Monthly Archives: March 2019

Glyphosate references

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There is a very powerful global effort to censure and restrict all efforts to expose problems with glyphosate. The effort comes from the industry and influences governments, media, and academia. The level fo witch hunt would put the days of Copernicus and Joan of Arc to shame.

Science has thus been degraded so much that it has lost its neutrality, its objectivity, its honesty and its relevance in determining safety of agrochemicals – pushing us back to worse times than the Russian block faced during the dark Soviet era of state controlled propaganda and suppression of dissent. Consequently, many citizens like me have developed extreme suspicion about anything that comes out of the government or the industry, and consider most of them are packs of lies.

When it comes to glyphosate, it is therefore the view of public that are aware, is that honest debate on glyphosate is an oxymoron. First, industry’s stronghold on science has to be removed, then independent research without influence of industry or politicians or government officials have to be encouraged. Documents and research papers have to be allowed to accumulate and add to the body of science without censure for twenty years. Let the chips fall where they may. After that, honest debate on the science of glyphosate may be possible. Right now, I am more interested to encourage the citizens to stand up against a government that is showing signs of extreme corruption and blindness an through out politicians that act as lap dogs of the industry rather than protector fo the people.

And yet, I do get called time to time from institutions including agricultural colleges, in India, to speak my mind. India has not yet gone completely over to the dark side like the western institutions. But India is on the way. Anyhow, they still have enough people including educated young, to not only understand and believe that the industry has spoiled science, has spoiled agriculture, food, healthcare and environment, and resistance is necessary.

Thus, I have this blog to list some references for people interested, to see what was said by the slim number of scientists that tried to alert us about glyphosate and about the GM technology.

Some universities requested that my presentation should provided reference material too, with regard to science behind glyphosate’s toxicity. The request might look justified, but it poses problems because what we have today in the name of science is a very far cry from what the western society promotes. Remember the days of the Soviet Union. We were told that they use propaganda for science and severely suppress dissent. Most of that is true. However, the wheel has not turned. There is no Soviet Union. But the west has taken up the tactic, and its corporate industry uses all its combined might to control governments, media and science. Nothing can be researched by scientific institutions without their permission. Nothing can be approved or disapproved by any Government without their say so. Nothing can be published anywhere without their consent.

Therefore, finding honest research that discovered toxicity of glyphosate in normal academic literature might be similar to the famed Bengali saying – সোনার পাথরবাটি – which means stone utensils made of gold – an oxymoron. If it is made of stone, it cannot be made of gold and vice versa. If science on glyphosate has been captured by the industry then there is not going to be research on adverse effects of glyphosate. Duh !

Nonetheless, it is not a homogenous world, and even the industry with all its financial clout, slips up. So there are increasing amounts of documents here and there, and the witch hunt that goes on to attack scientists that dare speak against glyphosate.

1) Anthony Samsel – Stephanie Seneff’s research work
I have already created a blog with all peer reviewed papers of Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff. These can be found here.

in my view, no other group of scientists have done as much research and unearthed as much detail on how many ways glyphosate hurts all living biology including humans. It is therefore not surprising that Samsel and Seneff faced attack as well as censure. Even publications such as GM watch would cover Seralini but not Samsel-Seneff. Monsanto and some governments tried to get the publisher of the Journal ENTROPY to pull their first paper on glyphosate interfering with cyp-450.  The publisher sent them a letter that it was going to be pulled, but the US editor of the Journal ENTROPY came to their defense and argued with the publisher. The publisher resolved the controversy and then posted a journal position that they would not be adversely  influenced by the opinions and demands of both GOVERNMENTS or corporations.  Thus the paper still stands.  The set of 6 glyphosate papers by Samsel and Seneff have had more than 60,000 reads and hundreds of Journal citations at Research Gate by academics in over 100 countries. When their first paper was published WIKIPEDIA added the Samsel and Seneff knowledge to the Glyphosate page.  Within a few days an argument ensued by reviewers and WIKIPEDIA took all of the information down.  I watched the arguments online at WKI.  We have never been referenced by WIKIPEDIA since.  It is suspected that Monsanto was responsible for removing Samsel and Seneff from the Wikipedia page on Glyphosate. One can assume with some justification that the industry is comfortable defending some of the others, but are alarmed at Samsel and Seneff, enough to get them be de-listed from Wikipedia.

2) Glyphosate disturbing honey bee microbiome

Glyphosate perturbs the gut microbiota of honey bees. The abstract says:

Glyphosate, the primary herbicide used globally for weed control, targets the 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) enzyme in the shikimate pathway found in plants and some microorganisms. Thus, glyphosate may affect bacterial symbionts of animals living near agricultural sites, including pollinators such as bees. The honey bee gut microbiota is dominated by eight bacterial species that promote weight gain and reduce pathogen susceptibility. The gene encoding EPSPS is present in almost all sequenced genomes of bee gut bacteria, indicating that they are potentially susceptible to glyphosate. We demonstrated that the relative and absolute abundances of dominant gut microbiota species are decreased in bees exposed to glyphosate at concen- trations documented in the environment. Glyphosate exposure of young workers increased mortality of bees subsequently exposed to the opportunistic pathogen Serratia marcescens. Members of the bee gut microbiota varied in susceptibility to glyphosate, largely corresponding to whether they possessed an EPSPS of class I (sensitive to glyphosate) or class II (insensitive to glyphosate). This basis for differences in sensitivity was confirmed using in vitro experiments in which the EPSPS gene from bee gut bacte- ria was cloned into Escherichia coli. All strains of the core bee gut species, Snodgrassella alvi, encode a sensitive class I EPSPS, and reduction in S. alvi levels was a consistent experimental result. However, some S. alvi strains appear to possess an alternative mechanism of glyphosate resistance. Thus, exposure of bees to glyphosate can perturb their beneficial gut microbiota, potentially affecting bee health and their effectiveness as pollinators.

My point is – if it can hurt bee microbiome, it can hurt human microbiome too. But instead of arguing about it, I’d like folks to start testing on lab mammals.

3) Three papers from Channa Jayasumana (Sri Lanka)

a) Glyphosate, Hard Water and Nephrotoxic Metals: Are They the Culprits Behind the Epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology in Sri Lanka?
b) Simultaneous exposure to multiple heavy metals and glyphosate may contribute to Sri Lankan agricultural nephropathy.
c) Drinking well water and occupational exposure to Herbicides is associated with chronic kidney disease, in Padavi-Sripura, Sri Lanka.

4) Andres Carrasco
The story of the Pampas. This vast stretch of plains in Argentina used to be teaming with wildlife.
Glyphosate-Based Herbicides Produce Teratogenic Effects on Vertebrates by Impairing Retinoic Acid Signaling.

5) Gilles-Eric Séralini
Republished study: long-term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerantgenetically modified maize.

6) Árpád Pusztai
Pusztai’s case is a classic example of censuring of scientific research that questions products that harm the people but enhances corporate profit. He was commissioned by the British Government to check safety of genetically engineered potato. He found them to be potentially harmful. He got sacked. His findings published in journals on this topic, got retracted. Later, the medical journal “The Lancet” published it not as an article but as a letter. Pusztai, 36 years working in the UK, saw his career in UK ended because of objecting to GM crop of Monsanto. The most famous toxicologist in Europe got sacked for disagreeing that GM crops where safe.
Effect of diets containing genetically modified potatoes expressingGalanthus nivalis lectin on rat small intestine.

7) Emails between wildlife scientist Judy Hoy & Justin Gude of MDFWP.
Link file.

8) Dr. Mercola on Obama signing the “Monsanto Protection Act.

Continued …

Glyphosate, the endocrine killer

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This is my second attempt at flyer or hand bill making, covering another aspect of glyphosate – as an endocrine disruptor. This one is not easy to explain in vernacular language. There are no local words for some of the terminology. Also the mechanism of endocrine system is a bit complex. But I have done the best I could.

To my engineer’s logic, endocrine system is a sort of remote control mechanism, not too unlike the TV remote we use to flip channels. Whereas the TV remote often works wirelessly with infra-red light, or some other band of the electromagnetic spectrum, the endocrine system inside our body works wirelessly through chemical signalling. One can think of it as a chemical messaging system, whereby certain glands in our body manages to control distant organs, without the use of “wires” or our nerves.

The glands that are often associated with releasing such chemical signals are pituitary, pineal, thyroid, adrenal, pancreas, ovary (females) and testes (males).

The liquid chemicals that carry such signals are often called hormones. These hormones can be proteins, but not always. There are generally four derivatives, from amino acids, proteins, fatty acids and cholesterol.

Apart from these, there are other glands/organs that too produce chemical substances, sometimes called peptides, which also perform functions in remote parts. In fact, the placenta for pregnant women, which nurture a fetus through gestation is also considered to be a kind of a gland which does release specific chemicals to induce specific growth related steps in the fetus. Unlike the rest, a placenta is for one time use and is discarded after childbirth. When and if the woman gets pregnant again, a new placenta is formed within which the new fetus is nurtured.

The problem with glyphosate is – it throws a spanner into the endocrine works. As a result, one can have hormones released at the wrong time, or in wrong quantity or in defective condition or of inferior quality so they do not perform as intended.

Unfortunately, the medical establishment as well as the state is often tight lipped about it, due to the power and influence of the Pharma and agro industry.

The job of resisting this menace therefore, rests largely on the citizens. Good news is – many provinces in India are now, one by one, legislating restrictions on use of glyphosate. Bad news is, it is not yet happening in West Bengal. Without rising public pressure, it is not going to happen soon. This is where the citizens need to get involved.

The story of glyphosate does not end here. This is to be gradually released.
Thank you.

Glyphosate for rural Bengal

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As my days in India is slowly drawing to a close, I have become hard pressed to complete various writings, mainly focussed on glyphosate as an unwanted element in our food web, but also including problems relating to Government policy on agriculture from scientific standpoint as well as socio-economic issues where small holder farmers are perhaps to be forced out of farming by design, so agriculture can be captured by corporations and share holders, for profit, while food sovereignty, food safety as well as welfare of hundreds of millions of farmers and health concerns of over a billion citizens are up for grabs.

The issues here are complex. Most Indians I meet, know less than zero about almost any of it. Very very few people ever heard the name Codex Alimentarius, or glyphosate, or amino acid. Very few understand how our body actually processes food.

To write about these, for the average folks, and that too in vernacular language where many of the English technical terms do not have a suitable local word due to non-use, is not easy for someone like me.

Nonetheless, I understand that such literature is required, in English as well as in local languages. I also understand that, for various reasons, I might be among the best suited to compose such material.

Consequently, I wrote this one page flyer, or hand bill, which can not only be shared on social media which, at the end of the day, may not be the best way in my view in achieving direct measurable positive result on the ground, but also be printed and posted in rural areas where village folks could read the local language. If the text is simplified to the degree where it is comprehensible to the layman – all the better.

This is my first attempt, on the property of chelation by glyphosate and how that affects us. Since they say a picture is worth a thousand words, I included a picture of hemoglobin protein, which is mentioned in the text. I borrowed the image from the internet, since I did not have the time to draw it from scratch. I added a few Bengali words on it.

I shall perhaps repeat that in English too. While I can speak and read Hindi, unfortunately I am not good at writing it any more, although I could do that as a child. So I cannot do it in Hindi at this point of time.

Skyrocketing MRL by Codex

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To : Dr. D. Kanungo, dkanungo@nic.in

Date : Friday, March 8, 2019

Subject : Codex Alimentarius – 38th Session of the Codex Committee on Pesticides, Fortaleza, Brazil, April 2006 – setting of safe MRL for glyphosate in food and feed.

Dr. Kanungo,

You were mentioned at the top of the Indian delegation that attended the above Codex meeting in Brazil in April 2006, when MRL levels of glyphosate in many food and feed items were agreed upon, as reproduced here. I have a few questions to you in this regard. 

Glyphosate MRL set for banana is 50 ppb (parts per billion) or 0.05 mg/kg, while the same for Maize is 5,000 ppb and that for unprocessed wheat bran is 20,000. Do you have actual proof that only 50 is safe for banana while much higher values for Maize and even higher for wheat bran are also safe? If you have seen these proofs I request you to make it available to me or to the people of India.

However, selected reports from scientists claiming they have checked and found glyphosate to be safe at this or that level – is not proof. Rather, these are third party opinions, which can always be selectively filtered to promote a false idea of safety. Actual proof of safety consists of raw data and supporting report of actual tests conducted, involving test animals, say rats. A group of such animals are subjected to a measured dose of glyphosate in their food, while an identical group of animal are also observed, living an identical lifestyle and eating identical food, but without any glyphosate. Health parameters of these two groups are recorded for their entire life span, say two years, and then onto the next generation’s lifetime, totalling perhaps three or four years. This comparison is usually the basis by which the testing team prepares their report on if that level of concentration of glyphosate in that kind of food does or does not increase health risks to the target animals. For example, if the clean eating rats show up a natural rate cancer or another specific disease in 5 percent of the population, and if the rate for the same disease in glyphosate exposed population turns out to be 10 percent, then the test team might conclude that glyphosate, at that specific dose in that kind of food, doubles the cancer risk to the test animal.

I suspect India does not conduct such tests, and has been getting documents under control of the very industry that benefits from sale of the biocide such as glyphosate, presenting a conflict of interest. I am also aware that even such suspected compromised proof of safety has been kept hidden by the Government of India.

This letter is to see if your group actually knew anything about the safety of glyphosate and might be wiling to share it with the public, or if the Indian delegation might have been pressured by the government or the industry or the lobby, to support the industry by perhaps overlooking public safety. I have noted from the Codex documentation, that the Indian group did not object to the MRL limits.

I have reason to suspect India is being mass poisoned by imported pulses and grains that contain extremely high levels of glyphosate, under the argument that such levels of glyphosate contamination is deemed safe by the Codex, one that your group accepted back in 2006. I suspect this mass poisoning is one of the root causes behind the runaway rise of multiple groups of diseases in the country, as well as forcing more Indian pule farmers into insolvency. Hence I write this letter in an effort to get to the truth of why India agreed to setting such arbitrary and unproven levels of MRL for glyphosate in food.

This letter is for the benefit of the people of India, and may be shared with  the public, along with any response received, or not received.

Hoping for a response,

Santanu Mitra

49/65 Prince Gulam Mohd Shah Road, Golf Gardens, Kolkata 700033

9831713068

Copied to:

1) Ram Vilas Paswan, Minister of Food – ramvilas.p@sansad.nic.in
2) Tapan Kanti Rudra IAS – FSSAI West Bengal – cfswb10@gmail.com
3) Ms. Ministhy S., FSSAI Uttar Pradesh – commissionerfda.up@gmail.com,
fdaupgov@gmail.com
4) Smt A Shanthi Kumar, FSSAI Telengana – prlsecy_hmfw@telangana.gov.in
telanganacfs@gmail.com
5) Sh. Vishal Chauhan, FSSAI Sikkim – healthsecyskm@yahoo.com
6) Sh. K.S. Pannu, FSSAI Punjab – md_phsc@yahoo.in
7) Dr. V. Candavelou, FSSAI Puducherry – secywel.pon@nic.in
8) Ms. Archana Patnaik, FSSAI Odisha – foodsafetyodisha@gmail.com
9) Dr Pallavi Darade, FSSAI Maharashtra – comm.fda-mah@nic.in
10) Dr. Rathan U Kelkar, FSSAI Kerala – foodsafetykerala@gmail.com
11) Smt. Poonam Markundaya, FSSAI Andhra Pradesh – peshichfw@gmail.com,
cfwhyd@yahoo.com

Books

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In the last twenty years or so, proportion of printed books I read by flipping physical pages have greatly reduced, while electronic or e-book I read from my iPad, and audiobooks I “listen to”, have dramatically increased.

There are many reasons. The first – I have always been a very heavy reader, right from my childhood. Consequently, I simply ran out of space to store all this many books, no matter how many book shelves I buy, in multiple homes spread across multiple continents where I stayed at one time or another.

The other reason is – I do not usually go for popular novels, or fiction. An overwhelmingly high number of the books I read are non-fiction, and educational I nature. Example – I have not read even one Harry Potter book, but have read around half a dozen of Charles Darwin alone. Unfortunately, there has not been munch interest in reading such books by my family members. In other words, I am the only one reading my kind of books in my home. After I have read one – it just becomes a space consuming dead weight never to be touched by a human hand again.

Ultimately such a book will likely become expensive fuel for someone’s wood burning fireplace, if one still has such a contraption.

Consequently, I have more electronically delivered books, than printed ones. They take up virtually no space. My iPad can store several hundred e-books. My computer can store thousands of e-Books and audio books. My phone too can store a hundred audio books at any time easily, and help me “listen” to them while siting along at a cafe, or having dinner by myself, or even when sitting on the potty. I have not counted how many such books I have across multiple formats and in multiple languages, but my rough guess is, it should be above 500 and less than a thousand.
This is not counting all the printed books I have bought or been presented with.

The images here are a minuscule sample of them – but a pattern can be seen here. I have spent a lot of time understanding human beings – their history, their evolution, their track record and their projected path into the near future. Part of it can be attributed to natural curiosity. Where did I come from. Where am I going. Added to that, is a near solidified belief that the planetary environment on earth is going to become major obstacles to life as usual for the living planet, and business as usual for the human society. These roadblocks or major environmental obstacles will not be of extra terrestrial origin, such as an asteroid strike. Nor will they be geologic, like massive volcanism from the earth’s core. They will be created at the surface and be a direct result of human interference.

My belief has hardened over a long period of observation of the rapidly changing world around me, and supplemented by books from on history to economy to paleoanthropology.

I no longer believe man to be God’s finest creation – first because man is not the finest but the worst creature on earth, which in turn proves the second point – that God does not exist, else He could never have made such a humongous blunder of creating humans in the first place.

Besides, the history of evolution of life has proved, time and time again, that once in a while a creature evolves with what appears to be super-competitive traits, and begins to sort of dominate the planet. But then, soon enough, the qualities that made the animal competitive begins to turn against him or his environment, and eventually, the creature goes extinct, to be replaced by another group of a wholly different model type.



Dinosaurs, as a group, lasted almost 160 million years on earth. It needed a massive asteroid strike to put at end to their reign.

In comparison, modern humans have been here for a mere 50 thousand years and we have cooked as well as poisoned and rotted the planet is such a short time in breathtaking speed, so much so that we ourselves have to go and will are taking most of the living world with us.

One interesting side note is – noting the control that the religious groups still exert on freedom of expression. Two hundred years after Darwin’s writings, his three books on evolution by natural selection of all creatures except humans are freely available across formats. However the one book, which applies the same logic to origin of Humans, namely the book “Descent of Man” is heavily restricted. There is no audiobook on it so far by reputed content providers, which I find incredible. You can, thankfully, still get an e-book and a printed book. You can also get chapter by chapter audio rendition of the book free of charge by the volunteer organization such as LibriVox.

But even the advertisement for the printed version is careful enough to describe the book as describing the “controversial theory of evolution”.

There is nothing controversial about evolution, in my mind. The only controversy involves the stupidity of man and the extraordinary control that bigots have on free speech in the very western society that boasts of freedom of speech.

Anyhow, this short post on books is perhaps a window to my search of my own identity. A line from a Bengali song of Tagore rings true, so I added it – my quest to understand myself is never going to end.