The Food Issue
2015
grainswest.com
47
Roundup is one of the most recognizable herbicides currently in
use on farms and on residential gardens and lawns throughout
the world.
Photo:Monsanto canada
and food, and in the air near areas where spraying takes place.
Glyphosate has been considered a “possible” carcinogen
since 1985, after laboratory mice exposed to it developed
tumours. Additional studies conducted in 2001 in the United
States, Canada and Sweden again pointed to its carcinogenic
potential. “For the herbicide glyphosate, there was limited
evidence of carcinogenicity in humans for non-Hodgkin
lymphoma,” the IARC report said. “Glyphosate also caused
DNA and chromosomal damage in human cells.”
The recent reclassification of glyphosate from a “possible”
to a “probable” carcinogen has renewed calls for Canada’s
most beloved herbicide to be controlled more stringently.
Meg Sears is the chair of Prevent Cancer Now, which
aims to build a Canada-wide movement to eliminate the
preventable causes of cancer through awareness, education
and advocacy. Sears, who holds a doctorate in biochemistry,
said she supports the IARC’s decision to brand glyphosate a
probable carcinogen.
While it’s certainly effective at suppressing annual and
broadleaf weeds, Sears claims glyphosate has a number
of cascading negative effects on both human health and
the environment. “In areas where there is very heavy use
of Roundup-ready crops and glyphosate use, there are
epidemics of birth defects and very-quick-onset kidney
disease that ends up killing people,” she said. “It’s lethal.”
Glyphosate in soils and water has the effect of destabilizing
toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, cadmium and
lead, Sears said. Once these metals are floating freely, it is
much easier for them to make their way into animal and plant
bodies.
Sears added that glyphosate can also impoverish soils
over time by killing essential bacteria. "It's an antibiotic, so
it may impact bacteria important for breakdown of organic
material, as well as for fixation of nitrogen to fertilize the soil,"
she said. “In humans, glyphosate may also affect the gut flora
and essential nutrients it produces, playing into autoimmunity,
inflammation and eventually diseases such as cancer."
Despite the IARC’s renewed warnings about glyphosate,
the Canadian government recently decided, after a six-
year review process, that it would continue allowing the
widespread use of the herbicide on Canadian soils.
Jordan said the Canadian government’s decision is the
correct one and she challenged the scientific soundness, as
well as the underlying motive, of the IARC’s ruling: “Obviously,
we’re in complete disagreement with the IARC ruling,
and it’s completely inconsistent with numerous multi-year,
comprehensive assessments that have been conducted by
hundreds of scientists around the world.” She also pointed
out that the WHO itself has disagreed with its cancer research
wing in the past, adding the IARC “cherry picked” information
from various older studies without bringing any new research
to the table.
In any case, she said, glyphosate is here to stay thanks to
the recent decision by Health Canada. “This is a vital product
to agricultural productivity, and if you talk to farmers, they
agree,” she said.
Irmi Critcher is one of those farmers. She and her husband
Barry farm 4,000 acres of grains and oilseeds in Taylor, B.C—
part of the Peace Region. Critcher is the vice-president of the
national farm advocacy group, the Grain Growers of Canada,
and chairs its sustainability and sound science committee.
Glyphosate is an essential tool for farmers across the country,
she said, and the IARC ruling hasn’t changed that.
“It’s extremely important. We’ve all adopted it on our farms.
We use it for all the registered uses, whether it’s pre-seeding
burn off, whether it’s in-crop or whether it’s pre-harvest,”
Critcher said. “It’s always been very effective on a broad
spectrum of weeds and it still is and we’ve never had any
problems with it as such.”
Critcher pointed to scientific studies from several
organizations, such as the U.S Environmental Protection
Agency and the German Institute for Risk Management, which
both deemed glyphosate safe.
“Farmers care about their land, the food they’re growing
and their families,” said Critcher. “We’d never do anything to
jeopardize our way of life.”
