I am writing this article because over my lifetime of farming I have been asked many times “why can we no longer buy: many herbicides, insecticides, mouse killers, etc.?” Many of the poisons that have been removed from sales, except to licensed applicators, were developed in wartime to kill people and defoliate trees and fields so the enemy could be more easily found.
DDT was a common insecticide used to kill potato bugs, but when song birds ate the sick or dead bugs they too got sick or died. “Agent Orange” (2,4,5-T) was commonly used as a brush killer in ditches, along hydro lines, and fence lines, but it was found out to cause sickness and sometimes cancer in people so is not on the market today. Some of the most effective mouse and rat killers also caused sickness or death of cats or birds that consumed sick or dead mice and rats that ate this poison. Atrazine weed killer was one of the most effective and used herbicides in the 60s and 70s to kill broadleaf weeds and perennial grass in corn fields and also to kill most growth in hay or pasture fields before plowing. However it was discovered to leave residue in fields which eventually crept down into ground water, wells, streams, and rivers; and cause reproductive problems in frogs, etc. Its use today is very reduced, restricted, and replaced by newer more effective herbicides.
The most controversial and commonly used herbicide today is some form of glyphosate. The most commonly used is sold under the trade name “Roundup.” Roundup was developed in 1964 by the Stauffer chemical company as a descaler to clean boilers and pipes without dismantling. It did this by chelating certain elements like iron, copper, zinc, manganese, calcium, boron, and magnesium. This allowed the scale to be flushed out with the water. It was noticed that wherever this “flush-water” was dumped, that all vegetation was killed. The Monsanto company became interested and bought the patent rights to glyphosate for use as a weed killing herbicide. Because it is a translocated weed killer, it penetrates the cell wall of the plant and moves in the chlorophyll throughout the plant and kills roots as well as vegetation. When it was first introduced many farmers added a “surfactant” which reduced the surface tension of the water droplets and added faster penetration of the plant cell walls to give a much faster kill of the plants, which was a huge help if a rain followed spraying before the glyphosate could penetrate to plant. In only a couple years Monsanto added the surfactant to the glyphosate before putting it into containers for sale. This was called “rain safe” roundup. Glyphosate was originally sold as a vegetation killer used on fields before plowing to make the ground easier to plow because there were no live roots left holding the soil together. Pharmaceutical companies soon began buying seed companies and developing “roundup resistant” plants that glyphosate did not kill. A premium price could be charged for the seed for the RR (roundup resistant) plant seeds because much cheaper roundup weed killer could be used on the crop. Today there is RR corn, soybeans, canola, sugar beets, rice, and even alfalfa. Glyphosate is also used before harvest to kill any remaining weeds and grain plants like a wheat field to allow the grain to dry before harvest while it is standing and eliminate the need for swathing and the chance or fall rains damaging or ruining the swathed grain.
So; what could be wrong with glyphosate? Some of the minerals chelated by glyphosate (made unavailable) are necessary for growing a healthy crop like boron for alfalfa, zinc, copper, calcium, magnesium for corn, manganese for soybeans, and a certified crop adviser can suggest more. Sufficient copper is required to make the most efficient use of nitrogen. Twenty years ago, a leading US university informed a group of dairymen that adding extra manganese to the mineral fed to dairy cattle reduced early embryonic death of fetuses in cattle.
Glyphosate was also registered as an antibiotic as well as a herbicide. It effectively kills many bacteria except for three well known ones. It has little or no affect on salmonella (a major problem in contaminated chicken), certain very problematic strains of E-coli (like the one contaminating some huge beef abattoirs and vegetable farms in areas where they use feedlot waste to mix with irrigation water), and clostridium which is commonly known as c-difficile in hospitals. One beneficial bacteria that glyphosate does affect or kill is “gut bacteria” which are necessary in the digestive system of many animals (and people) to maintain a healthy gut reduce perforations, and infection.
Residues of glyphosate have been reported to linger in soils for more than fifteen years. Glyphosate was reportedly found in the umbilical cord of a mother in a Canadian hospital. It has also been reported that a higher amount of glyphosate was found in an American mother’s breast milk that is legally allowed in drinking water of some countries in Europe. Very little or no research has been reported except with authorization of the same pharmaceutical company who owns the patent rights to the chemical and control of all research concerning seeds, crops grown from the seeds, foods that are made from derivatives made from those crops, amounts of residue, or life times of residues. Only a couple years after beginning to market Roundup, users had to sign a three page, fine print declaration to never use any seeds, crops, or derivatives from these crops for research, or retain seeds from those crops for reseeding. All research must be done by or under the approval of the pharmaceutical company.
Recently, some forms of cancer have been reported to have links to some form of contact to or caused by glyphosate. Some plaintiffs have been awarded some extremely large settlements. Some are still under review! All dangerous pesticides, herbicide, or insecticides come with instructions and explicit directions for use and safety instructions on the label either on the package or enclosed. Please read the label!
*All the information above is derived from a farmer’s observation and not from scientific research.*
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
