Now that Roundup is being detected at "extreme levels" in the nation's food supply, it is more critical than ever that the truth be revealed about the world's most widely used chemical herbicide, glyphosate. Filed in the Superior Court in the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.), this latest suit could be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
Plaintiffs in the case, which include the D.C.-based advocacy group Beyond Pesticides and the Minnesota-based Organic Consumers Association, point to scientific evidence published back in 2013 showing that glyphosate, the primary active ingredient in Roundup, does, in fact, act upon enzymes in the human body contrary to what Monsanto claims. This research, entitled "Glyphosate's Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases," is published in the peer-reviewed journal Entropy.
According to the paper, glyphosate's inhibition of this important human enzyme, which also goes by the name of CYP, represents "an overlooked component of its toxicity to mammals" because CYP's role in human biologics is a critical one. For one, CYP's purpose is to detoxify the body of xenobiotics, which is basically just a fancy word for describing any foreign chemical substance that's not supposed to be in the body.
The paper goes on to explain how glyphosate's interference with CYP manifests over time as a gradual buildup of inflammation throughout the body, including within the various cellular systems that support life. This interference with CYP, the paper explains, "acts synergistically with disruption of the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids by gut bacteria, as well as impairment in serum sulfate transport."
The result? Serious chronic illness, including almost every major condition that people living in areas where Roundup is sprayed now suffer – conditions like gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, infertility, depression, autism, dementia, and cancer.
"It is now beyond any scientific doubt that glyphosate is extremely hazardous to human health," explains the Health Ranger, lab science director of CWC Labs and producer of the Health Ranger Science podcast. "The mass poisoning of the food supply must be halted, or the costs to humanity and the ecosystem will be devastating."
A full abstract of this damning study is available to view online.
This is all a very stark detraction from the advertising claims long made by Monsanto that Roundup and glyphosate are completely safe, and that people shouldn't be making such a big deal about them because doing so is just "anti-science." Such an argument won't fly anymore now that real scientific evidence conducted by independent scientists is proving, without a doubt, that Roundup is a serious threat to people and the environment.
This latest lawsuit intends to convey to the courts that Monsanto has been blatantly lying about this fact as it continues to rake in billions of dollars in profits based on false information. If the court agrees, such an indictment could – and should – lead to serious consequences for Monsanto, not the least of which include the company's undoing. In a just world, Monsanto executives and anyone else complicit in perpetuating these lies, will also be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and sent to prison.
"Consumers have been deceived into believing that Roundup targets an enzyme found only in plants and not in people or pets," the suit definitively declares. "Monsanto misrepresented the nature of Roundup and/or failed to adequately disclose the fact that Roundup's key ingredient targets an enzyme found in the gut bacteria of people and pets, which was and is false, misleading, and/or likely to deceive reasonable consumers."
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