Dr. Michelle (Shelley) McGuire has led a team of researchers from Washington State University (WSU), including Monsanto, in a study that has allegedly found US mothers’ breast milk to be glyphosate-free.
Without releasing full details of the method or the limits of quantification used McGuire stated in a WSU press release Thursday that her and Monsanto’s study “strongly suggests that glyphosate does not bioaccumulate and is not present in human milk.”
McGuire and Monsanto’s study directly contradicts validated and low LOQ testing in Germany that was carried out earlier in 2015 which showed that German women’s breast milk contained glyphosate at levels between 0.210 and 0.432 ng/ml.
The WSU Press Release of Dr. McGuire’s joint study with Monsanto and Covance Laboratories seems to attack the Moms Across America / Sustainable Pulse 2014 pilot testing on glyphosate in breast milk more than it gives information about their own study, however it completely misses out on comments about the German study.
Dr. McGuire also fails to mention that she turned to both Moms Across America and Sustainable Pulse for help in June 2015 seemingly needing help with Monsanto’s analytical methods; “As you know, these assays are tricky and it would be very nice to see the details of the analysis you all have worked up in this regard.”
Sustainable Pulse and Moms Across America (MAA) have thus decided to dissect the WSU Press Release from top to bottom (Please find this dissection at the end of this article).
McGuire and Monsanto
The McGuire family have long been very close to Monsanto and Dr. Shelley McGuire’s husband Dr. Mark McGuire, Animal and Veterinary Science Department Head at the University of Idaho, was deeply involved in the scientific promotion of Monsanto’s infamous recombinant bovine growth hormone Posilac.
Watch the ‘Cancer Milk Posilac Cover-Up’ Here
Regulatory bodies in several countries, such as the EU, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina rejected Monsanto’s application to sell Posilac because Posilac increases the risk of health problems in cows, including clinical mastitis, reduced fertility, and reduced body condition.
Dr. Mark Mcguire is also a close personal friend of Dr. John Vicini, Monsanto’s Food Safety Scientific Affairs Lead.
Dr Mark McGuire’s research is also funded by the Gates Foundation, which is strongly promoting GM crops and their associated pesticides including glyphosate, especially in Africa.
Dr. Shelley McGuire is herself the spokesperson for the American Society of Nutrition, which has disclosed massive conflicts of interest. The list of food companies for which they consult or advise includes Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, The Sugar Association, The National Restaurant Association, ConAgra, McDonald’s, Kellogg, Mars, and many others.
In 2014 just days after the Sustainable Pulse / Moms Across America pilot study was released showing that US mothers’ breast milk contains glyphosate, Dr. Dan Goldstein , Monsanto’s Medical Sciences and Outreach Senior Scientist, got back in touch with Dr. Shelley McGuire who was originally put in touch with Goldstein in 2012 by her husband’s contacts. Goldstein was leading a desperate attempt at the time to come up with some data to save Monsanto’s number one product – Roundup (a glyphosate-based herbicide) – from public crucifixion.
From this point on Dr. Shelley McGuire has helped Monsanto to reach their goal: Glyphosate–free breast milk.
WSU Press Release Dissected
WSU Press Release: Washington State University scientists have found that glyphosate, the main ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, does not accumulate in mother’s breast milk.
Sustainable Pulse/MAA response: You can make this bold claim based on a 41 woman pilot study with all the analysis done by Monsanto, which sells more glyphosate than anyone else in the World?
WSU Press Release: Michelle McGuire, an associate professor in the WSU School of Biological Sciences, is the lead researcher of the study, which is the first to have its results independently verified by an accredited, outside organization.
Sustainable Pulse/MAA response: Covance Laboratories is this accredited, outside organization – Covance Labs has worked closely with Monsanto for many years. Covance Laboratories are a service contractor for Monsanto on feeding studies with genetically engineered plants.
WSU Press Release: “The Moms Across America study flat out got it wrong,” said McGuire, who is an executive committee member for the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation and a national spokesperson for the American Society for Nutrition. “Our study provides strong evidence that glyphosate is not in human milk. The MAA findings are unverified, not consistent with published safety data and are based off an assay designed to test for glyphosate in water, not breast milk.”
Sustainable Pulse/MAA response: This is a very bold statement and Dr. McGuire / Monsanto’s study has already shown to be “flat out wrong” by a German study?
Moms Across America and Sustainable Pulse only reported results from an accredited lab testing, so to keep to the facts there was no Moms Across America ‘study’. The testing was to encourage further independent studies on the issue – of which the German study mentioned above is one. The Moms Across America testing used an accredited lab – Microbe Inotech – who conducted industry standard tests which found glyphosate to be present just as the German tests did.
WSU Press Release: Independent regulatory and safety assessments of glyphosate conducted by scientists at organizations like the…have found no consistent effects of glyphosate exposure on reproductive health or developing offspring.
Sustainable Pulse/MAA response: We did not know that Dr. Shelley McGuire is more of an expert than the World Health Organization on the dangers of glyphosate. WHO recently announced that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen. Professor Christopher Portier, one of the co-authors of the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) recent report which determined Glyphosate’s status as a probable carcinogen, recently reiterated the IARC’s conclusions, and said: “Glyphosate is definitely genotoxic. There is no doubt in my mind.”
WSU Press Release: In McGuire’s research, she and her colleagues collected milk and urine samples from 41 lactating women living in or near the cities of Moscow, Idaho, and Pullman, Wash. The area is a highly productive agricultural region where glyphosate is routinely used in farming practices.
Sustainable Pulse/MAA response: Due to suggestions made by Dr. McGuire herself that the breast milk would be supplied to Monsanto from the breast milk bank at WSU we would like to see full traceability of the samples – were they really taken from women alongside their urine samples? Also it was not made clear when the samples were taken – were they taken in the last 20 years or before glyphosate herbicides were even produced?
WSU Press Release: Milk and urine samples were analyzed for glyphosate and glyphosate metabolites using high sensitivity liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry methods specifically optimized for the task.
Sustainable Pulse/MAA response: Considering that Dr. McGuire and Monsanto were seemingly struggling with method development just 1 month ago, it seems unlikely that the method, which has not been released, is either accurate or has low Limits of Quantification.
WSU Press Release: Urinary glyphosate levels were either non-existent or extremely low and not of concern, McGuire said.
Sustainable Pulse/MAA response: Over 90% of the US population has glyphosate in their urine. Dr McGuire is not qualified to judge if this is of concern or not.
Furthermore MAA requests a formal retraction and apology from WSU for insinuating that MAA attempted to declare breast milk unsafe. MAA clearly stated when reporting the testing that “Moms Across America feels very strongly that breast milk should still be the number one choice for mothers and certainly preferred over GMO soy formula ingredients. We just urge all mothers to eat as organic as possible, especially meat, dairy, oils and grains that are sprayed with glyphosate at harvest as a drying agent.”
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These propagandists don’t even pretend to be real scientists anymore. Every Monsanto “study” already has two elements which automatically exclude it from the realm of science: The use of secret data and/or methods (by definition scientific information has to be fully public), and that it’s performed by or at the commission of the corporation itself.
Another element we see here as well as with most pro-GMO “studies” like the recent sweet potato/HGT paper, is blatantly political and anti-scientific editorializing by the “researchers”. Based on the existing evidence, no legitimate scientist would say anything like “glyphosate does not bioaccumulate and is not present in human milk” or that “the Moms Across America study flat out got it wrong”. The evidence calls for vastly more modest statements than these. But the Orwellian character of these studies and their publicity methods proves that they’re not scientific nor meant to be, but are meant to be propaganda blasts dressed up in pseudo-science garb.
McGuire is not a scientist but a fraud and a criminal liar. I suggest that fighters for Food Sovereignty become more relentless and assertive in publicizing this fact, in every such case of Science Fraud.
Very well said. With your knowledge and composition skills could you contine to post pressure in these regards to egnite the masses; or at least a few who matter, that could carry the torch?
Thanks Justin. I do my best at my site, which you can reach by clicking on my name here. No masses as of yet, though.
You might be quite correct; I would bet on it.
I wonder precisely how many American universities would be capable of conducting supremely rigorous testing of GMOs and all their discontents (Glyphosate) without any corporate interference and with the highest integrity.
Very, very, very few I would guess.
Their funders wouldn’t care for that, no sir.
Wow, who would believe a Monsanto directed research project anyway, they got to be kidding. Most people have become very pacified by the news media in this country, so sad, but the truth is slowly coming out and people are taking notice. The people will prevail, a movement of educated, what’s in your food citizens, are not willing to accept big business lies for profit anymore and the buying local organic movement is steam rolling over the lies.
Hope it’s worth selling your soul for, Dr. McGuire.
Just goes to show the lengths Monsanto and their army of corrupt scientists will go to try to fool the public. Surely this kind of research publishing should be illegal, or at the very least violate professional standards of ethics? What legal or professional action can be taken to have such crooked and corrupt scientists removed from the field of practice?
How about a fresh glass of breast milk Monsanto????
There are many in the “scientific” community that have sold our their principles and/or moral convictions to monsanto and the pharmaceutical “industry”. Those that spout these garbage studies are, in effect, hypocrites of the first order and deserve your derision and criticism. They are evil and will suffer in the future as their hypocrisy is unveiled. I wish upon them all the health and reproductive problems that they facilitate and I truly hope they suffer greatly. I stand by my statements and deride them in their misguided endeavors. If you know one of these mental deviates, let them know in no uncertain terms how you feel about their actions.
What I found appalling was the use of the terminology calling this an Independent Study which is totally false and a flat out lie. WSU has for a long time and the researchers involved with this bogus study, have had Monsanto biotech industry connections for years. Seriously, I’m looking forward to giant corporate behemoths like the Biotechs going down when everything hits the fan soon
How corrupt, I wouldn’t believe one word they say..
the last sentence needs a NOT added.
We just urge all mothers to eat as organic as possible, especially meat, dairy, oils and grains that are NOT sprayed with glyphosate at harvest as a drying agent.”
I developed and validate glyphosate and AMPA in cow’s milk using LC/MS method with the LOQ of 0.025 ug/mL in response to the ELISA method used by MAA. Anyone is interested, I can send the details.