Toxic Legacy

In 1940 after spending his research career in India, Sir Albert Howard published his book An Agricultural Testament and later, in 1945, his final book Farming and Gardening for Health or Disease. Note the word 'or' here. Howard's legacy built on many centuries of sustainable practice in India, which Vandana Shiva has continued to this day. He wrote that

1. The birthright of all living things is health.

2. This law is true for soil, plant, animal, and man: the health of these four is one connected chain.'

3. Any weakness or defect in the health of any earlier link is carried on to the next and succeeding links, until it reaches the last, namely man.

Howard argued that the undernourishment of the soil is the root of the whole process, and maintained that the NPK mentality will not ultimately prove sustainable as it profiteers at the expense of posterity and has a long-term degenerative effect on the soil (see pp. 88-95 of my book Radical Prince.) In our event with Vandana Shiva in June, she reinforced the systemic point that "regenerative agriculture provides answers to the soil crisis, the food crisis, the climate crisis and the crisis of democracy."

Stephanie Senett is a senior research scientist at MIT is Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, who has for the last decade specialised in the effects of glyphosate – the active ingredient in Roundup – on health and the environment. Her quest began with a lecture by Dr Don Huber questioning the Monsanto/Bayer contention that glyphosate is safe because 'its main mechanism of toxicity affects a metabolic (shikimate) pathway in plant cells that human cells don't possess.' Unfortunately, although it is correct to say that human cells do not possess this pathway, our gut microbes do, which means that glyphosate can adversely affect the human microbiome, causing pathogens to thrive and disrupting our health. Through chelation, glyphosate also affects mineral uptake in the plant and disrupts its symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria, making plants more susceptible to fungal diseases.

The overall argument of the book is that 'there is a growing body of scientific evidence that shows that glyphosate is a major factor in several debilitating neurological, metabolic, autoimmune, reproductive and oncological diseases, all of which originates in 'the seemingly simple substitution of glyphosate for the amino acid glycine during protein synthesis.' (see p. 71) Since Howard's day, farming methods and food have a led to chronic ill health and obesity, which the same companies then treat with drugs. Interestingly, glyphosate was originally patented to strip mineral deposits off pipes and boilers, and it is also patented as an oral antibiotic. Today, the US uses 20% of world supply, amounting to nearly 150,000 tons sprayed onto the American crops every year. Significantly, the amount of glyphosate used on GMO crops has increased dramatically over the last two decades, along with its use it as a desiccant before harvest. A growing body of research shows that no amount of glyphosate is safe and the WHO declared it carcinogenic in 2017, since which time $10 billion was announced as settlement of 100,000 lawsuits. However, cancer is only the end point of a more complex process.

The contents of the book are wide ranging, beginning with evidence of harm, then failing ecosystems, the relationship between glyphosate the microbiome, the role of phosphate and sulfate, reproductive issues, neurological disorders and autoimmunity. The underlying agrochemical model entails suppression of biodiversity by monocultures involving pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and arguably ultimately ecocide in the war against life. The soil is affected, as is water, butterflies, insect populations generally, worms, and life in marshes such as tadpoles. The book is solidly based on scientific studies, which makes the text pretty technical at times while filling in the details of the argument. In its role as an antibiotic, glyphosate disrupts gut function and enables yeast overgrowth. Using CRISPR, companies are now engaged in creating patent glyphosate-resistant seeds and that will not be considered GMO crops.

By suppressing several enzymes, glyphosate damages mitochondria, the organelles supplying energy to the cell. It also produces oxidative stress, erodes our ability to maintain adequate sulfate and impairs liver-function along with the immune system – throughout it is key to remember that nothing works in isolation in biological systems. Seneff explains the antioxidant and detoxification properties of glutathione. Her chapter on reproduction suggests that some effects may emerge over generations, while that on neurological disorders emphasises the role of multiple toxin exposure and criticises the exclusive research focus on genetic underpinnings. Autoimmune status is also relevant to susceptibility to Covid-19, and the author gives a very good summary of the role of the immune system. She makes a similar connection between glyphosate and Covid-19 to be found in the eco-medical work of Dr Zach Bush, highlighting the way in which the adaptive immune system may create a cytokine storm in antibody disease enhancement (ADE).

Her answer in the final chapter is to reboot today for a healthy tomorrow instead of perpetuating a disease treatment system 'where there is little incentive to identify and correct root causes of chronic disease or empower people to keep from getting sick in the first place when there is so much profit to be made.' (p. 161) This takes is back to the agenda of regenerating soil in order to regenerate health. This would entail a complete overhaul of current agricultural, food and health systems based on the profit motive – given the power and money involved, there is of course huge resistance to such a proposal for a regenerative revolution even if it is the only ultimately sustainable option. This is a hugely important contribution that deserves to be widely read and urgently acted upon: glyphosate needs to be banned in the same way as DDT.