Enhance Your Health
Health Tip of the Week: Roundup
A very popular brand of weed killer that is found in every hardware store, and garden and farm supply store is “Round up”. Scientists have said for years that not only are the active chemicals contained in Round-Up dangerous to the environment (as it pollutes and contaminates our soil and vegetation), but it is also harmful to humans.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) determined glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, to be a “probable carcinogen” in early 2015. Recently, the brands manufacturer, Monsanto, has been hit with a growing number of lawsuits alleging they long knew that Roundup’s glyphosate could harm human health. In addition, multiple agricultural workers have filed suit against Monsanto alleging their cancer was caused by exposure to Roundup.
When round-up is sprayed on a weed area, the toxic chemical is absorbed into the soil (which it then ends up in our ground water supply), killing weeds, but also being absorbed by the plants and vegetables around the weeds that it does not kill. Humans are then eating produce that has been contaminated by the chemicals in Round-up (or any other weed killer for that matter).
If you think you have heard the name Monsanto in the news a lot lately, you have. Monsanto is the biggest manufacturer of genetically modified organisms (GMO) such as corn and soybeans. Two staple ingredients found in almost all of our processed food products.
GMO food has had very little research performed on its safety and how it interacts with the body’s health. In fact, early studies (performed in other countries, with neutral non–Monsanto scientists) are finding that GMO food may indeed be harmful to the body and at the very least, all food products should be labeled that they contain GMO food.
Even Donald Trump has an understanding that GMO food may be harmful, he explained rival candidate Ben Carson’s rise in popularity in Iowa with the following social media tweet: Too much #Monsanto in the #corn creates issues in the brain? #Trump #GOP.'”
The main issue is that if GMO food may be harmful to the body, shouldn’t we the consumers know if the food we eat contains GMO food? In some European countries, it is the law that if a food contains GMO crops, the product must be labeled as such, giving consumers a choice as to whether they would want to purchase that product. Not so here in the USA, as Monsanto and other food biotech companies have spent millions and millions of their dollars lobbying politicians to defeat any and all GMO proposed labeling laws. And sadly, their money has been well spent, as a recent bill, HR1599 was passed in the House of Representatives stating that individual states cannot have their own GMO labeling laws (like the one California just passed). In addition, the new law would allow food manufacturers the right to label GMO food as “natural.”
In an ironic twist, adding insult to injury, bill HR 1599 also requires a federal certification to be obtained and purchased for all food companies that do not use GMO food products and that want to put a “NON GMO FOOD” label on their product. This bill, HR 1599, is commonly referred to as the “Deny American’s the Right to Know Act.” HR 1599 still has to pass through the US Senate before this bill can become a law.
If enough American’s contact their senators, the bill may be able to be defeated. Call your United States Senator and let them know that you are against bill HR 1599. Let them know that this is an attack on consumer and state’s rights and that you want the senator to protect you and your family from this violation.
Thought for the Week
“There can be no change with no action.”