Food Plague Primer Glyphosate and Genetically Engineered Crops.pdf

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Food Plague Primer: Glyphosate
Genetically Engineered Crops
and
This brief booklet is a preview to
Food
Plague: Could our daily bread be our most
deadly exposure.
“Modern agriculture” produces more
calories per capita today than ever in history
and those calories have translated into the
epidemic of cardiovascular disease, obesity
and diabetes seen worldwide.
Chronic
disease (cardiovascular disease, obesity and
diabetes) have now surpassed infective
disease as the leading cause of death in
developing countries. These calories are
empty calories. Analysis of USDA nutrient
testing of foods comparing 1941 data to
1991 show anywhere from a 15 to 76
percent decline in food nutrient value.
British Ministry of Agriculture studies show
the
similar
nutrient
decline.
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5339
http://www.chooseorganics.com/organicartic
les/fruit_nutrition.htm
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Paralleling this food nutrient decline has
been the increase in crop loss due to pests
and disease mirrored by the increase use of
chemical weapons on the farm and in the
greenhouse. As soils became more and
more depleted, weeds became more
problematic for farmers.
Herbicide
applications
have
largely
replaced
cultivation leading to continuously increased
rates of herbicide applications leading to
herbicide resistant weeds. The same holds
true for insecticides, fungicides, and all the
other ‘cides.
This brings us to the advent of genetically
engineered crops and the world wide drive
to use glyphosate based herbicides. Most
genetically engineered crops are engineered
for surviving the application of glyphosate
termed GR, glyphosate resistant or RR,
RoundUp resistant. More on genetically
engineered crops later.
Glyphosate was originally patented by
Stauffer Chemical December 8, 1964,
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number 3,160,632 as a descaling agent, a
very strong metal chelator.
Descaling
agents are chemicals used to clean out the
calcium and other mineral deposits that
build up in pipes and boilers of home and
commercial hot water systems.
These
descaling agents are chelators, meaning their
molecular structure is such that they grab
onto metal ions of calcium, iron, manganese,
magnesium, etc. and dissolve them away.
Chelating agents are used in many
applications in addition to descaling agents
as they are very effective metal binders and
allow the metals to be water soluble and
easily transportable in a liquid solution.
Some chelating agents such as EDTA are
used to remove toxic heavy metals such as
lead, cadmium and arsenic while others such
as organic acids and amino acids are used to
improve trace nutrient transport into the
plant.
It was serendipitously found that the
descaling agent,
N-(phosphonomethyl)
glycine (glyphosate) also appeared to kill
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weeds. Subsequently,
Monsanto acquired
glyphosate from Stauffer and then received a
patent 3,455,675 July 15, 1969 for its use as
a herbicide. It was found that glyphosate
blocks the EPSPS (5-enolpyruvylshikimate-
3-phosphate synthase) enzyme in plant
metabolism and it was “accepted” that this
was the mechanism of action for plant kill.
Conveniently not mentioned is the
mechanism by which glyphosate disrupts the
EPSPS enzyme found in plants and many
microorganisms. Enzymes are functional
proteins that act as catalysts in biological
factories such as in the manufacture of fats,
proteins and carbohydrates. Think of them
as the “carpenters” that assemble the fat,
protein or carbohydrate “house”.
All enzymes have an “ignition key” that
activates them.
These keys are most
commonly either vitamins or trace minerals.
If the key is deactivated or removed, the
enzyme cannot function any more than can
your car start without the key in the ignition.
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The mechanism by which glyphosate
disrupts the EPSPS enzyme in plants and
microorganism is by chelating the
manganese metal co-factor of this enzyme.
In other words it steals the “ignition key” of
the enzyme. The significance of this is the
fact that glyphosate, the chelator, targets
nutritive cations (manganese, zinc, copper,
iron, calcium, magnesium, cobalt…) in
plants, microorganisms, animals and
humans. Glyphosate is first and foremost a
chelating agent, a broad spectrum chelating
agent.
Details are very important. Glyphosate’s
herbicidal characteristics do NOT come
from its direct “kill” of plants. Plants grown
in
sterile
soil
sprayed
with
glyphosate/RoundUp
do
not
die.
Fundamentally
the herbicidal effect of
glyphosate is ultimately due to soil
pathogens
gaining access to the “weed”
thanks to glyphosate’s weakening of the
plant and killing of beneficial microbes by
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