After banning it over cancer concerns, Colombia now dropping glyphosate on cocaine fields... because it effectively ruins crops

Wednesday, May 18, 2016 by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer
Tags: Colombia, glyphosate, chemical weapons

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(NaturalNews) Colombian officials know exactly where to find chemical weapons when they need them. Glyphosate, the popular plant-killing chemical found in Roundup, has been used by the Colombian government and supported by the U.S. as a means to combat the cultivation of coca. Luis Carlos Villegas, the Colombian defense minister, is sending barrages of glyphosate to crews on the ground, who will be tasked with the eradication of illegal cocaine.

For two decades, glyphosate was dropped down from crop dusters onto Colombian fields. In America, glyphosate is sprayed indiscriminately on over 80 percent of genetically modified crops. (GM crops are designed to withstand the chemical attack.) After the World Health Organization declared glyphosate a probable carcinogen, Colombia began phasing out the use of glyphosate, banning its use less than a year ago. Now, Colombian officials are planning to re-deploy glyphosate as a chemical weapon to combat the growth of coca.

Hoping that he'll get the clearance, Villegas told La FM radio, "We'll do it in a way that doesn't contaminate, which is the same way it's applied in any normal agricultural project."

Coca growers resist government's aerial glyphosate attacks

For six years straight leading up to 2014, Colombian coca cultivation had been steadily declining. Many officials believed aerial glyphosate spraying would be a good strategy to block coca cultivation. In the past two years, however, coca cultivation skyrocketed, as farmers resisted the attacks, jumping 39 percent in 2014, and another 42 percent in 2015. According to U.S. government statistics, 392,000 new acres of coca have sprung up in the past two years. A UN report finds that in the southern provinces of Putumayo and Caqueta, coca cultivation has recently risen by 78 percent. In recent years, growers have migrated to national parks and other areas where glyphosate spraying is off limits. The increase in coca production is expected to have a ripple effect on the entire cocaine economy around the world.

The new strategy is to employ several heavily armed crews on the ground, equipped with glyphosate and work gloves. The eradication crews plan to either pull the plants up by the roots, or to spray them down with glyphosate. The eradication crews will likely face resistance on the ground, as protection groups use land mines and other weapons to defend their crops.

Glyphosate is a weapon, destroying our ecosystem and plant-life diversity

In America, where glyphosate spraying is the norm, hardly anyone understands that this chemical is a weapon. The more it is applied year after year, the more its ill effects infiltrate the environment. Over time, this affects natural crops, killing off wild herbs, while also contributing to the rise of invasive super weeds (that have built up increased resistance to survive).

In the end, the genetically modified crops that are specifically designed to withstand glyphosate are the dominant, select varieties that we are forced to grow and eat. In the wake of glyphosate GM technology, the natural diversity of seed and plant life is lost, leaving the population with nothing more than chemically-bathed genetically modified food that is a mere shadow (nutritionally-speaking) of its former diverse wholesome lineage.

Sources include:

TheGuardian.com

TheGuardian.com