Yesterday a Telegu language newspaper from Hyderabad, the province of Telengana, came up with this news on glyphosate, and indirectly mentioned what I had been talking about, without naming me.

A helpful organic farming entrepreneur from Hyderabad, Mr. Ramchandra has translated it over the phone for me. It says, in brief:

• Glyphosate is very dangerous
• It is used to kill weeds but it is also killing people
• Sri Lanka had banned it in 2014 because farm workers were dying from kidney failure
• Argentina banned it in 2017, because of pregnant women exposed to glyphosate were experiencing two to four times more birth defects than national average.
• India has allowed glyphosate to be used for tea plantations, but the approval for this use may be controversial and questionnable.
• Provinces of Andhra Pradesh and Telengana are working to ban this herbicide. An investigation is being initiated by the Government into possible corruption and briery involved where farmers are illegally being encouraged to use this herbicide by unscrupulous people for financial gain. As a result, glyphosate is illegally being used everywhere.
• 87% of Red Lentil (Masoor Dal) imported into India from Canada is reported to be highly contaminated by glyphosate.
• India is also importing pulses from Australia that are highly poisonous from glyphosate.

So, is the glyphosate juggernaut in India turning a corner, and coming to a possible road block in future? Are breaks beginning to be applied to the wheels of this juggernaut ?

Meanwhile, in Bengal, I have so far met two minsters of the government of West Bengal, India, regarding glyphosate. These are Mr. Purnendu Basu, minister of skilled labour (ex minister of agriculture) and Mr. Subhendu Adhikari, the minister of environment. While the issue of glyphosate has been brought to their ear, there has been no positive movement as yet, for the government to start focussing on the ravages to the land and its biomass from illegal and reckless use of glyphosate.

Having said that, I am lagging behind on a letter I am supposed to write to the Environment Minister as a follow up. I am delayed because I am unable to lay y hands of two documents that I was asked to attach to the letter. These are:

• Copy of the original order from Sri Lanka, banning the import, sale, or use of glyphosate
• Document showing the intent of the Government of Telangana, with regard to considering banning of all illegal use of Glyphosate. This is a new development, the details of which I do not have much information.

Mr. Adhikari, the Minister of Environment, Government of West Bengal, in the middle, with me with a cap on, and Dr. Samar Bagchi at right.

The fact that I am unable to get any help on the above two items, and do not know who to ask, is causing some frustration from my end. I hope to nail those two issues subsequently. Meanwhile, I appeal to all readers, if you can help, please do. However, please do not send me links to news articles about Sri Lanka and glyphosate. I do not need them. I am only looking for official document, signed by a Government official, such as the president of someone, passing the order or confirming the decision that the government of Sri Lanka is banning glyphosate.

And as to Telengana, I need whatever original document is available, for example, and appeal make to the government by some official, asking it to ban glyphosate.

Then there is a plan to go talk with rice farmers in the district of Purulia about glyphosate. But I must convert my presentation into Bengali, something I have never done on this technically heavy subject. But Mr. Rabin Bannerji has helped convert some rice farmers to move away from input intensive, chemical dependent hybrid rice to sustainably grown, chemical free organic folk rice, black rice in particular. This is a remarkable story in itself and whether the effort survives or fails in the micro level may be a pointer to if India is going to save itself at a macro level, from going under, both in agriculture as well as in its biodiversity and ecosystems. I am therefore interested to see first hand what Mr. Bannerji is doing in Purulia. I am told the audience would largely be women rice farmers and largely illiterate – but not uneducated. These women did not study beyond the first few years in school, so they might be considered barely literate. But they are certainly not uneducated. The instinctively know the wisdom of living in harmony with nature instead of in conflict with it.

Meanwhile, on the scientific front, we have already spoken many times about glyphosate being an amino acid that is analog to glycine and how it gets mis-incorporated into protein construction, thus producing dysfunctional proteins that trigger a plethora of diseases.

I often converse on email with scientists such as Anthony Samsel, Stephanie Seneff, Don Huber, Judy Hoy, Andé Comeau, and Thierry Vrain. When I hear something I like I ask them if I might quote it. And here is one quote from Stephanie seneff, about glyphosate getting into proteins as an amino acid.

The discussion that was preceding was various salts of glyphosate that are in the herbicide packages. Apparently, glyphosate itself is not too soluble in water. Therefore, corporations selling the herbicide cannot sell larger concentrations into smaller packages of solution that is easier to transport. In order to increase solubility in water, the producer sells it in some form of salt of glyphosate that is readily soluble. That solution ionises glyphosate and the salt making it easy not just for the plants to pick the toxin up, which often kills them if they are a weed, but also for animals to pick them up to, as explained by Stephanie Seneff above.

 Then there is the question of the metabolite of Glyphosate. Most things usually decay or breakdown over a period of time. So does glyphosate too. However, some of the first stages of such decay produces variants that are still very toxic, such as AMPA. It is no more a mimic of glycine, but it is very harmful on its own, without being picked up in place of glycine in protein construction. This is explained by Anthony Samsel below.

A lot is now known about harmful effects of Glyphosate and its first stage metabolites. A lot more needs to be discovered, as explained by Samsel in the last two sentences above.

To be continued …