Coming
in October
From Common Courage Press
Today's
Stories
Ron Jacobs
The
Darkening Tunnel
Recent
Stories
August 21, 2003
Robert Fisk
The US
Needs to Blame Anyone But Locals for UN Bombing
Virginia Tilley
The Quisling Policies of the UN in Iraq: Toward a Permanent War?
Rep. Henry Waxman
Bush Owes the Public Some Serious Answers on Iraq
Ben Terrall
War Crimes and Punishment in Indonesia: Rapes, Murders and Slaps
on the Wrists
Elaine Cassel
Brother John Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Salvation Show
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Gouged by Banks
Marjorie Cohn
Sergio Vieira de Mello: Victim of Terrorism or US Policy in Iraq?
Vicente Navarro
Media
Double Standards: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush
Website of the Day
The Intelligence Squad
August 20, 2003
Robert Fisk
Now No
One Is Safe in Iraq
Caoimhe Butterly
Life and Death on the Frontlines of Baghdad
Kurt Nimmo
UN Bombing: Act of Terrorism or Guerrilla War?
Michael Egan
Revisiting the Paranoid Style in the Dark
Ramzi Kysia
Peace
is not an Abstract Idea
Steven Higgs
NPR and the NAFTA Highway
John L. Hess
A Downside Day
Edward Said
The Imperial Bluster of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Gridlock at Path 15: the California Blackouts were the "Wake
Up Call"
Website of the Day
Ashcroft's Patriotic Hype
August 19, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Blackouts Happen
Gary Leupp
"Our Patch": Australia v. the Evil Doers of the South
Pacific
Sean Donahue
Uribe's Cruel Model: Colombia Moves Toward Totalitarianism
Matt Martin
Bush's Credibility Problem on Missile Defense
Juliana Fredman
Recipe for the Destruction of a Hudna
John Ross
Fox Government's Attack on Mexican Basques
Sasan Fayazmanesh
What Kermit Roosevelt Didn't Say
Website of the Day
Tom Delay's Dual Loyalities
August 18, 2003
Uri Avnery
Hero in War and Peace
Stan Goff
The Volunteer Military and the Wicked Adventure
Cathy Breen
Baghdad on the Hudson
Michael Kimaid
Fight the Power (Companies)!
Jason Leopold
The California Rip-Off Revisited: Arnold, Milken and Ken Lay
Matt Siegfried
The Bush Administration in Context
Elaine Cassel
At Last, A Judge Who Acts Like a Judge
Alexander Cockburn
Judy Miller's War
Harvey Wasserman
The Legacy of Blackout Pete Wilson
Website of the Day
Fire Griles!
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
August 16 / 17, 2003
Flavia Alaya
Bastille
New Jersey
Jeffrey St. Clair
War Pimps
Saul Landau
The Legacy of Moncada: the Cuban Revolution at 50
Brian Cloughley
What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?
William S. Lind
Coffins for the Crews: How Not to Use Light Armored Vehicles
Col. Dan Smith
Time for Straight Talk
Wenonah Hauter
Which
Electric System Do We Want?
David Lindorff
Where's Arnold When We Need Him?
Harvey Wasserman
This Grid Should Not Exist
Don Moniak
"Unusual Events" at Nuclear Power Plants: a Timeline
for August 14, 2003
David Vest
Rolling Blackout Revue
Merlin Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Sherman Austin
Adam Engel
The Loneliest Number
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Hamod & Albert
Book of the Weekend
Powerplay by Sharon Beder
August 14, 2003
Peter Phillips
Inside
Bohemian Grove: Where US Power Elites Party
Brian Cloughley
Charlie Wilson and Pakistan: the Strange Congressman Behind the
CIA's Most Expensive War
Linville and Ruder
Tyson
Strike Draws the Line
Jim Lobe
Bush Administration Divided Over Iran
Ramzy Baroud
Sharon Freezes the Road Map
Tom Turnipseed
Blowback in Iraq
Gary Leupp
Condi's
Speech: From Birgmingham to Baghdad, Imperialism's Freedom Ride
Website of the Day
Tony Benn's Greatest Hits
August 13, 2003
Joanne Mariner
A Wall of Separation Through the
Heart
Donald Worster
The Heavy Cost of Empire
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Elaine Cassel
Murderous Errors: Executing the Innocent
Ralph Nader
Make the Recall Count
Alexander Cockburn
Ted Honderich Hit with "Anti-Semitism" Slur
Website of the Day
Defending Yourself Against DirectTV Lawsuits: 9000 and Counting
August 12, 2003
Ron Jacobs
Revisionist History: the Bush Administration, Civil Rights and
Iraq
Josh Frank
Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up
Wayne Madsen
What's a Fifth Columnist? Well, Someone Like Hitchens
Ray McGovern
Relax,
It Was All a Pack of Lies
Wendy Brinker
Hubris in the White House
Website of the Day
Black
Mustache
Hot Stories
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
August
23, 2003
The Toxic War on Drugs
GM
Crop Weed Killer Linked to Powerful Fungus
By JEREMY BIGWOOD
Scientists are expressing alarm about the relationship
between the application of a common weed killer to food crops
and the resultant proliferation of potentially toxic fungal moulds
in the harvest. Monsanto's popular product Roundup, which contains
a chemical called glyphosate is alleged to increase the size
of colonies of the fungus Fusarium, a genus of often very toxic
moulds that occurs naturally in soils and occasionally invades
crops, but usually held in check by other microbes. If true,
these allegations not only call into question the world's number
one weed killer, but they also jeopardize the world's acceptance
of Monsanto's flagship line of genetically-engineered "Roundup
Ready" crops.
"Glyphosate-treated wheat appeared
to have higher levels of Fusarium head blight (a toxic fungal
disease) than wheat fields where no glyphosate had been applied."
said Scientist Myriam Fernandez of the Semiarid Prairie Agricultural
Research Centre in Swift Current, Saskatchewan in a recent interview.
Fernandez added "We have not finished analysing the four
years of data yet or written up the study." While Fernandez's
research recently made headlines throughout Canada, it was not
the first to discuss the relationship between glyphosate-containing
weed killer formulations and the enhancement of potentially toxic
fungi, but it was the first to report on the possibility of potentially
toxic crop damage caused by the link in wheat and barley, two
of Canada's most important crops.
According to Dr. Harvey Glick, head of
Monsanto's Scientific Affairs, who remains critical: "It
appears to be that Dr. Fernandez did a field survey looking at
levels of Fusarium and then the factors that might be related.
So, from what I can gather, that was not a cause and effect.
It's just that they saw in the study area some fields that had
higher levels of Fusarium, for whatever reason, and then they
looked at a list of factors that might be related and one of
them was there was Roundup used in those fields the previous
year.
Maybe, but, over the last two decades,
several scientists from New Zealand to Africa have noticed and
investigated the glyphosate-fusarium relationship through small-scale
experiments in the relative obscurity of their labs and reporting
the results of their work through the hidden world of academic
journals. The result of all of this work, is "just under
50 scientific papers," says Robert Kremer PhD., a soil scientist
at the University of Missouri. This body work shows an increase
in Fusarium or other microbes after the application of glyphosate.
Monsanto's Dr. Harvey Glick disagrees:
"Roundup is almost 30 years old and scientists have been
looking at all aspects of its use for at least that long. So
there is a tremendous amount of information available. And that
is why there is such a high level of confidence that the use
of Roundup, based on all of this earlier work, does not have
any negative impacts on soil microbes... And a lot of it has
been published."
Dr. Kremer's ongoing research deals with
the effect of glyphosate-fusarium relationship on soybeans, not
just regular soybeans, but "Roundup Ready" soybeans
also. Monsanto has been producing a series of genetically-engineered
"Roundup Ready" seed stock for various crops including,
cotton, soybean, wheat and corn to be used exclusively with their
successful glyphosate weedkiller Roundup. "Roundup Ready"
crops are themselves unaffected by the Roundup weedkiller, which
will kill all any competing plants such as weeds in the same
area. Because they are genetically-engineered, they have not
found easy acceptance in many countries outside the US, and they
are still banned in Canada and Europe.
Dr. Kremer found that in his "Roundup
Ready" soybean experiments that "Glyphosate seems to
stimulate Fusarium in the roots area of the plants," to
such a degree that he considers the elevation of Fusarium levels
to be glyphosate's "secondary mode of action." While
he found enhanced Fusarium colonies in the roots of his plants,
which could potentially reduce the harvest, he did not find it
in the harvested soybeans themselves. Even so, he expressed concern
about what this accumulation of Fusarium in the soil could lead
to.
Dr. Kremer also noted: "We didn't
see enhancement of Fusarium when other herbicides were used."
However, in the case of "Roundup Ready" crops, Roundup
is to be used exclusively or in combination with other chemicals
as a weed killer. To use other weed killers alone would be a
violation of contract.
Thus, if Roundup increases Fusarium levels,
then "Roundup Ready" crops that use Roundup as a weed
killer could become potential disasters, increasing Fusarium
levels in the soil to such critical levels it could produce an
epidemic and move from field to field throughout a wide area.
In a recent article titled "GM cotton
blamed for disease," the Farm Weekly, an Australian publication,
predicted that "up to 90 percent of Australia's cotton belt
could be inundated by the soil borne pathogen Fusarium wilt within
the next decade" due to Roundup Ready cotton.
Fusarium contamination of cereals, such
as the Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) in wheat and barley that Dr.
Fernandez is studying in Saskatchewan has been responsible for
serious crop losses. About a fifth of the wheat crop in Europe
every year is lost to FHB and in Michigan during 2002 it was
estimated that 30-40% of the crops were destroyed by the infestation.
When the mould passes into the food-chain undetected, Fusarium
epidemics on cereals can have even worse effects: a Fusarium
epidemic of cereals was considered responsible for thousands
of deaths in Russia during the 1940s and more recently in 2001,
it caused a series of deadly birth defects among tortilla-eating
Mexican-Americans in Brownsville, Texas.
When cultured on Petri dishes, Fusarium
can display various colours, often ranging from orange to salmon-coloured,
and it has a varying appearance on different cereals and at different
stages of its life cycle. On wheat and rye it can appear as a
chalky white colour; on barley it can appear as a black rust,
and on oats it can be black and reddish-orange coloured. Small
amounts of contamination of grains are invisible to the human
eye, and chemical tests have to be done to detect it. Since such
tests are at the expense of the farmer, minute amounts continually
enter commercial food products. It is at the higher levels that
it can become a serious problem.
The Fusarium fungus can produce a range
of toxins that are not destroyed in the cooking process such
as vomitoxin, which as its name suggests, usually produces vomiting
and not death, to the more lethal compounds which include fumonisin,
which can cause cancer and birth defects to the very lethal chemical
warfare agent fusariotoxin, more often referred to as T2 toxin.
During 2000, the US Congress planned
to use the fungus Fusarium as a biological control agent to kill
coca crops in Colombia and another fungus to kill opium poppies
in Afghanistan, but these plans were dropped by then-president
Clinton who was concerned that the unilateral use of a biological
agent would be perceived by the rest of the world as biological
warfare. The Andean nations, including Colombia, where it was
to be used in the drug war against coca cultivation banned its
use throughout the region. Sanho Tree, the director of the Institute
for Policy Studies Drug Policy Project commented about using
a chemical that produces a banned micro-organism: "The US
has supplied tens of thousands of gallons Roundup to the Colombian
government for use in aerial fumigation of coca crops. We have
been using a fleet of crop dusters to dump unprecedented amounts
of high-potency glyphosate over hundreds of thousands of acres
in one of the most delicate and bio-diverse ecosystems in the
world. This futile effort has done little to reduce the availability
of cocaine on our streets, but now we are learning that a possible
side-effect of this campaign could be the unleashing of a Fusarium
epidemic in Amazon basin. The drug war has tried in vain to keep
cocaine out of people's noses, but could result instead in scorching
the lungs of the earth."
Because of the glyphosate-Fusarium link,
Canada's National Farmers Union is already opposing the introduction
of genetically-engineered "Roundup Ready" wheat, and
this issue shows no signs of going away. Time will only tell
if Monsanto will be able to "fix" the problems of their
"Roundup Ready" crops with more genetic engineering-
this time to control Fusarium--or will their top weed killer
and flagship line of "Roundup Ready" crops be rejected
by today's farmers?
Jeremy Bigwood
is a freelance writer and investigator specializing in Latin
America. A shorter version of this story was published by IPS.
Weekend
Edition Features for August 16 / 17, 2003
Flavia Alaya
Bastille
New Jersey
Jeffrey St. Clair
War Pimps
Saul Landau
The Legacy of Moncada: the Cuban Revolution at 50
Brian Cloughley
What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?
William S. Lind
Coffins for the Crews: How Not to Use Light Armored Vehicles
Col. Dan Smith
Time for Straight Talk
Wenonah Hauter
Which
Electric System Do We Want?
David Lindorff
Where's Arnold When We Need Him?
Harvey Wasserman
This Grid Should Not Exist
Don Moniak
"Unusual Events" at Nuclear Power Plants: a Timeline
for August 14, 2003
David Vest
Rolling Blackout Revue
Merlin Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Sherman Austin
Adam Engel
The Loneliest Number
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Hamod & Albert
Book of the Weekend
Powerplay by Sharon Beder
Keep CounterPunch
Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|