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Scientist Warning of Health Hazards of Monsanto’s Herbicide Receives Threats
“I expected a reaction but not such a violent one”
In April 2009 Andrés Carrasco, an Argentinian embryologist, gave an interview to the leading Buenos Aires newspaper Página 12, in which he described the alarming results of a research project he is leading into the impact of the herbicide glyphosate on the foetuses of amphibians. Dr Carrasco, who works in the Ministry of Science’s Conicet (National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigations), said that their results suggested that the herbicide could cause brain, intestinal and heart defects in the foetuses. Glyphosate is the herbicide used in the cultivation of Monsanto’s genetically modified soya, which now covers some 18 million hectares, about half of Argentina’s arable land. [1]
Carrasco said that the doses of herbicide used in their study were “much lower than the levels used in the fumigations”. Indeed, as some weeds have become resistant to glyphosate, many farmers are greatly increasing the concentration of the herbicide. According to Página 12, this means that, in practice, the herbicide applied in the fields is between 50 and 1,540 times stronger than that used by Carrasco. The results in the study are confirming what peasant and indigenous communities – the people most affected by the spraying – have been denouncing for over a decade. The study also has profound consequences for the USA’s anti-narcotics strategy in Colombia, because the planes spray glyphosate, reinforced with additional chemicals, on the coca fields (and the peasants living among them).
Three days after the interview, the Association of Environmental Lawyers filed a petition with the Argentine Supreme Court, calling for a ban on the use and sale of glyphosate until its impact on health and on the environment had been investigated. Five days later the Ministry of Defense banned the planting of soya in its fields. This sparked a strong reaction from the multinational biotechnology companies and their supporters. Fearful that their most famous product, a symbol of the dominant farming model, would be banned, they mounted an unprecedented attack on Carrasco, ridiculing his research and even issuing personal threats. He was accused of inventing his whole investigation, as his results have not yet been peer-reviewed and published in a prestigious scientific journal.
According to an article in the Argentine press, after news about the study broke, Dr. Carrasco was the victim of an act of intimidation, when four men arrived at his laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine and acted extremely aggressively.
Two of the men were said to be members of an agrochemical industry body but refused to give their names. The other two claimed to be a lawyer and notary. They apparently interrogated Dr. Carrasco and demanded to see details of the experiments. They left a card Basílico, Andrada & Santurio, attorneys on behalf of Felipe Alejandro Noël.
Carrasco was firm in his response: “When one is dealing with a subject of limited public interest, one can keep the study secret until all the last details have been resolved. But when one uncovers facts that are important for public health, one has an obligation to make an effort to publish the results urgently and with maximum publicity.” Even so, he was clearly taken aback by the strength of the reaction. “It was a violent, disproportionate, dirty reaction”, he said. “I hadn’t even discovered anything new, only confirmed conclusions that others had reached. One has to remember, too, that the study originated in contacts with communities that have suffered the impact of agro-chemicals. They are the undeniable proof of the impact.” He is not intimidated: “If I know something, I will not shut my mouth.”
[1] See: GRAIN, Twelve Years of GM Soya in Argentina – a Disaster for People and the Environment, Seedling, January 2009.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18944.cfm
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Congratulations Dr. Andrés Carrasco. You are following in Dr. Pusztai footsteps. Wander why the children of high officials do not eat this stuff and why they are not being vaccinated with “safe” vaccines?
Wonderful work on the part of Dr. Andres Carrasco. Dr. Carresco, please take very good care of yourself. You would not be the first person, who has brought to light something like this, to disappear suddenly or have an accident (nb: Karen Silkwood). If I could have just one wish in life, it would be to remove Monsanto and everything it has been and is connected to disappear off the face of the earth. For decades, they have been behind what may ultimately be our undoing. And for what – for money. Greed pure and simple. It’s heartbreaking. And what has happened to the press? This should be on the 6 c’clock news, top story. Nothing in mainstream media. Is this because the mainstream media is owned by the same multi-national corporation that owns the pharmaceuticals? After all, we will need drugs for the resulting problems, not unlike this H1N1 swine flu hysteria. I’m glad I’m old now. I’m only sad for the next generation(s).
Good for you Adrienne B….you hit the nail right on the head. I am also old(70), well kinda’ old; but it does make me so angry with the ‘BULLY BOY’ tactics, when the money hungry ‘BIG PHARMA’start polluting the food & seeds that mankind have planted,farmed & harvested for thousands of years. Then along comes Monsanto…disaster. They have on hand Billions of Dollar$$$$$, plus politicians in their pockets with plenty of clout. You know, this whole thing reeks of ‘BELSEN’ among other camps,and what the Natzi’s and their Dr Mengele got up to with his terrible experiments during WW2, (Only this is on a ‘Global’ scale.) Mengle fled to South America just before the Nuremberg trials. Methinks their maybe a connection between Mengle & Monsanto in their thinking. Their whole idea is to cut down on the worlds population by half; as long as they are in the surviving group. Not just mankind; they are also eliminating many other species along the way…just anything that gets-in-their-way; So by HOOK or by CROOK they are succeeding. UNLESS we do something really quite radical…en’ masse, to stop it. “IS IT TOO LATE TO EDUCATE OUR WORLDS POPULOUS.” You have heard the saying ‘The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword’ well in my right hand I hold this little mouse; from now on I’ll consider it to be my sword.
I congratulate Dr. Andres Carrasco, but like Adrienne said ‘be careful’please be careful Andres.
Politicians with clout is the big problem.
The Fed bailout is another.
I too congratulate Dr. Andres Carrasco, but like Adrienne said ‘be careful’, please be careful Andres and Ron Paul.
THIS IS A SAD TIME THAT GOVERNMENT,FDA MONSANTO,PHARMA..EVERYTHING WE TOUCH EAT OR BREATH DRINK HAS SOME KIND OF CHEMICAL IN IT TO MAKE US HAVE…DIS-EASES. THE GOVERNMENT SURE ISN’T FOR THE PEOPLE LIKE IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING TIME OF USA…I’M 63 AND HAVE HEART, COPD AND A COUPLE OTHER THINGS I’M NOT PROUD OF BUT…WHERE DOES IT STOP…I’VE STOPPED ALMOST ALL MY MEDS…TAKE LOTS OF HERBS +VITAMINS DOING ALOT BETTER…DOCTORS CAN’T BELIEVE I’M ALIVE MUCH LESS HOW SUPER I’M DOING I THANK GOD FOR HIS WEEDS AND HIS BLESSINGS..ALL THE MERCURY AND B/S WHAT IN THE HELL. WE NEED TO PLANT OUR OWN FOOD GO BACK TO BASICS BUT PEOPLE ARE TO LAZY.. STOP – STOP THE BUS MY 2 YEAR OLD GRANDDAUGHTER SAYS..BEFORE THEY STOP US ALTOGETHER..THEY’VE ALREADY PROVED THEY ARE RUTHLESS…HAVEN’T THEY.?.WELL THE OLD SAYING GOES IF ITS TO BE ITS UP TO ME..CLEAN UP YOUR ACTS. I DON’T KNOW HOW TO STOP IT, WE NEED TO START SOMEWHERE IF ANY BODY NEEDS MY TIME. TO STOP WHATS GOING ON I’M AVAILABLE.. BEFORE ITS TO LATE..WE NEED CHANGE IN ALL THE BIG OFFICES..ROOT OUT THE BAD FOR THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE….MAY GOD BLESS US ALL ON THE PLANET. DID GOOD PREVAIL EVIL ? ? IT WAS SUPPOSE TO WASN’T IT ? ? ? ……………….
Its sad to say that the Rockefellers were instrumental in changing the whole struckture of America. Owning pharmaceutical industries and founding the Education Department in America were able to indoctrinate doctors. Changed the law so they can advertise and now they own the media and everthing they feed us through the tube. It all suited a perfect plan. 100 years later, we are still blind and keep voting these guys in.