World’s First Public Testing for Monsanto’s Glyphosate Begins
In a world first, The Feed The World project launched Thursday offering a unique glyphosate test for the general public. The project specifically focuses on women and children in the US, offering the first ever validated public LC/MS/MS glyphosate testing for urine, water and soon breast milk. This could lead to a ban on the sale and use of glyphosate - the world’s number one herbicide!
The World Health Organization (WHO) announcement in March shocked the global biotech (GMO) industry by classifying their most profitable chemical – glyphosate – as a “probable human carcinogen”
Henry Rowlands, Director of Feed The World stated Thursday;
“Glyphosate is the backbone of our current agricultural system that supplies us with toxic food, water and air. We aim to ban glyphosate by allowing the public to inform themselves about what levels of glyphosate are found in their own and their family’s bodies. Feed The World will also give a platform to profitable, agriculture alternatives that allow farmers, businesses and governments to change direction towards a better non-toxic future for our children.”
The validated glyphosate testing method sponsored by Feed The World will allow the general public to find out with certainty what levels of glyphosate are found in their bodies and in their tap water.
Previous small-scale pilot studies completed in 2014 showed that glyphosate is found in American women’s breast milk, urine and water, but due to the ELISA testing method used in these tests the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other government regulators were able to ignore the results. Feed The World has commissioned and sponsored a new validated LC/MS/MS testing method which will increase the pressure on the EPA and other regulators to take serious action on glyphosate-based herbicides, and potentially ban glyphosate.
Margaret of Mar, 31st Countess of Mar, member of the House of Lords in the UK, stated;
"It is to the women of the world that we must turn if future generations are to be able to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. Glyphosate is known to probably cause cancers and other life threatening medical conditions and yet it is to be found everywhere. As individuals we cannot know whether or not we or our children are affected. This remarkable project will enable the women of the world to discover whether glyphosate is in our bodies or water supply; to learn how to avoid further exposures and, finally, to join together to show that we will no longer tolerate glyphosate in our food, water, air."
NGOs and mother bloggers from across the U.S. including the Organic Consumers Association and Mamavation have already signed up to promote the testing.
The Feed The World project also includes a Women and Children’s Bill of Rights that will be presented to the U.S. Senate in October calling for a phasing-out and total ban on the sales of glyphosate-based herbicides before the end of 2018.
The creation of and validation process for the glyphosate testing method as well as the public testing for urine and water is performed by a very highly regarded laboratory in USA, whose identity will remain confidential until later in 2015, when they will publish the full method paper in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The public breast milk testing will also begin later in 2015.
Dr. Paul Winchester, Clinical Professor at the Division of Neonatology, Indiana University School of Medicine and the Director of the neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) at St. Francis Hospital stated;
“Brave and concerned citizens will have to act if the real extent of pesticide contamination is to be known. We are being offered a chance to test ourselves for the most heavily used weed-killer in the history of mankind. RoundUp (Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicide) is used to both kill weeds but also to desiccate crops prior to harvest. It is found in ground water, river water, rain, snow, soil, and food and the levels are rising. Is RoundUp in you? Is it in your baby? Is this weed killer imprinting our descendants’ DNA? These are the questions we hope you will help to answer. EPA won’t do it. Government won’t do it. Chemical companies won’t do it. Farmers won’t do it. Our Grocers won’t do it. If we don’t pee into a cup and pay for the analysis no one will. I hope you will help us find out the truth.”
The expected reaction to the project from the industry that produces glyphosate-based herbicides is that the levels found in humans are ‘safe’. However, Feed The World has provided a very clear information database(8) that identifies the many health and environmental dangers related to glyphosate, including evidence that glyphosate doses considered “safe” by industry and government regulators, have now been demonstrated to be “toxic”.
“We hope that at the very least, states—and eventually the federal government—will require mandatory labelling of foods containing genetically modified organisms, 84 percent of which are grown with glyphosate and likely contain glyphosate residues,” Cummins said. “But ultimately, this dangerous chemical must be banned.”
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