Monday 29 August 2011

What are we eating?

First a little biology.
Plants take up CO2 through pores on the underside of leaves called stomates or stomata. Pic: Tomato leaf stomate.

When we spray systemic herbicides onto plants, that is where the poison enters and from there it flows throughout the plant, blocking a vital process and the plant dies.

Roundup remains in the plant until the plant dies when it is incorporated into soil. There, I am assured ‘it degrades and becomes harmless’. However, if the plant is not actively growing, Roundup lurks for months until there is a growth spurt and then it works. Roundup does not degrade while in the plant.

The next fact about Roundup is that it enters stomates of all plants so even in so called Roundup Ready plants, the poison permeates every cell in the plant and there the Roundup stays. Now this is the question I have asked and asked and have never received an answer.

‘Considering the above, is it true that plants like GM Canola that were bred to be immune to Roundup, hold Roundup in their cells where it remains right through to the dinner table?’

Roundup has revolutionised agriculture and is a must-have tool for non-till or low-till sustainable broadacre farming. But considering that we already ingest so many toxins from our polluted environment, is engineering edible plants to be ‘Roundup Ready’ taking GM one step too far?

11 comments:

  1. Engineered ANYTHING is not safe for human consumption! Heaven help us ....

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know why farmers agree to grow GM stuff. Nobody I know wants to eat it. I don't think they will be letting us know what is and isn't GM. One organic farm over here in WA has already been contaminated by a neighbour growing GM crops because the stupid government allowed it when nobody wanted it. I know I signed a petition or two.
    I think Monsanto aim to have the monopoly on the world's food supply. A frightening thought.

    ReplyDelete
  3. cool.

    love CO_2 and your knowledge on chemistry/physics.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for sharing this . Not many of us are really aware of the dangers of such intervention in the natural process of growing crops. The only focus seems to be on growing more and damn the side effects and long term harm that will be caused.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I didn't know they were allowed to spray Roundup on plants for human consumption. Maybe I should start to buy organic.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yikes! I hope someone gives you an answer - and quick.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I don't understand why they would be using roundup around tomato plants - excuse my ignorance - please explain!

    ReplyDelete
  8. To clarify. Roundup is not used on tomato plants. As far as I know it is currently used only on Canola. Perhaps, because we use only the oil from the canola plant and oil is not cellular, there no Roundup present after it is processed. However, I would still like to know!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Canola, also known as rapeseed, is toxic to humans. Sometimes the process of making oil from it does not destroy all the toxins, resulting in various health problems. I don't know whether roundup is destroyed in the process, but knowing some of the others are not always destroyed, I avoid Canola.

    ReplyDelete
  10. OMG. What's wrong with a bit of Roundup on tomatoes? It goes with the GM alfalfa sprouts I've been having on my sandwiches courtesy of Monsanto. My cells are dividing at double the rate now and I feel fantastic. So alive that I don't even notice I am now unable to resist disease and genetic mutation. But what the hey? If something in the food chain doesn't get me then the policies of the Australian Liberal Party will. It's a no-win situation.

    You're right though, Stafford, it is a very worrying issue and we all have a right to know about it. Sometimes I just can't believe what's going on....

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hello, Stafford Ray! Much appreciate all your supportive kind word tracks at my blogcasa regarding the ongoing Protests of the Keystone Insanity Project.
    Interesting that I just sent off an email in which I mentioned RoundUp and here I discover your post about its "evilness." I say use GOATS instead of chemicals!
    Seriously--they'll eat any plant that's not poisonous to them.
    Grins.

    ReplyDelete

(leave a message)