregory J. Retallack

Abstract

Major innovations in the evolution of vegetation such as the Devonian origin of forests created new weathering regimes and soils (Alfisols, Histosols) that increased carbon consumption and sequestration and ushered in the Permian-Carboniferous Ice Age. Similarly, global expansion of grasslands and their newly evolved, carbon-rich soils (Mollisols) over the past 40 million years may have induced global cooling and ushered in Pleistocene glaciation. Grassland evolution has been considered a consequence of mountain uplift and tectonic reorganization of ocean currents, but it can also be viewed as a biological force for global change through coevolution of grasses and grazers. Organisms in such coevolutionary trajectories adapt to each other rather than to their environment, and so can be forces for global change. Some past farming practices have aided greenhouse gas release. However, modern grassland agroecosystems are a potential carbon sink already under intensive human management, and carbon farming techniques may be useful in curbing anthropogenic global warming.

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Bacteria in branches naturally fertilize trees

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The bacteria in and on our bodies have been shown to be vital for human health, influencing nutrition, obesity and protection from diseases.

But science has only recently delved into the importance of the microbiome of plants. Since plants can’t move, they are especially reliant on partnerships with microbes to help them get nutrients.

Now, University of Washington plant microbiologist Sharon Doty, along with her team of undergraduate and graduate students and staff, has demonstrated that poplar trees growing in rocky, inhospitable terrain harbor bacteria within them that could provide valuable nutrients to help the plant grow. Their findings, which could have implications for agriculture crop and bioenergy crop productivity, were published May 19 in the journal PLOS ONE.

The researchers found that microbial communities are highly diverse, varying dramatically even in cuttings next to each other.

“This variability made it especially difficult to quantify the activity, but is the key to the biology since it is probably only specific groupings of microorganisms that are working together to provide this nutrient to the host,” said Doty, a professor in the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.

Nitrogen fixation is a natural process that is essential to sustain all forms of life. In naturally occurring low-nutrient environments such as rocky, barren terrain, plants associate with nitrogen-fixing bacteria to acquire this essential nutrient.

It’s well documented that nitrogen fixation happens in bacteria-rich nodules on the roots of legumes such as soybeans, clovers, alfalfa and lupines. Bacteria help the roots fix atmospheric nitrogen gas into a form which can be used by the plant.

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A Continuing Inquiry Into Ecosystem Restoration: Examples From China’s Loess Plateau and Locations Worldwide and their Emerging Implications

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Authors: John D. Liu and Bradley T. Hiller

4.8.1 A JOURNEY BEGINS

In early September 1995, after spending 15 years working as an international news television producer and cameraman, John D. Liu embarked on a life-changing assignment that ultimately prompted this section (Figure 4.8.1). Liu was part of a documentary crew flying in a small Soviet-era copy of a Fokker Friendship aircraft (dubbed the “Friendshipsky”), which landed at a small, dusty airport in Yanan in Shaanxi Province, on China’s Loess Plateau (see Box 4.8.1).

4.8.1.1 CONSIDERING THE IMPLICATIONS

The Loess Plateau has proven to be an excellent place to pursue a type of ecological forensics to witness and understand how human actions over time can destroy natural ecological function. The restoration process of the plateau is providing a living laboratory in which the potential of returning ecological function to long degraded landscapes can be studied. Essentially, what has been witnessed and docu- mented on the Loess Plateau is that it is possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems. This realization has potentially enormous implications for human civilization. Witnessing firsthand many geopolitical events as a journalist, including the rise of China from poverty and isolation throughout the 1980s, the Tiananmen tragedy in 1989, the collapse of the Soviet Union, global terrorism, and much more, provided John D. Liu with references to compare to the restoration of the Loess Plateau. He quickly came to realize that, in terms of significance for a sustainable future for humanity, understanding what occurred on the Loess Plateau would be critical.

Yanan is perhaps most famous as the mountainous hideout where Mao Zedong led the Chinese communist Red Army to escape annihilation by the Nationalists (this retreat is often referred to as the “Long March”). The typical dwellings in Yanan at the time were man-made cave dwellings dug so deeply into the soil that they were almost invisible, which made Yanan a particularly good place for a revolutionary to disappear. By 1995, the Chinese communist revolution had moved on and China’s socialist market economy was flourishing on the eastern coast and making waves worldwide. But Yanan remained virtually untouched by the agricultural changes, the industrial growth, and the increasing international influence that much of China was experiencing. Yet in this backwater, a new revolution was brewing.

The purpose of the assignment was a World Bank baseline study for an ambitious development project called the Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Project (see Box 4.8.2). The scene (as depicted in Figure 4.8.2) was of a completely barren landscape.

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Linking Agricultural Biodiversity and Food Security: The Valuable Role of Agrobiodiversity for Sustainable Agriculture

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Author: Lori Ann Thrupp

There is a growing realization worldwide that biodiversity is fundamental to agricultural production and food security, as well as a valuable ingredient of environmental conservation. Yet predominant patterns of agricultural growth have eroded biodiversity in, for example, plant genetic resources, livestock, insects and soil organisms. This erosion has caused economic loss, jeopardizing productivity and food security, and leading to broader social costs. Equally alarming is the loss of biodiversity in “natural” habitats from the expansion of agricultural production to frontier areas. The conflicts between agriculture and biodiversity are by no means inevitable. With sustainable farming practices and changes in agricultural policies and institutions, they can be overcome.

Photo credit: Flickr / Ruth Hartnup

Historical evidence and current observation show that biodiversity maintenance must be integrated with agricultural practices—a strategy that can have multiple ecological and socio-economic benefits, particularly to ensure food security. Practices that conserve, sustainably use and enhance biodiversity are necessary at all levels in farming systems, and are of critical importance for food production, livelihood security, health and the maintenance of ecosystems. This article summarizes the main conflicts and complementarities between biodiversity and agriculture, discusses the ecosystem services provided by agricultural biodiversity, and highlights principles, policies and practices that enhance diversity in agroecosystems.

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Climate and Desertification

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Carbon sinks mean lower atmospheric CO2, more fertile land

For decades now mankind has been at the fore in creating a vicious cycle with critical environmental consequences as a result. By degrading the atmosphere with greenhouse gas emissions, land degradation has risen. This in turn is worsening the degradation of the atmosphere. Atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations have been increasing for some two centuries, mostly a result of human activities, spearheaded primarily by the rapid rise of industrialization. The degradation of land, however, through unviable agricultural practices also has resulted in emissions of greenhouse gases. As governments, NGOs and corporations around the globe set limits on the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by automobiles, factories and power plants into the atmosphere, a way to “recycle” CO2 into the ground, carbon sequestration, has received less attention and international support. Little recognized is the fact that the world’s soils hold more organic carbon than that held by the atmosphere as CO2 and vegetation combined (see Fig. 1). Carbon sequestration is the process by which CO2 sinks (both natural and artificial) remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, primarily as plant organic matter in soils. Soil carbon sequestration is an important and immediate sink for removing atmospheric carbon dioxide and mitigating global warming and climate change. Organically managed soils can convert carbon dioxide from a greenhouse gas into a food-producing asset. Combined with sequestration in non-agricultural soil, the potential for land to hold carbon and act as a sink for greenhouse gases is unparalleled. This should help put a new value on land, the value of its capability to sequester and to literally “breathe in” the excess blanket of CO2 and help cool the planet. And when mixed with water and sun, CO2 enriches the soil, giving life to trees and vegetation, which then can generate more carbon sinks.

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