Roundup Kills a Lot More Than Weeds

By: Lee Ann Rush

Even though Roundup, the popular Monsanto-produced glyphosate-based weed killer, has been on the market for nearly 40 years, its potential harm to humans and other species of animals has been shrouded in mystery and misinformation for decades. Common sense would suggest that a chemical with the ability to exterminate any plant with which it comes into contact might very well cause harm to surrounding plants, not to mention other forms of life, yet Roundup has been commercially available since 1975 and has become an important component of GMO grains and foods (also known as Frankenfoods). Recently, a study published in the March issue of the journal Toxicology has raised serious questions about the effects of glyphosate, the active chemical in Roundup, on the health of humans, and specifically on the human brain.

While numerous prior scientific studies have demonstrated that exposure to glyphosate, a broad spectrum systemic herbicide marketed under the brand name Roundup and used by farmers across the globe, causes neurotoxicity and can result in or exacerbate neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, no bright-line causal link had been established to illustrate the mechanism by which glyphosate causes these neurological problems. Therefore, it was easy for Monsanto and its scientists to deny causation and claim that any instances of neurological impairment were merely the result of coincidence. The new study, conducted on the brains of young lab rats, shows definitively that acute exposure to Roundup (30 minutes) induces an influx of calcium into the neurons, which leads to oxidative stress and the eventual death of neural (brain) cells.

Furthermore, the study concluded that, besides overtly killing brain cells, acute exposure to Roundup also 1) produces neurotransmitters that cause excitotoxicity (the excessive stimulation of nerve cells resulting in damage to or death of those cells); 2) decreases the levels of glutathione, a vital antioxidant in both plants and animals that helps to prevent cell damage caused by free radicals; and 3) and increases a process known as lipoperoxidation or “brain rancidity,” in which the overstimulation of neurons damages or kills them. Apparently, there really is such a thing as brain rot!

Now that science has established a direct correlation between glyphosate (Roundup) exposure and neurotoxicity, it is more crucial than ever that GMO food products, many of which are actually engineered to contain glyphosate, be banned or, at the very least, clearly labeled. Monsanto and its ilk can no longer claim that GMO products and non-GMO productsare “substantially equivalent,” an assertion that once served as the reason for the FDA to permit the release of GMO products into our food supply when they lacked adequate testing for safety. Until this happens, the only safe course of action is to stick with organic foods.