Pesticide and Environmental Update
RoundUp
Hurts Crops it’s "Supposed to Help"
By: Margaret Reeves
A new study supports earlier findings that
Monsanto’s biggest selling weedkiller may actually be harming crop
production by increasing the incidence of fungal root disease. This could
be why the "RoundUp-ready" corn and soybeans that Monsanto has
engineered to be used with the herbicide have failed to deliver promised
yields.
Add this to recent stories of RoundUp’s
ubiquitous presence, concerns of serious health effects such as birth
defects, and the creation of superweeds (as RoundUp resistance spreads
from engineered crops to weeds) — you'd think this would be the final
nail in RoundUp’s coffin, right? Not quite, but we're keeping the
pressure on.
RoundUp stimulates bad soil fungi
Living soil is replete with millions of
bacteria, fungi, earthworms, insects and many other critters. The good
ones are necessary for cycling nutrients to plants and mediating other
vital soil functions. The bad ones include microorganisms that cause crop
diseases, and among them are common fungi belonging to the genus Fusarium
that causes root rot in many crops. In healthy soil ecosystems — like
organic systems — vigorous plants and strong populations of the good
soil critters keep the bad guys in check.
Last month, a team of USDA researchers
reported that glyphosate (the active ingredient in RoundUp) may be causing
fungal root disease in "RoundUp-ready" corn and soybeans.
This followed a 2009 report from USDA
microbiologist Bob Kremer, who reviewed 10 years of data on the effects of
glyphosate on soil fungal and bacteria populations. He concluded that the
presence of Fusarium fungi increased significantly after glyphosate
applications each year and at all sites, and was much more prevalent among
crops engineered to be glyphosate-resistant. These findings echo a 2003
report by The Organic Center .
EPA looking the other way
Kremer told Reuters that neither USDA nor
EPA has shown interest in further exploring the link between RoundUp and
fungal disease.
EPA plans to review the registration of
glyphosate in 2015. Given that a review can take a couple of years once it
gets started, this seems a long time to wait. We’ll be urging EPA to
take steps well before then to address the myriad negative impacts of such
widespread use of glyphosate.
The pile of evidence on impacts — ranging
from damage to soil ecosystems to human health effects to devastating
economic impacts on farmers around the globe — is getting just too
compelling to ignore.
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