Page 32 - Fall2013
P. 32
Roundup®: The “Nontoxic”
Chemical that May Be
Destroying our Health
By Stephanie Seneff, PhD
ccording to Monsanto, producer of Roundup®, the
most popular herbicide used on the planet, the
Aproduct is nearly nontoxic for humans. The usage
of Roundup to kill weeds has skyrocketed around the world
since the year 2000, in part because it went off patent that
year, but also because of the enormous increase (especially
in the U.S.) in the appearance of “Roundup-Ready” GMO
crops. 4
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, kills weeds by interfer-
ing with what is called the shikimate pathway. This pathway is essential in
plants for the synthesis of a class of amino acids called the “aromatics.” But
this pathway is nonexistent in any mammalian cell. By simple logic, the fact
that our cells don’t have this pathway means that glyphosate cannot harm
us. Is there a fallacy in this argument?
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