Roundup Cancer Lawsuit News

Glyphosate is a Likely Contributor to Honey Bee Colony Collapse

Researchers point to the destruction of gut bacteria as a likely reason that honey bees, essential to our agricultural food supply, have died off in alarming numbers over the last decade

Thursday, September 27, 2018 - It seems as if there is no end to the number of ways that Monsanto's Roundup herbicide is harming human health. A jury recently awarded almost $300 million to a California groundskeeper who developed cancerous lesions on his skin from repeatedly coming in contact with Roundup herbicide when he worked. Researchers think that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide, may be responsible for the epidemics of autism in children and obesity in adults. Now glyphosate is being linked with the collapse of the honey bee population, a problem that could lead to the destruction of 75% of the global food supply.

Honey bees are a vital part of the human food production chain and aid in pollination that produces healthy plants, fruits and vegetables. Farmers and scientists are worried because the honey bee population has declined by roughly half in recent years, and contend that glyphosate could be responsible. Researchers in Texas, USA report that glyphosate kills essential gut bacteria in bees and could be the source of the honey bee colony collapse. Bee experts Nancy Moran, Erick Motta and Kasie Raymann, at the University of Texas, Austin, treated bees with glyphosate in concentrations that might be found naturally in agriculture, reintroduced those bees to their colony, and then compared them to untreated bees. She found that bees treated with glyphosate died at a higher rate than the untreated bees. Bees given glyphosate appeared malnourished due to their affected gut flora (bacteria) and were more susceptible to infection.

In addition to the above study, researchers at MIT are studying glyphosate's effect on human gut bacteria and the link between the proliferation of the use of glyphosate and the geometric rise of autism and obesity. Like the bee colony collapse, the geometric rise in cases of autism and obesity cannot be explained away by genetic factors but only by an introduction of an environmental contaminant. That contaminant is probably glyphosate.

Monsanto's connection to the destruction of essential gut bacteria, whether in humans or honey bees should come as no surprise to anyone. Monsanto originally patented glyphosate as an antibiotic, not as an herbicide. "Monsanto claims that glyphosate, which kills plants by disrupting the shikimate pathway, has no effect on humans because the shikimate pathway is not present in mammals. ... In 2003, Monsanto filed for a patent on glyphosate as a parasitic control type antimicrobial or antibiotic. This patent was granted in 2010."

Monsanto and Bayer Inc., continue to defend glyphosate against any and all challenges. "No large-scale study has ever found a link between glyphosate and honey bee health issues," Bayer said in a statement, adding that the new study "does not change that." Get answers to most commonly asked questions about Roundup cancer lawsuits.

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