Six months ago today, June 1, a few days after our meeting with the EPA, I requested per my right as a US citizen, by way of the Freedom of Information Act, to receive copies of all of the documents submitted to the EPA regarding glyphosate. Never in my life did I imagine I would be asking for potentially thousands of pages of scientific studies about a toxic chemical. I loved science when I was in sixth grade, even imagined being one someday. But I did not think I was good at math, all the rote learning without understanding was more condescending than the looks my math teacher gave me, so I dismissed the possibility of being a scientist and headed down a more artistic path as a designer.

I have a creative background, but I could not make up what I am about to share with you.

It is incredible that any scientist or non scientist could look at this information think glyphosate safe.

I received 9 files, ranging from 67-293 pages. Most were the actual studies, two were assessments of other studies. I do not believe I received all of the studies submitted to the EPA, and will be asking for the full set of documents. What I did receive however, in my opinion, is reason enough not to re register glyphosate.

Watch a video version of this blog here and share it with friends. 

The first study I open, is a 96 hour study on oysters..and it concludes that although in 4 days there were no oyster deaths, the majority of the oysters were "closed and not feeding". That is equivalent to a human in a coma! Are you kidding me? This is supposed to prove glyphosate is safe for sea life?
And what happened after 4 days? For how long did the oysters stay "closed and not feeding" and what happened to them then?
I am reading this,  hollering to my husband about oysters and the dear man is putting up with me. He even admits that he is glad I am the kind of person that cares about this because someone has to.

 The next study, a 96 hour study on Mysid shrimp, shows that after 4 days, the "level of  no-morbidity was .51 a.e.mg/L ( 1.71 mg/L MON 2139 mg/L". The level of glyphosate in our corn, husk removed is 3.5 ppm. .51 mg/L and 1.71 mg/L is equal to .51 and 1.71 ppm. And it was the level just above this killed the shrimp after 4 days. 100% of the shrimp died at levels of 3.9ppm.

Granted we are not as small as a shrimp, but the amount of glyphosate must be equivalent and significant in comparison. Consider that 80% of GMOs which make up 90% of our food crops and in 85% of our food are sprayed with glyphosate. In addition, many non-organic crops are also sprayed with glyphosate as a drying agent pre-harvest. Furthermore a burn down application of glyphosate is applied before planting, so the amount of glyphosate we potentially consume from the 160 foods withallowable glyphosate levels is from .2 - 400 ppm. This is very significant.

The average life span of a Mysid shrimp is 365 days. 4 days is 1% of it's life. How is this a study which is scientifically sound for weighing the safety of glyphosate? It's not! it's preposperous!  This test duration is equivalent to a human who lives to 78 years old being exposed to glyphosate for 284 days...less than a year.  The reality is glyphosate has been in our food supply for nearly 20 years....7300 days...already.

White shrimp in comparison to the size of a human fetus (Human fetus is about half the size)

Another 96 hour White shrimp study showed "the no-morbidity after 4 days was 5.2 mg/L ( 17 mg/L of MON 2139)". Higher than that and they died. The levels of glyphosate on dried sugar beet pulp, the main source of sugar in millons of American products, is 25ppm. The average American consumes 156 pounds of sugar per year. How much glyphosate is that? What is it doing to us? A white shrimp is larger than a 6 week old human fetus. What coudl glyphosate be doing to our fetuses? Why has our infertility and miscarriage rate skyrocketed to 30% just like the pigs in Denmark who ate feed sprayed with glyphosate and had their levels of miscarriage jump to 30%?

FISH SHARE 85% of the same DNA as Humans

The 96 hour minnow study showed the level of no-mortality at 2.1 a.e mg to 6.8 mg MON 2139/L. Higher than that and fish died in 4 days.We have 5 ppm allowed on our potatoes and 7 ppm of glyphosate allowed on tea, items that we eat/drink in large quantities. 

The 2 month (dosing period) study of canaries showed mortality at 432mg/L and with birds dying within 2 hours of dosing at 3300 ppm. Our animal feed grains are allowed by the EPA to have levels of 400 ppm and are consistently fed this amount, it is not just a one or two time dose during 4 days of their life.

 The mouse study was a mere 28 days... not even a month...and although they claimed no changes to them mice...this duration is supposed to be valid as a scientific study for the safety of a toxic chemical sprayed on our food to consume? If there they were longer studies done, they  did not send them to me as they are required to by law.

So the next time a GMO scientist tells you they have "hundreds of studies" showing the safety of GMOs and Glyphosate, ask them, how long are those studies for? What were the results? If the animals did not DIE, did they exhibit other symptoms (like not eating) that would lead to their death shortly after the duration of the study?

These studies, even in their small scope and short duration show that glyphosate should not be re registered. It's not sound science to see these as showing safety by any scope of the imagination and in addition this mother, for one, would prefer to be better safe than sorry than to feed my kid a chemical that has most oysters "closed and not feeding" after 4 days. It's hard enough to feed my kids, Thank you very much. I chose organic.

Please tell the EPA what you think they should decide regarding the review of glyphosate NOW. They are reading and assessing these studies now and will make a decision by Christmas. Contact:

Neil Anderson

Chief, Risk Management and Implementation Branch I

Pesticide Re-evaluation Division

US EPA (Mail Code 7508P)

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20460

Phone: 703-308-8187

[email protected]

Zen Honeycutt

P.S. I have been informed that the studies are confidential and I cannot share the actual documents. You can request any kind of information you want through the Freedom of Information Act.