Have you seen the concerns about long-term damage from widespread, world-wide use of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide (glyphosate) being detailed by retired Purdue plant pathologist Dr. Don Huber? Dr. Huber (photo, left) summarizes his concerns this way:
“Most people don’t realize that glyphosate is patented as a very powerful antibiotic that kills many beneficial microorganisms in the soil, plant, environment and gastrointestinal tract of animals and man that are essential for nutrient availability, absorption, physiological function and disease protection of living things. Glyphosate is a strong, broad-spectrum nutrient chelator that inhibits plant enzymes responsible for disease resistance so that plants succumb from pathogenic attack. This also predisposes RoundupReady (GMO) and non-RR plants to other pathogens.
“The introduction of such an intense mineral chelator as glyphosate into the food chain through accumulation in feed, forage, and food, and root exudation into ground water, could pose significant health concerns for animals and humans and needs further evaluation. Chelation immobilization of such essential elements as Ca (bone), Fe (blood), Mn, Zn (liver, kidney), Cu, Mg (brain) could directly inhibit vital functions and predispose to disease.”
We asked our colleague Hank Will (photo, right), who holds a PhD in Biochemistry and Genetics from the University of Chicago, for his opinion of Dr. Huber’s arguments. Here is what Dr. Will had to say:
“I think Dr. Huber is credible. I think he is on to something real, but it is incredibly complicated and integrative and so it is easy for Monsanto to “discredit” him, and he is easy to ignore because he’s retired. He has studied soils forever and is in a unique position to put more puzzle pieces together than anyone in the pesticide world. Thankfully, he is a decorated scientist who is retired — so he doesn’t really need to care what the discreditors do to him.
I think few are so brave as to go against the giant myth we call agricultural science and its moneyed backers. And few are able to integrate so diverse areas in science to even wrap their minds around his arguments. And since there will be no reward of tenure or promotion or worse, grant funding for eager young scientists to pursue his hypotheses — Big Ag will likely continue to lead us down the unsustainable path of the “anything to feed the world” status quo.
Do I think there’s a chance he has it right? Absolutely. Do I think there’s a chance he has it wrong? Absolutely. Do I think there’s a chance he’s part right and part wrong? Totally. What embitters me is that we may never be able to know because “science” has now become all about chasing dollars, not truth.
Click on the play button below to watch Dr. Mercola interview Dr. Huber about glyphosate.
