Four components of our current food system causing a
wide array of health and environmental problems are
genetically engineered (GE) crops, pesticides, CAFOs,
and the routine use of antibiotics in livestock
GE crops are heavily contaminated with glyphosate, which
the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
recently classified as a “probable carcinogen” (Class
2A)
The use of antibiotics is not the only way our food
system promotes antibiotic-resistance; herbicides like
Roundup also promote antibiotic resistance by priming
pathogens to more readily become resistant
Glyphosate may also promote antibiotic resistance by
disrupting gut bacteria and dysregulating manganese
utilization; manganese accumulation in bile acids allows
Salmonella to gain a stronghold there
By Dr. Mercola
Scientific evidence demonstrating the harms associated with
chemical-based agriculture and attendant confined animal feeding
operations (CAFOs) have stacked up fast and furiously over the past
several weeks and months.
Four components of our current food system causing a wide array
of health and environmental problems are genetically engineered (GE)
crops, pesticides, CAFOs, and the routine use of antibiotics in
livestock.
This includes problems like antibiotic-resistant disease, weed
and pest resistance, water shortages, environmental pollution, and
toxic exposure through foods that threaten your health from the
ingredient glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup.
Here, I’ll review some of the latest research pertaining to these
issues, and how GE crops, herbicides, CAFOs, and antibiotics are
synergistically exacerbating the problems created by each
individually.
Most corn and soy grown in the US is genetically engineered (GE).
According to US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data,1
94 percent of soybeans cultivated in 2014 were GE
herbicide-tolerant, along with 89 percent of corn.
These GE crops end up in your diet both via processed foods—in
the form of
high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and trans fat vegetable oils—and
via CAFO beef and other animal products, as the majority of GE
grains are actually fed to factory farmed livestock.
Groundbreaking Research Reveals Herbicides Promote Antibiotic
Resistance
As it turns out, the use of antibiotics in agriculture is not the
only way our food system promotes antibiotic-resistance—a trend that
now threatens to revert our medical system back into the
pre-antibiotic era when you could die from a common infection.
In the first study2,3
of its kind in the world, researchers found that commonly used
herbicides also promote antibiotic resistance by priming
pathogens to more readily become resistant to antibiotics.
This includes Roundup (the actual formulation of Roundup, not
just glyphosate in isolation), which was shown to increase the
antibiotic-resistant prowess of E. coli and salmonella. As reported
by Rodale News:4
“The way Roundup causes this effect is likely by causing
the bacteria to turn on a set of genes that are normally off,
[study author] Heinemann says. ‘These genes are for 'pumps' or
'porins,' proteins that pump out toxic compounds or reduce the
rate at which they get inside of the bacteria...
Once these genes are turned on by the herbicide, then the
bacteria can also resist antibiotics. If bacteria were to
encounter only the antibiotic, they would instead have been
killed.
In a sense, the herbicide is 'immunizing' the
bacteria to the antibiotic:...This change
occurs at levels commonly used on farm field crops, lawns,
gardens, and parks.’” [Emphasis mine]
Other herbicides scrutinized in the study include dicamba and
2,4-D, which is particularly relevant in light of the recent
approval of a
new generation of GE crops resistant not only to glyphosate, but
also to dicamba and/or 2,4-D (an ingredient in the devastating
defoliant Agent Orange).
This important research implies that combating the weed and pest
resistance caused by Roundup Ready GE crops by introducing dicamba-
and 2,4-D-resistant varieties is probably only going to speed up the
process of creating multi-drug resistant pathogens.
And, since GE grains are fed to CAFO animals, the entire food
supply is a massive source of potentially lethal
multi-drug-resistant pathogens. The study,5
published in the peer-reviewed journal mBio on March 24,
concluded that:
“Increasingly common chemicals used in agriculture,
domestic gardens, and public places can induce a
multiple-antibiotic resistance phenotype in potential pathogens.
The effect occurs upon simultaneous exposure to antibiotics and
is faster than the lethal effect of antibiotics.
The magnitude of the induced response may undermine
antibiotic therapy and substantially increase the probability of
spontaneous mutation to higher levels of resistance.
The combination of high use of both herbicides and
antibiotics in proximity to farm animals and important insects,
such as honeybees, might also compromise their therapeutic
effects and drive greater use of antibiotics.
To address the crisis of antibiotic resistance requires
broadening our view of environmental contributors to the
evolution of resistance.”
More Support for Link Between Glyphosate and Escalating
Antibiotic-Resistance
As noted by RenewableFarming.org,6
Monsanto “has long assured users that glyphosate is ‘as safe as
table salt’.”
While dubious to begin with, quickly mounting toxicology research
shows that such a statement has virtually no foundation in
science—at least not in research that doesn’t have Monsanto’s
fingerprints all over it.
As synchronicity would have it, on the same day that the mBio
study was published, another study suggesting a similar hypothesis
was published in the journal Surgical Neurology International.7
This paper is primarily focused on glyphosate's impact on
chelation of manganese in the human metabolism, but it also has a
section in which the authors hypothesize that glyphosate may cause
an increase in the ability for pathogens to develop antibiotic
resistance.
It does this by way of disrupting your gut bacteria and
dysregulating manganese utilization. Manganese accumulation in your
bile acids allows Salmonella to gain a stronghold there.
“Glyphosate acts as a catalyst for the development of
antibiotic resistance genes in pathogens,” they write.
“Since both poultry and cow manure are used as natural
fertilizers in crops, it can be expected that a vector for
microbial resistance to multiple drugs is through contamination
of fruits and vegetables.
Indeed, multiple resistance genes have been identified
from diverse phyla found in cow manure, including
Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria,
that is, in phylogenetically diverse organisms.”
The study, authored by Anthony Samsel and Dr. Stephanie Seneff,
also explains how
glyphosate interferes with the synthesis of pyrrole (an aromatic
organic compound) , which is crucial for the rings (heme ring,
corrin ring, etc.) that biological systems build around minerals,
including manganese, iron, and cobalt. According to the authors:
"Many diseases and conditions are currently on the rise
in step with glyphosate usage in agriculture, particularly on GM
crops of corn and soy. These include autism, AD, PD, anxiety
disorder, osteoporosis, inflammatory bowel disease, renal
lithiasis, osteomalacia, cholestasis, thyroid dysfunction, and
infertility. All of these conditions can be substantially
explained by the dysregulation of manganese utilization in the
body due to glyphosate."
The take-home message here is that, in addition to the
antibiotics livestock routinely receive, they also get another dose
of “antibiotics” through chronic glyphosate exposure (courtesy of GE
and conventional herbicide-treated grains), and if you eat these
foods, you’re getting antibiotics via multiple routes as well.
Moreover, endocrine disruptors such as glyphosate often have an
inverted dose–response relationship, which means that low doses can
actually have more severe effects than higher doses. As noted in
Samsel and Seneff’s study, glyphosate in parts per trillion has been
shown to induce human breast cancer cell proliferation in vitro.
There’s lots of interesting information in this paper,8
so I highly recommend reading through it if you want to learn more.
CAFO Meats Are Also a Major Source of GMOs, Toxic Chemical Exposure,
and Antibiotics
Besides the potential health and environmental
risks of the genetically altered plants themselves, GE crops are
also heavily sprayed with glyphosate, which the International Agency
for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently classified as a “probable
carcinogen” (Class 2A).
9,10,11
According to Dr. Aaron Blair, a cancer epidemiologist and scientist
emeritus at the National Institutes of Health (NIH):12
“There were enough studies to suggest something was going
on, but not enough to be sure that was absolutely happening.”
IARC is the research arm of the World Health Organization (WHO),
and is considered the global gold standard for carcinogenicity
studies, so this determination is of considerable importance. IARC
is also one of the five research agencies from which the OEHHA—which
is the California agency of environmental hazards—gets its reports
to declare carcinogens under Prop. 65.
So, eventually, foods containing detectable levels of glyphosate
will likely have to have a Prop. 65 Warning label to be sold in
California. While glyphosate is commonly used on conventional crops,
GE crops tend to be more heavily contaminated. Roundup Ready plants
are designed to tolerate greater amounts of the chemical, and
farmers growing GE plants tend to have more trouble with
resistant weeds, requiring ever-heavier herbicide applications.
Contrary to industry promises and popular belief, GE plants have
NOT resulted in reduced chemical use. On the contrary, genetic
engineering has dramatically increased it. In his paper
Pesticide Use on Genetically Engineered Crops,13
Dr. Ramon J. Seidler, Ph.D., a former Senior Scientist with the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), presents USDA data showing
that glyphosate use has increased 12-fold since 1996, when
the first GE crops were introduced.
Disturbingly, on the heels of rising application rates, the US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) significantly raised the
allowable limits for glyphosate in food in 2013, despite studies
suggesting harm might occur even at low levels. As noted by the
Institute for Science in Society:14
“The amount of allowable glyphosate in oilseed crops
(except for canola and soy) went up from 20 ppm to 40 ppm,
100 000 times the amount needed to induce breast cancer
cells.” [Emphasis mine]
In addition to GMOs and
glyphosate, CAFO beef and other animal products are also a
significant source of
antibiotics in your diet. In fact, 80 percent of the antibiotics
used in the US are used in agriculture,15
for disease-prevention as well as non-medical growth promotion
purposes.
Antibiotic Use in Food Production Continues to Climb, Despite Dire
Warnings
Unfortunately, despite the ever-louder warnings of dire
consequences, the US has done very little to curb antibiotic use in
agriculture. On the contrary, antibiotic use increased by 16 percent
between 2009 and 2012,16
and nearly 70 percent of the antibiotics used are considered
“medically important” for humans. The result of this routine
practice has led to an exponential rise in antibiotic-resistant
disease, which now kills an estimated 23,000 Americans each year.
Bacteria are also becoming increasingly multi-drug resistant.
A 2013 paper17
by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) reports that
between 1973 and 2011, more than half of the 55 antibiotic-resistant
foodborne outbreaks in the US involved pathogens resistant to five
or more antibiotics. And it’s likely to get even worse.
According to a forecast study18,19
published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
in February, antibiotic use in livestock production worldwide could
rise by nearly 70 percent by 2030.
The driving force is the growth in consumer demand for
meat in middle-income countries, and the subsequent shift toward
CAFO-style farming to keep up with demand. Add to everything I’ve
already mentioned the fact that both our chemical-based agriculture
CAFOS are a major source of air, water, and land pollution,20,21
(the latter of which is visually illustrated in the video below),
and the status quo of our food system is really starting to look
like a dead end.
You Are Part of the Solution
In my view, the evidence is overwhelmingly showing us that we
cannot continue on our current path. We’re really at a “change or
die” moment in history, even if these stark realities are not
staring us in the face every moment of the day as of yet. The good
news is, if Americans rapidly started making dramatically different
food choices, it could quickly revolutionize the US agricultural
system because farmers will grow that which sells. If people want
uncontaminated organic foods, that’s what farmers will grow—and
there’s already evidence that biodynamic farming can be done even on
the large scale. In fact, using
regenerative agriculture principles, you can grow a lot more
food on fewer acres.
There are solutions. There are ways to begin to reverse the
damage, but we must act quickly, and the political hamster wheel
simply isn’t efficient enough to be an immediate solution. This
change needs to be driven by consumer choice, because that’s going
to promote quicker changes. So please remember, your money either
goes to support the chemical-based system that threatens the
survival of the Earth and your descendants, or it supports a system
that can regenerate and revitalize the soil and the environment so
that healthy food and healthy people can thrive. And, to make
life-affirming choices, we need information, and that is why GMO
labeling is so crucial.
Help Support GMO Labeling
The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA)—Monsanto’s Evil
Twin—is pulling out all the stops to keep you in the dark about
what’s in your food. For nearly two decades, Monsanto and corporate
agribusiness have exercised near-dictatorial control over American
agriculture.
Finally public opinion around the biotech industry's
contamination of our food supply and destruction of our environment
has reached the tipping point. We're fighting back.
The insanity has gone far enough, which is why I encourage you to
boycott every single product owned by members of the GMA, including
natural and organic brands. More than 80 percent of our support
comes from individual consumers like you, who understand that real
change comes from the grassroots.
Thankfully, we have organizations like the Organic Consumers
Association (OCA) to fight back against these corporate giants. So
please, fight for your right to know what’s in your food and help
support the GMO labeling movement by making a donation today.
Together, Let's Help OCA Get The Funding They Deserve
Let’s Help OCA get the funding it deserves. I have found very few
organizations who are as effective and efficient as OCA. It’s a
public interest organization dedicated to promoting health justice
and sustainability. A central focus of the OCA is building a
healthy, equitable, and sustainable system of food production and
consumption.
Please make a donation to help OCA fight for GMO labeling.
Copyright 1997- 2015 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.