permaculture

[Toby Hemenway <hemenway@jeffnet.org>]

on 8/3/01 1:08 AM, Bob at rmhoward@omninet.net.au wrote:

> Can't get there from here! i.e I can't see a link headed "pesticide fact
> sheet" on this page.

Sorry; posted the wrong link (frames websites can confuse me). The right one
is
http://www.pesticide.org/factsheets.html

> Otherwise there's a lot of farmers who couldn't
> undertake minimum tillage.

The "beauty" of Roundup is that it is absorbed primarily via leaves, and
almost not at all by roots; it also doesn't inhibit seed germination much.
Thus there can be plenty present in the soil when the next crop is planted,
with little effect on plant growth. So just because plants grow in a field
formerly sprayed with Roundup doesn't mean that the glyphosate has broken
down. Researchers found that in a field sprayed with Roundup and planted a
year later with lettuce, the lettuce contained significant amounts of
Roundup (don't make me dig up the paper to see what "significant" means!).
So if you use Roundup on food crops, you're eating it.

Soils with high organic matter and thus very active soil life will break
down toxins quickly, but I suspect that if you use Roundup, you won't have
good soil life for very long--it, and the surfactants it contains, are
toxic to soil life (less so, of course than, say, diazinon). And I assume
most people using Roundup are also using chemical fertilizers, thus they
probably don't have high organic matter.
> 
> We should not jump to conclusions about the safety and hazard of Round up
> based upon reports from Columbia

The research I've seen, and that cited in the factsheet, all comes from
legitimate, peer-reviewed scientific journals such as Pharmacology and
Toxicology, Weed Science, Journal of Wildlife Management, etc. or from
documents that Monsanto presented to the Feds.

Toby