Glyphosate, more commonly known as RoundUp, is the world's most commonly used pesticide. This is not an innocuous substance - it is highly toxic, and it is a major contributor to the epidemic of infectious and chronic diseases around the world. Read on to discover how glyphosate is slowly and silently killing us all, and to learn what we need to do to save ourselves and the planet.
Glyphosate History
In 1974 Monsanto bought glyphosate and started to market it as a weed killer (pesticide) under the brand name RoundUp. We started using glyphosate slowly but it has now become the most ubiquitous chemical on the planet. According to the USDA, the total quantity of pesticides applied to 21 crops analyzed grew from 196 million pounds in 1960 to 516 million pounds in 2008; and that number has continued to grow exponentially.
Glyphosate Exposure is Ubiquitous
The majority of non-organic produce is contaminated with glyphosate, but our exposure is not limited to the foods we consume. Glyphosate gets into our soils, river systems, and water systems; it’s in our drinking and bathing water, and found in 75% of air and rain samples. Several toxic effects from chronic low-level exposure on animals, the environment and humans have been documented.
How Glyphosate is Slowly Killing Us
Glyphosate is extremely toxic, it damages DNA and it’s associated with several types of cancer, antibiotic resistance, kidney disease, liver damage, autoimmune disorders, disrupted endocrine function, oxidative damage, mineral deficiencies, and several other adverse outcomes. Adding fuel to fire, almost all crops grown for global agriculture are now genetically modified so that they can tolerate glyphosate and genetic modification comes with its own set of serious health hazards.
Glyphosate and Estrogen Dominance
Glyphosate is an extremely potent xenoestrogen that mimics estrogen in our body and can cause a pervasive, troublesome, and rarely diagnosed condition called estrogen dominance. If left untreated estrogen dominance increases the risk for several chronic diseases including allergies, obesity, depression, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, endometriosis, thyroid dysfunction, and several types of cancer. It can also lead to stubborn weight gain, acne, sexual dysfunction, prostate enlargement, and infertility. If you suspect you may be suffering with estrogen dominance you can use the safe, all-natural and clinically formulated nutraceutical - EstroBlock to restore optimal hormonal balance.
The Importance of Microbiome Diversity
Microbiome is the term used to describe all the viruses, fungi, bacteria, and other microbes in the environment and in our guts. An additional major problem with glyphosate is the fact that it ruins microbiome diversity. This is problematic because a diverse microbiome is essential for both the environment and for human development, immunity, and nutrition.
Many humans fear viruses and bacteria but the truth is our bodies and our environment are filled with them and they are not invaders, they are beneficial colonizers. They create a pathway for biodiversity and exposure to them gives us essential genetic updates and plays a vital role in the building of a healthy immune system. Exposure to a diverse microbiome also helps prevent autoimmune diseases such as allergies, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, muscular dystrophy, and fibromyalgia. Unfortunately, glyphosate alters the gastrointestinal microbiome in humans and creates an environment that favors the proliferation of harmful (pathogenic) microbes over healthful ones.
Glyphosate - An Underlying Cause of Infectious Disease Epidemics
Since the inception of glyphosate in 1974, there has been ever-increasing outbreaks of influenza and respiratory viruses. This is not a random occurrence, something has changed in our environment and that something is pesticide use. Many viral pandemics over the past 45 years have correlated with an upsurge in glyphosate use. For example, in the 1980s as glyphosate became more widely used, the AIDS pandemic was born. In 1992 when we started spraying wheat and crops directly there was a massive rise in hepatitis C infections.
In 2006, when the global ecosystem was already saturated with GMO ready roundup and its use plateaued, things balanced a bit. But then by 2014 there were so many roundup resistant weeds that we started adding even more toxic pesticides to our crops and since then there have been several disease outbreaks in America and around the world. Perhaps not surprisingly, Hubie, the province of the city Wuhan where COVID-19 began has one of the highest uses of glyphosate in the world, as well the most polluted air - these two things together create the perfect breeding ground for a viral pandemic.
Future ICUs
Intensive care units are highly sterile, and patients aren’t exposed to the fresh air, and diverse microbiomes that are required for health and recovery. In fact, most COVID-19 fatalities occurred because of bacterial pneumonia that the patient contracted in the hospital, where the overly sterile environment prevented their bodies from finding microbial balance. In the future ICUs will be prairies and grasslands with tents where you breathe in fresh, clean air and are surrounded by trees and wildflowers. This diverse microbiome will allow patients to recover from both infectious and chronic diseases.
A Vision for a Healthy Future
In order to protect our existence on this earth, and prevent further extinction of animals and wildlife we need to fundamentally change our agriculture and completely restructure how we live. The Farmers Footprint Initiative has a vision for the future where cities are integrated into agriculture: There will be farming on the sides of skyscrapers, and tall buildings will essentially become towers of green life. When you walk through cities it will more closely resemble a scene from the jungle.
Dr. Zack Bush explains, adds “...the Farmer's Footprint is really trying to … change the philosophy of farmers and consumers alike so that at eight years from today, we've radically changed our demand and relationship to that agricultural land that has been under a forced productivity mode to one of a co-creative, generative, and regenerative capacity with that soil. And we will see a completely different situation by 2030 where our childhood chronic disease epidemic will go away under the experience of diverse microbiomes returning to our air systems through our soil, through our water, and the like.”