Carey Gillam in her book, "White Wash, The Story of a
Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science," writes that "It
is undeniable that we've allowed our food, our water, our soil, our very selves
to become dangerously doused with chemicals."
Her work focuses on the Monsanto Company. Monsanto gave us
DDT, PCB's and Agent Orange. All three products were promoted and defended by
Monsanto and U.S. government agencies. All three products were eventually
banned because of their damage to human life and the environment. They now
offer us a range of weed poison products known as Roundup, with its chief
ingredient glyphosate.
In the Northshire, it's used on our lawns and gardens.
Perhaps it's used on our town parks and school playgrounds.
In the year 2000, Monsanto introduced glyphosate-tolerant
soybean, corn, canola, beet, alfalfa and other crop seeds. These seeds contain
the weed poison. The plants that grow from these seeds contain the weed poison.
Monsanto acknowledges this and maintains that the levels found in food products
are safe. The question is how much residue is found in the breakfast cornflakes
our children eat or the corn chips adults eat. We don't know. For the past 20
years the Federal Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture
have "steadfastly avoided testing for glyphosate residues in the American
food supply." The U.S. Government Accountability Office in 2014 sharply
rebuked the FDA for not telling the public of their skipping over glyphosate testing.
It further criticizes FDA's capability to do any accurate pesticide testing,
"FDA's ability to reliably identify specific commodities that may be at
high risk of violating pesticide residue tolerances is limited."
Focusing on pregnant women, fetuses and infants: What do we
know? Multiple studies suggest pesticides are harming children's brains and
bodies. Research shows that children of pregnant women with pesticides in their
urine and blood samples suffer IQ and neurobehavioral development issues as
well as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnoses.
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