Roundup: Monsanto's New 'Agent Orange'?

‘Abundant Food and Healthy Environment.’ Thus goes Monsanto’s vision of a future. In the Philippines, however, the future is bleak for millions of farmers. So too are millions of people in Colombia and in many other countries – they only see poison in their vision as children are taken ill, livestock die and vast subsistence farms turn into deserts.

BY BOBBY TUAZON
Bulatlat.com

Opposition to the deployment of U.S. forces in southern Philippines and continuing joint military exercises nationwide is expected to heighten in the light of reports that the U.S. military is building more bases wherever its special forces are or will be deployed in the "war against terrorism."

Among the Philippines’ millions of farmers, Roundup is a herbicide promoted by agriculture and agrarian reform officials supposedly to increase farm yields, including rice and corn. This has been the case since Monsanto, the world’s biggest seller of genetically-modified (GM) crops and second largest seed company, began working with government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to supply chemicals and training to farmers relocated to upland regions.

Since 1995, sales of Roundup in the country have increased six-fold. Monsanto was able to increase its profits from selling its product partly by offering rewards to farming households and dealers who registered high sales of glyphosate herbicide.

That may be a boon to this American corporation whose crop experiments in the Philippines have been criticized by peasant, environment and consumer groups for the harmful effects that these, along with Monsanto’s other agro-chemical and GM food products, have wrought.

But Roundup, one of the world’s most widely-used herbicides, and the boost that government farm and agrarian reform officials have given to Monsanto, raise fears about hazards and corporate monopoly in agricultural seeds and chemicals. Reports continue to mount about how this herbicide brings destruction not only to farm production – upon which the world’s billions of farmers depend for income – but to people’s health and biodiversity as well.

In many countries, Roundup, instead of increasing farm yield, is considered a poison chemical. In Colombia, for instance, the herbicide is being used to uproot vast plantations of cocaine. Monsanto has been tapped by U.S. and Colombian authorities to supply herbicides for a fumigation campaign aimed at wiping out the drug industry’s production infrastructure. The campaign is part of “Plan Colombia,” an anti-drug program funded by the U.S. government with some $2 billion but which, critics say, is actually a counter-insurgency scheme.

Rather than destroying the production infrastructure of cocaine in Colombia, however, the two-year fumigation campaign has only led to the loss of many lives and untold devastation to farm production.

Poor communities and subsistence farms

A CorpWatch report revealed that in six months of last year alone, some 70,000 gallons of Roundup Ultra were sprayed in that Latin American country. In 2000, roughly 145,750 gallons were sprayed covering over 131,000 acres. The targets of the fumigation campaign, which is backed by aircraft of U.S. private defense contractors and the Colombian air force, are poor villages and subsistence farms.

The aerial spraying has however contaminated subsistence crops and sources of drinking water and killed livestock. In November 2000, 10 successive days of aerial spraying over Inga indigenous reserves in Nariño left 80 percent of children ill. There were reports of an epidemic of fever, diarrhea and severe skin and eye complaints.

In the first two months of 2001, local authorities reported 4,289 people suffering skin or gastric disorders; 178,377 farm animals, including cattle, pigs, ducks and fish, were killed. The aquatic life of Amazon waterways has also been threatened as toxic chemicals flow downstream from farmlands. For every acre fumigated, three acres of rainforest are cut down as coca growers are pushed into remote, upland regions.

The truth is, the relentless fumigation drive has failed to eradicate drug trafficking. U.S. government statistics show that the expanse of coca fields in Colombia has even increased by 25 percent. And U.S. demand for cocaine has not fallen either.

Ironically, Monsanto labels warn about toxicity: “Roundup will kill almost any green plant that is actively growing. Roundup should not be applied to bodies of water…as (the chemical) can be harmful to certain aquatic organisms.”

Based on recent evidence, the adverse health and environmental impact of the aerial spraying is linked to the use of the additive Cosmo Flux 411F, a surfactant to Roundup Ultra. A Colombian agronomist, Dr. Elsa Nivia, last year said the surfactant can increase the herbicide’s biological action four-fold, producing exposure levels which are 104 times higher than normal doses. The mixture has not been fully tested, it was also revealed.

The U.S.’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ranks Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, third out of 25 chemicals harmful to humans. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that applied in large doses glyphosate is harmful and is, together with other toxic chemicals, responsible for some three million people suffering pesticide poisoning every year. There have been more than 20,000 pesticide-related deaths in recent years, WHO also reported.

Other toxic effects

The Pesticides Action Network (PEAN) also blames Roundup for its toxic effects such as diarrhea, increased blood glucose, pancreatic lesions, growth retardation and weight changes in internal organs. The chemical’s long-term toxicity includes death of liver cells, cataract and eye lens degeneration and tumors in the thyroid. There have also been reproductive effects in males: lowered libido and increase in abnormal or dead sperm. Among mothers and children: decrease in number of viable fetuses, reduced birth weight and increase in the number of miscarriages.

PEAN also said that the use of glyphosate may result in significant population losses of terrestrial species through habitat and food supply destruction threatening already endangered species and biodiversity.

Another Monsanto herbicide, Butachlor, has been found for causing reduced brain size and weight changes in internal organs. The herbicide has not been approved by EPA but is marketed in Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and other countries as “Machete” or “Lambast.” It is reported to have been applied to 97 percent of rice imports.

Monsanto’s role in the fumigation drive in Colombia brings to mind the use of Agent Orange in the U.S.’ defoliation operations during the Vietnam war in ‘70s-‘80s. Agent Orange, a chemical manufactured by Monsanto, was used to deny Vietnamese guerrillas fighting for national liberation of their mass base. Today, vast agricultural and forest lands have yet to recover from toxicity wrought by the war chemical. Thousands of children born to mothers who were exposed to Agent Orange suffer birth defects.

Monsanto, which this year celebrates its 100^th anniversary, has been accused in the Philippines and several other countries of endangering human lives, environment devastation and controlling the global food chain. The company’s vision of a future: “Abundant Food and Healthy Environment.” Bulatlat.com

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