UK Parliament Meeting Brings ‘Dangers’ of Roundup into Public Focus

Posted on Jul 2 2014 - 12:21am by Sustainable Pulse

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Agroecology, Chaired by the Countess of Mar, met in the Houses of Parliament in London on June 18, to discuss the possible harm caused by the world’s most popular herbicide – Roundup.

In what was one of the most comprehensive meetings ever held in Europe on Glyphosate and Roundup, experts from around the World gathered in London to share their expertise with the media, members of a number of UK political parties, NGO representatives and members of the general public.

The interest in the event was very high and Committee Room 10 of the Houses of Parliament was full to the rafters, with experts having travelled from as far away as Russia, China and the U.S., to listen to the four speakers give detailed presentations on how  the unanswered questions surrounding the possible harm caused by Glyphosate and Roundup should be approached.

If you would like to view the full presentations from the APPG Agroecology meeting in London please visit the following links:

Dr. Don M. Huber – Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology at Purdue University

Professor Malcolm Hooper – Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Sunderland

Dr. John Peterson “Pete” Myers – Founder, CEO and Chief Scientist of Environmental Health Sciences

Dr. Michael Antoniou – Reader in Molecular Genetics and Head of the Gene Expression and Therapy Group, Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, King’s College London School of Medicine, UK.

APPG Agroecology: Background Information

Rounding Up Glyphosate: Is it really safe?

Meeting Outline:

Glyphosate is the most widely used weed-killer in the world. In addition to its use in agriculture and horticulture it is also used for weed control in many other circumstances, e.g. on paved surfaces. Two uses of glyphosate greatly increase the chances that it will be ingested by humans and farm animals – to desiccate cereal, pulse and oilseed crops prior to harvest and when used on Roundup Ready GM soya, maize and cotton crops. Glyphosate is being routinely detected in the blood and urine. It has also recently been found in human breast milk

Is it really safe?

Glyphosate is often presented as a benign chemical which is inactivated in the soil. However this is far from the case. Glyphosate interferes with enzymes in plants and microbes because of its ability to chelate (bind) trace metals and by its antibiotic action (it is patented for both). Other chemicals used in formulated products sold to farmers and gardeners enhance its toxic effects.

This meeting examined how these properties of glyphosate impact on the health of humans, the soil and wildlife from residues and traces being detected in humans and the environment as use of glyphosate based weed-killers , such as Roundup, escalates.

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5 Comments so far. Feel free to join this conversation.

  1. aaj verhulst July 2, 2014 at 01:03 - Reply

    interesting to know is that the restaurant of the parliament has only biological food…

  2. Brian John (@Angelmountain5) July 2, 2014 at 09:26 - Reply

    Er, I thought all food was biological?

  3. Bill Smith July 3, 2014 at 03:01 - Reply

    Very informative meeting, proving beyond any doubt the danger to all life, if the use of products containing Glyphosate be allowed to continue.
    The use of these herbicides/insecticides should be phased out, starting as soon as possible.

  4. Brian John (@Angelmountain5) July 3, 2014 at 09:34 - Reply

    Why have you put the word “dangers” in quote marks? That implies that dangers are not properly established by evidence. As you have shown over and again on this site, and as the speakers at this meeting confirmed with almost every slide, the dangers are real and underpinned by sound science. A bit more confidence is needed here — Monsanto and the rest of the “crop protection ” industry specialise in spreading uncertainty. Headlines like this help to perpetrate the status quo, and imply that the dangers might be more imagined than real.

  5. John Fryer July 8, 2014 at 09:31 - Reply

    The House was full to the rafters with people from ALL over the world.

    Can we have a list of MPs whose house it is, who were there?

    The last meeting there I went too had an attendance of around ZERO or 600 members present!

    And most of those 600 may have lobby money from those under scrutiny in this series of talks on another health issue part involved here:

    That of

    ORGANOPHOSPHORUS compounds (glyphosate here) and their known HARM to mankind not least to the BRAIN et al.

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