01/July/20

 

Christine Sheppard is one of the thousands of people who filed suit against Bayer due to her belief that the company's Roundup herbicide caused her non-Hodgkin lymphoma. She had been advised to use the herbicide on her land by an agricultural agent who "told us it was safe enough to drink. We sprayed it for the next five years." Sheppard describes the settlement that Bayer offered to her fellow cancer victims as "a slap in the face. Bayer admitted no guilt, will continue to sell Roundup, and refused to label it as carcinogenic. People will continue to get cancer from it." The Guardian

 

 

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is currently considering the approval of a genetically engineered variety of corn developed by Bayer that would be resistant to at least five herbicides at once—including glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) and dicamba. If all goes according to plan, the company expects to launch the corn in the US “mid-to-late this decade". But some groups hope to disrupt that trajectory. Civil Eats

 

 

For her Master's thesis, Nicola Paul, a student at Queen's University Belfast, investigated the impacts of field-realistic concentrations of the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup on bumblebee health and function. The herbicide was sprayed on lavender, which the bees foraged on. Bees exposed to glyphosate presented hyperactivity or altered flight ability and endurance. Wild bees avoided foraging on treated lavender and visitation to untreated lavender increased with time from Roundup application. Bees fed on Roundup-laced sugar solution were more vulnerable to pathogen infestation. The author concluded, "Such results can potentially have devastating effects on bee mortality, leading to further declines, which may have an impact on crop quality and threaten global food security." Nicola Paul, Master's thesis