Disappointing response from Provincial Governments on Glyphosate

Posted on November 7, 2015 by admin

I received an email, from the Ministry of Health, British Columbia, in response to my below letter. It is disappointing, and appears to shirk responsibility of health concerns relating to Glyphosate.

My letter to the ministry had , two basic items, a question and a suggestion.The question was if the BC Govt had conducted any test of food grown in BC for presence of Glyphosate, and if so, to make the results public.

The question was if the BC Govt had conducted any test of food grown in BC for presence of Glyphosate, and if so, to make the results public.
The suggestion was – if it had not tested any food, to put forward a scheme to start testing local grown food for presence of glyphosate, and again, to make that information available to the public.

I cannot copy paste the response here or anywhere, since it comes with a warning, that this email was intended for me only, and any distribution, copy or disclosure by any one else is prohibited.

However, I suppose I can still write my impression of what the letter says.

First, it avoids giving direct answers to either of the two points above. What is says in essence, are as follows:

That the ministry is watching WHO announcement on carcinogenecity of glyphosate with great interest.
Health Canada is responsible for food safety
PMRA has published its re-evaluation of Glyphosate this year, and has considered glyphosate is unlikely to affect health if used according to label directions.
The letter provides various links to Govt documents relating to i) glyphosate re-evaluation, ii) pesticide product evaluation database, iii) maximum residue limit for pesticides etc.
The email ends with a suggestion that, although I am in contact with the federal Govt, I might consider contacting PMRA directly, and provides their email address.

It might have been more honest for BC Health Ministry to simply answer my question directly, such as:

A) No we have never tested food for glyphosate,
B) No we do not intend to test food for glyphosate even if labs are now available, since we believe this is Ottawa’s matter.

I decided to update the blog with this information, and then consider what next we might do.

Here are sample letters sent to two wings of the Government of British Columbia, Canada – the ministries of Health, and Agriculture, asking them to either disclose results of locally grown or sold food they have already tested for glyphosate, or, if they have not, to engage in a systematic effort to stat testing now, and to make the results available to the public

I am enclosing this sample letter so that people from other provinces and even states south of the border could consider writing to their respective local governments, and for people in our province of British Columbia could send the same or their own version of appeal to our Ministers, demanding that the government start testing our food, and to keep the people advised on results.

To: Minister Terry Lake,

Government of British Columbia, Ministry of Health

( Also, separately, to Minister Norm Letnick,

Government of British Columbia, Ministry of Agriculture

Minister Lake,

Subject: Testing of food for glyphosate contamination in BC

I am a citizen and a resident of British Columbia.

I am concerned about possible links between glyphosate (in RoundUp and other brand herbicides) in our agriculture, and ill-health, as well as lack of information on which food contains how much of it. You are aware of a rising number of papers showing possible link between glyphosate and various illnesses, as well as World Health Organization reclassifying glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen.My reason for writing to you is two fold.

The first is to learn if the British Columbia Government has tested food grown in BC, and/or sold in BC, for presence of Glyphosate. If it has, and if the results are available online for public, I request you to direct me there. If the results are not available, I request you to make them available to me.

The second part is a suggestion, in case the BC Government has never checked for Glyphosate in our food system. May I then request you to set up a system so that crops grown in BC as well as food sold in our stores be checked and catalogued periodically for presence of glyphosate, and the results be made available to the consumers. I am willing to assist you in this work should you so require.

I have separate communication initiated with the newly formed federal Government in Ottawa on a related issue about verifying safety of glyphosate through direct study of tests conducted on target animals instead of indirect decision based on third party statement. However, I believe, under the Canadian Constitution Act, our provincial Governments probably has enough jurisdiction to engage in direct action in ensuring that the people of British Columbia have sufficient information on what non-food elements have gotten is in their diet, especially glyphosate, which may have an adverse effect on their health. I am available to be of assistance in this effort, should the Government require.

I would here bring to your attention an emerging fact that more and more Canadian labs are now beginning to offer testing of food for glyphosate, something that was not available even a year ago.

I enclose a recently published fourth part of a series of science papers published in peer reviewed journals by two independent scientists from the US that do not take any support from the biotech industry. The paper covers their analysis of links between glyphosate and a number of diseases including cancer.

Thanking you
Tony Mitra

(contact)

Link to Samsel’s paper : Glyphosate, pathways to modern disease, part IV

MANITOBA

Here is a letter sent by Rose Stevens to the Manitoba Minister of Health, Ms Sharon Blady:

To: Minister Sharon Blady

Government of Manitoba, Ministry of Health

Minister Sharon Blady,

Subject: Glyphosate and it ‘ s presence in MB food system

I am a citizen and a resident of Manitoba.

I am concerned about possible links between glyphosate (in RoundUp and other brand herbicides) in our agriculture, and ill-health, as well as lack of information on which food contains how much of it. You are aware of a rising number of papers showing possible link between glyphosate and various illnesses, as well as World Health Organization reclassifying glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen. I am still waiting for that meeting with yourself, Dr Thierry Vrain and myself, but have not heard back from your office in months. This subject will make a very interesting issue during the up coming provincial elections in 2016.

My reason for writing to you is two fold.

The first is to learn if the Manitoba governement has tested food grown in MB, and/or sold in MB, for presence of Glyphosate. If it has, and if the results are available online for public, I request you to direct me there. If the results are not available, I request you to make them available to me.

The second part is a suggestion, in case the Manitoba Government has never checked for Glyphosate in our food system,may I then request you to set up a system so that crops grown in Manitoba as well as food sold in our stores be checked and catalogued periodically for presence of glyphosate, and the results be made available to the consumers. I am willing to assist you in this work should you so require.

My collaegue, Tony Mitra from British Columber has a separate communication initiated with the newly formed federal Government in Ottawa on a related issue about verifying safety of glyphosate through direct study of tests conducted on target animals instead of indirect decision based on third party statement. However, I believe, under the Canadian Constitution Act, our provincial Governments probably has enough jurisdiction to engage in direct action in ensuring that the people of Manitoba have sufficient information on what non-food elements have gotten is in their diet, especially glyphosate, which may have an adverse effect on their health. I am available to be of assistance in this effort, should the Government require.

I would here bring to your attention an emerging fact that more and more Canadian labs are now beginning to offer testing of food for glyphosate, something that was not available even a year ago.

Over twenty thousand Canadians have already signed this recent petition requesting that our government disclose the safety test data on glyphosate

https://www.change.org/p/minister-of-health-canada-justin-trudeau-health-canada-prove-glyphosate-is-safe?recruiter=16360852&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share_email_responsive

I enclose link to recently published fourth part of a series of science papers published in peer reviewed journals by two independent scientists from the US that do not take any support from the biotech industry. The paper covers their analysis of links between glyphosate and a number of diseases including cancer.

https://www.academia.edu/17751562/Glyphosate_pathways_to_modern_diseases_IV_cancer_and_related_pathologies?auto=view&campaign=weekly_digest

Sincerely

Rose Stevens

Manitoba

Create a demand for Glyphosate lab in Canada

Posted on December 8, 2014 by admin

Glyphosate is the poison in Monsanto’s RoundUp herbicide, the most used weed killer in Canada. It is used on RoundUp ready GM crops, and also as desiccant on non GM crops. it is to be used on prairies with designed GM alfalfa. It is being sprayed from the air on Canadian forests by logging companies. It is everywhere.

There is a rising body of study that point to possible link between our exposure to this chemical and an unparalleled rise of various chronic diseases in North America.

Here in Canada, there is no lab that will test citizen’s urine, or blood, or breast milk of nursing mothers, for traces of Glyphosate. There is no lab in Canada where one can test the food we buy in our store, for presence of Glyphosate.

Are there such labs available in other regions ? Yes, USA has them. There are labs in the rest of the world, but not in Canada.

Why are there no labs in Canada ? Because no doctor, no hospital, no environment ministry or health ministry is asking for routine and broad range testing of Canadian people and Canadian food, for glyphosate poisoning. Labs are commercial ventures. They will provide a service only if there is sufficient demand.

So, here is an appeal for all Canadians – join us and create a demand. All you need to do is ask your doctor, or hospital, or clinic, to arrange for a test of urine, or blood, or breast milk for nursing mothers, as well as a few heavily used food brand for your family such as a brand of milk, or bread, or meat. If enough doctors or hospitals started asking around for this test, this would generate a demand, and some labs would respond to it and start offering this service. Right now, a few Canadian labs offer the service of testing Glyphosate in water, and soil. Unfortunately, they will not test it in your food, or your body fluids as of now.

For those that wish to learn more about what Glyphosate is, and why it should be a matter for concern – read the bottom section of this blog, where a copy of a letter recently written by retired Canadian genetic engineer Dr. Thierry Vrain to the health minister is included, covering this very subject, with scientific references to international studies. You can also check my own blog from the summer, where I asked for a nationwide testing for Glyphosate, and how our efforts are delayed due to the roadblock of not having any lab in Canada, and sending samples overseas or across the border is proving difficult and costly.

I am also including another external link : The microbiota Crisis and how Glyphosate is killing animal micro biome, including our own, and how this micro biome is vital for all us in the animal kingdom.

Above is a sample letter. Use it if you like, or modify it as needed. Wording of the same blank letter is shown below. Do not offer to pay for the tests as of now. Idea is for doctors and hospitals to start enquiring about testing Glyphosate in food and in people. If enough demand is perceived, some labs will start offering this service.

We intend to self-label our food

Idea is for us to contribute in testing our food. I could pay for testing one or two brand of food, apart from my own urine etc. Someone else would test another food item. We shall keep loading the findings on the internet in a sort of nationwide list. Eventually, with hundreds of citizens pulling in, we shall have hundreds of food items tested and self-labelled, so to speak, for the rest of the nation to check on. Then, for those that do not like to have Glyphosate in their food, or those that already find Glyphosate within themselves and are looking to identify and exclude those food items from where it might be intruding from, they can then start automatically banning those food items that are tested with high Glyphosate content. This self-driven citizens action bypasses the entire political circus of trying to convince Ottawa politicians to pay heed to public concerns, an exercise so far proving to be very difficult thanks to the financial clout of the foreign corporations that peddle the toxic stuff onto us.

That is one reason we need a lab. Besides, Canada is not a fourth world country – or we hope not. The first, the second and the third world already have labs for testing Glyphosate. It is a national shame that Canada has none.

So, please help Canada in helping ourselves on this important task.

The plan is not just to get a lab. A lab is the first step, which we should not even have had to deal with, had our Govt been careful. The Govt has not been so, and we now have to work extra for the first part – of getting a lab.

Once we have the lab, Canadians can then do into a citizen-driven self labelling drive. I would test a few food products myself, out of my own pocket if need be. If two hundred Canadians from coast to coast, decided to test one food item each, apart from testing ourselves, then Canada would have two hundred food items tested. Results would be put up on the internet, for the rest of 35 million Canadians to check up on, and decide what to buy and what not to. We can do this without asking Ottawa politicians for anything.

Citizens can, and in this case, may have to, take care of our health and environment issues on our own, since the Govt seems to have abandoned the cause. Citizens will label the food. Citizens will selectively ban the food according to label and need.

Thats the plan.

Sample letter 1

To : Doctor, or Nurse, or Hospital etc

From : Your name

Date :

I am concerned that my corn, soy or wheat based food may contain traces of a herbicide called glyphosate. I would like to get my body fluids and possible fat tissue sample tested for the presense of glyphosate to see if I am accumilating any of it in my body.

If I supply you with the samples, can you please arrange to get them tested?

I would prefer for the results of the tests to be sent to me personally, as well as to your office.

Samples I wish to test: Urine (2 samples), blood(1 sample), milk (1), bread(1), cooking oil(1) – (Please modify this letter and the list of items you wish to test, to suit your situation).

Appreciate your prompt action in this.

Thanking you,

Name & address

Sample letter 2

To : Doctor, or Nurse, or Hospital etc

From : Your name

Date :

I wish to test some samples for Glyphosate. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Round-Up herbicide and is being liberally sprayed on much of my food, both GMO and non GMO. I am concerned that this Glyphosate is migrating into my body, and may adversely affect my health.

If I supply you with the samples, can you please arrange to get them tested?

I would prefer for the results of the tests to be sent to me personally, as well as to your office.

Samples I wish to test: Urine (2 samples), blood(1 sample), milk (1), bread(1), cooking oil(1) – (Please modify this letter and the list of items you wish to test, to suit your situation).

Appreciate your prompt action in this.

Thanking you,

Name & address

Note from a Canadian lab, about testing Glyphosate in urine and food

Hi Tony:

We will look into the method once there is a demand, we cannot allocate resources to the development of a method for which there is no market at the moment. Also it will be a non-accredited method at this point.

Thanks.

Dr. Thierry Vrain’s letter to Rona Ambrose, health minister

October 27, 2014

To the Honorable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Health

Re: herbicide pollution and GMO labeling

Minister,

The confusion about the safety of GMOs is quite simple to address. The only GMOs in our agriculture are Glyphosate Modified Organisms also known as RoundUp Ready crops and the only GMOs in our food supply are from those crops. RoundUp Ready crops are engineeredto be sprayed with the herbicide RoundUp and this technology has become so successful that RoundUp has become a major pollutant (1). This chemical pollution is antibiotic, it impacts the microbiome, impairs CYP enzymes, and depletes food of essential mineral micronutrients. As a background paper for the impact of this pollution I offer my speaking notes to the American College of Nutrition conference last week in San Diego (Texas). Most of the studies I cite were published in the last five years.

Glyphosate is the active ingredient of the herbicide RoundUp, a new molecule created in 1960 by Stauffer Chemicals – a US company with a business of cleaning industrial pipes and boilers of mineral scales. The mineral deposits (same as in electric kettles) are called scales, and the pipe cleaning chemicals are called descaling agents. Glyphosate was patented in 1964 in the US as a powerful and very broad spectrum descaling agent (2). Meaning, it binds to metals indiscriminately and does a great job at “dissolving and preventing minerals from being reactive or bioavailable in solution”. When the descaling solution was disposed of in nature, it was obvious that it killed plants. The chemical company Monsanto promptly bought the molecule, patented it as a herbicide in 1969, and got it commercialized in 1974 (3). This molecule is making history because glyphosate has become the most successful agricultural chemical in North and South America wherever RR seeds are used. The farmers using this technology get simpler and cheaper weed management and despite
higher input bills and sometimes disappointing yields, and with weed resistance spreading fast, they adopted it in troves (4).

The herbicide RoundUp had a completely novel chemistry for a herbicide in 1969. It was deemed to kill plants by bonding to only one protein enzyme in the chloroplasts – the same enzyme that is also in bacteria and fungi. Enzymes are metalloproteins with a metal atom as a cofactor at the active site of the molecule. Bacteria and plants and fungi have a metalloprotein called EPSPS for short and 5-Enol Pyruvyl Shikimate-3 Phosphate Synthase if you want to know what it does. It works with other metalloproteins to “make” several of the building blocks of proteins, the aromatic amino acids. These molecules are also building blocks for a large number of aromatic molecules we call secondary compounds. Glyphosate binds tightly to the manganese atom at the centre of the EPSPS metalloprotein, so tightly that the protein cannot move and do its work making aromatic amino acids. No protein synthesis means there is no metabolic work possible, a quick death for the plant, or the fungi or the bacteria.

Animals do not make their own aromatic amino acids since they lack the shikimate pathway with the EPSPS metalloprotein. Because of its presumed mode of killing plants, glyphosate was pronounced innocuous to humans and registered as such in 1974 in the USA. Glyphosate has no acute toxicity, and at the time of registration in the US, and even since, nobody has bothered to check for chronic effects beyond 3 months. Considering the chemical properties of this pollution one would expect long term chronic effects, very similar to rickets, scurvy, or beri beri, for lack of micronutrients. The Industry sponsored feeding studies proving the safety of GMOs do not include testing for the safety of glyphosate. None of them bother to mention the residue levels of glyphosate in the feed. Meanwhile, a fast growing series of independent studies in various countries published in the last 5 years have ascertained the impact of glyphosate on various cellular enzymes and organs of animals and human cells.

The first RoundUp Ready crops to be commercialized were soy and corn, released in 1996. Since then, a handful of RR crops have been adopted enthusiastically by farmers, particularly in North and South America. Today close to 500 million acres of soya and corn, and cotton, canola, and sugar beet, are engineered to be sprayed with RoundUp. About 40% of all RR crops are grown in the USA, most of the rest are grown in Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and a few other countries. RR crops are now sprayed with close to two billion lbs of glyphosate every year, and so much of that finds its way into processed food and feed that the EPA had to raise the legal residue limits last year to accommodate a new reality (5).

Glyphosate is antibiotic, a powerful and broad spectrum antibiotic (6). The mode of kill is again alleged to be very selective. The glyphosate molecule impairs the functioning of the shikimate pathway in bacteria the same way it does in plants. Only one enzyme is affected in a pathway that animals do not possess. The antibiotic patent describes its effectiveness to kill bacteria at 1 ppm and this was confirmed last year in Germany (7). At this point I usually spend a minute or two explaining why a low level antibiotic diet for the rest of your life is not a good idea. I describe the recent interest of the medical field in a large joint research project involving many Universities to decipher the huge community of thousands of species of bacteria that call us home. The Human Microbiome project is the equivalent of the Human Genome project in its scope. We are vastly outnumbered, roughly ten to one – one hundred trillion bacterial cells call our lower intestine home. They are forever sending signaling molecules to each other and to all human organs, particularly the brain. All animals depend on their symbiosis with these bacteria, and humans are no exception.

They are the teachers of our immune system, they make many neurotransmitters for our brain, and have a strong connection to the heart and the whole digestive tract. They literally feed us all kinds of molecules that we require – we call them essential, like vitamins and such. They digest and recycle most of our food. Most human organs rely on molecular signals from the microbiome for normal functioning. As goes the microbiome, so does its human shell. A recent review of the medical literature on celiac and other diseases shows the link to imbalances of the microbiome that are fully explained by the antibiotic properties of glyphosate (8). And the same authors published another review of the impact of glyphosate on the CYP enzymes and the microbiome. Samsel and Seneff have suggested that glyphosate’s suppression of CYP enzymes and its antibiotic effect on the human microbiome are involved in the etiology of many chronic degenerative and inflammatory diseases that have grown to epidemic proportions since 1996, since the advent of the RoundUp Ready technology (10).

We lack any official data on residues of glyphosate in food or in water in Canada – no epidemiological studies of any kind have ever been done. All we have are the legal maximum residue limits now allowed by the EPA in RoundUp Ready foods, human cereal 30 ppm, animal grain 100 ppm, soybean 120 ppm, and everything else in between (5). Here an inquisitive mind will ask why there is such a high residue limit for cereal when none of the grains are engineered to be sprayed with RoundUp. This is when you learn that RoundUp is sprayed on many non-engineered crops with the intent to kill them right before harvest. This is done to mature and dry the crops quickly to make them easier and cheaper to harvest. The RoundUp herbicide has now become a dessicant.

There is direct toxicity to animal cells because glyphosate binds to metals indiscriminately, and not just in plant cells. It binds to metals in solution and to metal co-factors at the centre of metalloproteins anywhere. For example glyphosate binds to the iron atom at the centre of a large family of protein enzymes called CYP. There are 57 different CYP enzymes in the human body, and approximately 20,000 in animals, plants, bacteria and fungi. The CYP enzymes are oxydizers, the first line of digestion and detoxification of most substrates. David Nelson wrote in a review of the CYP enzymes: “The CYP enzymes of humans are essential for our normal physiology and failure of some of these enzymes results in serious illnesses (9,10).

Nancy Swanson has made public her statistical analyses of the US Centre for Disease Control’s statistics about the health status of America when placed next to the statistics of the US Department of Agriculture about the spread of RoundUp Ready soy and corn. Her correlation analyses show very high coefficient values suggesting strong links between glyphosate residues in RoundUp Ready food and chronic illnesses (11).

Medical and chemical reviews and peer reviewed studies have explained the mode of action of glyphosate and its impact on many metalloproteins. Human cell studies have shown acute toxicity (12-15) and animal studies have shown chronic toxicity (16-21). Glyphosate bioaccumulates in the plants and in any animal that eat the plants.

Glyphosate accumulates in the lungs, the heart, kidneys, intestine, liver, spleen, muscles, and bones … and chronically ill people have higher residues in their urine than healthy people.”(22)

To conclude this presentation of the nutritional status of Glyphosate Modified Organisms, I would say that crops sprayed with RoundUp, whether they are RoundUp Ready or not, contain residues of glyphosate, that foods made from RoundUp Ready soy and corn and sugar and canola, etc … are depleted of the minerals that are bound to the glyphosate molecules (23). Foods made from crops containing residues of glyphosate are by definition depleted of minerals and toxic.

Minister, your reassuring words have been quoted widely. “Currently, there is no… scientific evidence, that says genetically modified foods are unhealthy. It is impossible for us to mandate a label, because our labels have to be based on evidence that it is an unhealthy product for Canadians.” I hope you have found here the scientific evidence you require to act and that you join over 60 governments in the world who have found this evidence compelling enough in the past few years, to legislate some form of labeling or ban RoundUp Ready crops and the herbicide RoundUp.

Respectfully,

Dr. Thierry Vrain

thierryv@telus.net

Literature cited

Asking Politicians to come clean on GMO and pesticides

Posted on November 6, 2014 by admin

To :
Hon. Rona Ambrose, P.C., M.P., Minister of Health

Hon. Gerry Ritz, M.P., Minister of Agriculture

Libby Davies, NDP Health Critic

Hedy Fry, Liberal Party Health Critic

Elisabeth May, Green Party leader

cc:
Alex Atamanenko, M.P, NDP – concerned on GMO & Glyphosate

Bruce Hyer, M.P. Green Party – concerned on Glyphosate

Dated – Nov 6th, 2014

Honorable minister of health, Minister of Agriculture,

Health critics

Concerned Parliamentarians

Good day

I have written in the past to a few of you on this general topic and put up the feedback, if any, on my blog at www.ton.org on issues considered to be of grave concern for Canadians. Today, I have another set of questions for you.

Hon Rona Ambrose – Health Minister

I am a retired Marine Engineer, Shipmanagement executive, consultant, and a blogger, podcaster, science interviewer, photographer, videographer, citizen journalist, food security activist and a writer, not to mention a public speaker currently on a talking tour, along with retired Agriculture Canada Scientist Dr. Thierry Vrain, across Canada on GM organisms and what it means to Canada’s future as an independent nation.

Questions I have are about GMO, pesticide, and patented life forms introduced into Canada, to replace natural life forms.

1) What Science ?

Science in the western hemisphere is no longer public funded, and is wholly supported by the Industry. The Industry has no interest in funding any science project that aims to find faults with its product. As a result, science itself has gotten one side and lost its neutrality.
Please comment on this.

2) Where is the independent analysis?

GM crops are considered intellectual property of the patent holder, which denies the right for any independent analysis of its quality or safety without express permission of the patent holder, and this permission is only given with conditions that the findings be first be vetted by the patent holder and any analysis that is not flattering, does not get to see light of day.

Please comment on this.

3) Science under dictatorial censorship.

Few scientists that, in spite of such severe restrictions, found problems with the GM technology or its pesticides and published their findings, manage to get fired, or their papers retracted from the journals, and they are discredited, lambasted and literally hounded out of the academic world.
Please comment on this.

4) Who owns living organisms?

How do corporations get to own living organisms and their DNA? They did not create them from scratch, but first stole the DNA of a few living organisms (I say stole because if life forms can be “owned” then those living organisms must have been property of some entity, even God, before the Corporations decided to use it). And then these stolen DNA were polluted it by inserting genes of unrelated organisms, such as a toxic bacteria and a food crop plant. So, should we allow such patents and let the whole organism be patented and owned by a corporation?

Please comment on this.

5) Attack on God’s creation and on Canadian Independence?

The plan, as it appears, is for all living organisms, be it food we eat, or grass and alfalfa in the prairies, or trees in the forest or fish and animals and micro organisms, all living creatures that have some value, to be owned property of a few patent holding foreign corporation.No living organism that has any value to humans in any way, will belong to Canada or be God’s creation any more.
Please comment on this.

This is an open letter and will be put up on the web (www.tonu.org) for the public. Any answer from you or another recipient in copy, will also be put up. Our belief is that the public needs to know where politicians stand on such issues

Thank you

Tony Mitra

tony.mitra@gmail.com

(Address and contact)

MP Bruce Hyer Responds:

Good letter

I agree

Bruce Hyer, Deputy Leader, Green Party

Is Croplife Canada trying to keep RoundUp under the carpet?

Posted on August 5, 2014 by admin

Dr. Thierry Vrain and self had a few presentations, talks and question and answers in Manitoba last month, including one in the town of Steinbach. The talk from Dr. Vrain was about Glyphosate and how dangerous it can be for our soil, water, food and in our body.

I spoke about Canada not having a single lab in Canada were we can test our body fluids and food for presence of Glyphosate, as well as how citizen’s grassroots actions, and political engagement at the Municipal level, can push back at this relentless encroachment of corporations into our rights to good health, environment and food.

Meanwhile, the president of Croplife Canada, wrote a letter to the editor of the Southeastern Manitoba newspaper – The Carilloon, which was posted by the paper. The letter basically criticizes Dr. Vrain, but misses his presentation completely.

The content of his letter is as attached.

I found this to be a misrepresentation of facts, considering the fact that Dr. Thierry Vrain focusses on Glyphosate, the weed killing chemical in Monsanto’s RoundUp herbicide, rather than Gene transfer technology in GMO. Mr. Menzies appears to be either unaware of Dr. Vrain’s presentation or may be willfully attempting to sidetrack the main issue of Dr. Vrain’s talks – which is damages to health and environment brought on by Glyphosate, the molecule in RoundUp herbicide suspected to be robbing the mineral nutrients from soil and food as well as killing our micro-biome, the colony of our gut bacteria that are so vital to our well being.

Since Mr. Menzies appears to be so generous in offering his views about it, albeit sidestepping the herbicide, I thought it might be proper to bring the focus back where it was supposed to be – on Glyphosate the weed killer in our food.

Dr. Thierry Vrain

Dr. Vrain has sent a letter to the publisher. I shall copy that here for the people around the world, as Dr. Vrain’s response does throw more light on the issue. Here is what he said :

Dear Sir,

Mr Ted Menzies, President of Crop Life Canada, has not been made aware of the Food Safety and Sustainable Agriculture Forum that took place last month in Beijing. Over 300 scientists from China, the USA, the UK, Russia, France, Denmark, Germany, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and Peru, met to review and discuss scientific studies of engineered crops and food. These were not anti GMO activists and conspiracy theorists with an agenda, they were biologists and biotechnologists, and medical doctors and veterinarians, and there were also farmers, and social and food safety activists, and representatives of NGOs. The broad consensus was that the RoundUp Ready technology that was invented to boost the sales of the herbicide RoundUp is not sustainable because of the chronic toxicity of the herbicide. The technology has been very successful and revolutionized agriculture since 1996, particularly in North America and a few countries of South America, but it is deeply flawed. This chemical is now spread (and sprayed) all over the food supply in North America and a few other countries, it has become as common as a food additive. It is also in the air, the rain, the water and of course it bio-accumulates in our body organs. There is a large body of science showing severe chronic toxicity in animals and pointing the finger at many of the degenerative and inflammatory diseases that we have seen become epidemic since RoundUp has been sprayed on RoundUp Ready crops. Many countries including political allies of the USA (64 at the last count) have now legislated some form of regulation of engineered crops and foods, or banned them altogether.

The fact that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada personnel seem to have caved in to political pressure or lobbying to keep ignoring the latest science is not reassuring at all. Studies from the US Department of Agriculture show that engineered grains are depleted of metal micronutrients. Just like they would if they contained residues of a powerful and broad spectrum chelating agent that binds the missing minerals. Studies from many countries show that glyphosate is also antibiotic (at one part per million, as cited on the 2010 US patent). Does this mean that people are fed low level antibiotics like industrial chickens and cattle? Business as usual is not acceptable anymore, this was the strong message from the Forum that took place in Beijing last month.

Cui bono ? Mr Ted Menzies finds it disconcerting that I am not getting paid and still consider it my civic duty to protect the health and safety of Canadians and raise the alarm. Who is this technology good for if it depletes the food of essential mineral nutrients and threatens our health?

Dr. Thierry Vrain

And then here is what I wrote to the editor of the same paper, today, August 5th 2015:

Dated: August 5, 2014

Dear sir,

As a concerned citizen, I write to you drawing attention to apparent misinformation posted by Mr. Ted Menzies, President of Croplife, in his letter as published in your paper recently.

Dr. Thierry Vrain speaks primarily about Glyphosate, the active ingredient contained in Monsanto’s RoundUp herbicide, and not GMO or gene transfer technology. Mr. Menzies sidesteps the main presentation about the effects of RoundUp herbicide in our food and environment, and attempts to falsely drag Dr. Vrain into a debate on if GMO is good or bad. Is that not falsification of facts?

I would encourage Mr. Menzies to provide peer reviewed science papers that actually prove that presence pesticides in general, or Glyphosate in particular in our food, is good for our health.

I would further like Mr. Menzies to either provide proof that Glyphosate is not an antibiotic although it is patented by Monsanto to be such, or that glyphosate does not damage the micro-biome in our gut in spite of being an anti-biotic.

I would be delighted if Mr. Menzies can further provide data where Canadian citizens can have their blood, urine, and food tested for presence of Glyphosate, to check if levels of this poison has crossed minimum safety limits imposed by USA, by Europe, and other countries. I would also encourage Mr. Menzies to furnish data on what safety limits the Canadian Government might have set on presence of Glyphosate in our food, and if Croplife, or Health Canada or anybody has conducted thorough testing of Canadian food for presence of Glyphosate and if so, where those results are available.

Lastly, I would recommend that Mr. Menzies to actually attend one of Dr. Vrains talks and tries to absorb the content of his presentation, and then write his views on it.

Tony Mitra
(address, phone # & email)

Eric Rempel with Tony Mitra

I was happy to note that Dr. Vrain’s letter was published by the paper, along with another letter from Mr. Eric Rempel, who I had the pleasure of meeting in Manitoba, and who is perhaps planning to stand for election in the local Municipal Council, and do in his neighbourhood what Harold Steves did for Richmond. Below is the copy of his letter to the editor.

I wrote a follow up note to the editor, not necessarily wanting them to publish my comments, but rather, advising them of this blog and its readership, and inviting the editor or other staff to consider posting their own view on this blog, about mainstream media, social media, citizen journalism and alternative media in this new age of internet that has essentially placed the printed newspapers in an almost existential crisis. Add to it the fact that many of the large news-media conglomerates are, by definition, under control of a shrinking body of media corporations that exert a disproportionate amount of influence on what is published and what is not. In the process, free press as we understood it two generations ago are fast becoming a thing of the past.

So here is what I wrote to the editor.

To: The Editor, Mr. Grant Burr
The Carillon,
377 Main Street
Steinbach, Manitoba R5G 1A5
Phone: 204-326-3421

Dear Mr. Burr,

cc: Dr. Thierry Vrain, Eric Rempel

Subject: Glyphosate, GMO, and the letter to editor by Mr. Ted Menzies, president of Crop Life, Canada.

This is a follow up of my previous email to you dated 5th of August, 2014 on the subject.

I am a citizen journalist, writer, blogger (www.tonu.org), podcaster, videographer and food security activist, and have covered this issue on my blog at http://www.tonu.org/2014/08/05/invisible-glyphosate/. I accompanied Dr. Thierry Vrain on the cross Canada GMO talk tour, speaking after Dr. Vrain, on citizen action issue on Glyphosate Testing, and on grassroots level political activism to counter an unholy alliance between foreign biotech corporations and our political system in Canada.

The blog itself is reasonably popular on a global scale, getting between 1,500 to 2,000 hits a day, mainly from North America, but also from clusters in Western Europe, Asia and elsewhere, and is being picked up even in remote and unlikely locations such as Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Pago Pago island, Turkey, Peru, Hawaii and Guyana . The most recent statistics (past 48 hours) from the server in a visual map is included below for your record.

I was happy to note that you have included at least two of the letters sent to you presenting an opposing view to Mr. Ten Menzies’ note, since Mr. Menzies clearly has a conflict of interest, since he is the president of Crop Life, and since Crop Life benefits from sale of both GM crop seed as well as RoundUp herbicide.

From Dr. Vrain’s point of view, largely supported by an increasing number of citizens, scientists, organic farmers, naturopaths and food security activists, it is the pesticide in general and Glyphosate in particular, that is the 900 pound gorilla at our dinner table and more clearly identifiable as the toxic element in our environment and food.

It is perhaps for this reason, that the industry would prefer to sidestep any debate on Glyphosate (the poison in RoundUp herbicide, the most used poison in the world today) in our food and in our body, and try to shackle the debate on the narrow topic of GMO and gene transfer.

I send this note to you for your information, not necessarily requesting you to post this comment in your paper, but rather, to encourage you or your staff to read up on the blog, and perhaps offer your own comments, which I shall be happy to append at the bottom of the blog, should I receive any.

I do not have Mr. Ted Menzies’ email, but in case you do, you are welcome to pass him this note, in case he should wish to offer any counter argument.

This letter, like most things we citizen journalists often write, will be for public consumption, and therefore may be included at the bottom of the same blog, and also freely circulated through internet, etc.

I am copying this note to Dr. Thierry Vrain and Mr. Eric Rempel, whose letter you were gracious enough to print.

This is for your information. Congratulating you for maintaining a balanced view on the topic, and airing both sides of the argument.

Wishing you and your paper a prosperous future.

Tony Mitra
(Contacts)
PS – I have a habit of not proof reading my letters, so please excuse any typo.

I would also invite the editor of the newspaper, The Carillon, to offer his comments if he so wishes, on this blog. I do not have the contact details of Mr. Ted Menzies, president of Crop Life Canada. In case any of the readers has his contacts, you are welcome to invite Mr. Menzies for his comments as well.

In case anyone is interested to write a letter to the newspaper, The Carillon, which presumably covers South-eastern Manitoba, their contacts as displayed on their web site is:
Editor : Mr. Grant Burr
The Carillon, 377 Main Street, Steinbach, Manitoba R5G 1A5Phone: 204-326-3421Fax: 204-326-4860

To better present what Dr. Thierry Vrain talks about, we should shortly have a copy of his presentation video on the internet for the general public to see.

To the leader of Green Party of Canada, Elisabeth May, about a sense of betrayal

Posted on June 26, 2014 by admin

There is apparently a motion, or a resolution, to be placed on the table for voting by the Green Party members next week. The motion is about changing the party’s policy in GMO. So far it had been against adoption of GM technology with its patented seeds, monoculture and pesticide dependent model in Canadian agriculture. But now, they are contemplating a reversal of policy and support of GM Crop and pesticides for Canadians.

This is considered so outrageous a development by many sustainable living and ecologically conscious people, and by a vast majority of the population that do not like GMO and pesticide, that it shocked the traditional Green supporters.

So, following the original wording of the proposed motion, I wrote the leader of the Green Party, Ms Elizabeth May, the following letter. The original wording of the motion is taken from their site and copied below my letter.

From: Tony Mitra

Subject: Inviting you to take part in the nationwide testing of Glyphosate poisoning

Date: June 26, 2014 at 9:57:58 PM PDT

To: Elizabeth May

WHEREAS the Government of Canada has never conducted nor ordered any independent study on long term effects of Genetically Engineered crop and its associated pesticides on the environment, on Canada’s biological diversity and on people;

WHEREAS the Government of Canada has never even set up or encouraged any lab in the country to test for presence of Glyphosate (the main poison in Monsanto’s RoundUp week killer) in human body fluids or human food;

WHEREAS the Government of Canada only accepts toxicological study of industrial toxins from the promoters of the product, which is a case of conflict of interest;

WHEREAS the Government of Canada fires Health Canada scientists should they find bio-engineered products of foreign corporations to be lacking in sufficient evidence of being safe;

WHEREAS Health Canada and Environment Canada keeps mentioning working with EPA of the US to assess safety of agricultural products such as RoundUp ready crop and their associated pesticides, where EPA itself does not engage in independent study of safety and bases its approval on reports submitted by the product maker;

WHEREAS there is clear evidence of a revolving door policy between the industry and the Government in both USA and Canada, allowing unprecedented level of control and interference by a handful of corporations in driving national agriculture, forestry, environment and trade policies;

WHEREAS retired scientists from EPA have blown the whittle on how corrupt EPA is, ref “Poison Spring” by Dr. EG Vallianatos;

WHEREAS Canada signed the Cartagena protocol but never ratified it, and did not put in place international standards in preservation of our biological diversity from unintended harm from introduction of living modified organisms, while over 160 other countries did;

WHEREAS calling genetically engineered agricultural products, with associated pesticide driven model to be “green” and associated with the Green Party is considered by the people to be a joke and a betrayal;

WHEREAS there are enough evidence from independent scientists, such as Seralini, Goulson, Pusztai and many others, that GM corn and RoundUp can be very harmful for mammals, in studies conducted in Europe, and if Canada finds those studies to be doubtful, prudence and precautionary principle would demand that Canada conducts its own “independent” study on it instead of listening to the promoter of the product, and yet Canada did not conduct any truly independent safety study on GM products and pesticides;

WHEREAS it is an open secret that education is no more public funded and science is now shackled to funding from Industry, which does not like its product to be found wanting, as a result of which science is losing its objectivity and neutrality and has become biased, vindictive to differing views, and pugnacious and feared;

WHEREAS the Government of Canada ignores all the independent safety warnings, such as extremely uncanny and strong correlation between usage of Glyphosate and rise of all kinds of chronic disease and their pathway links – through papers of Nancy Swanson, Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff;

WHEREAS overwhelming majority of the people in Canada as well as in USA do not like pesticides and GMO and will avoid it if labelled and reasonable alternatives are available:

WHEREAS promotion of this unproven and potentially dangerous GM agriculture model is likely to push Canada into a future where all the food Canadians eat will be owned by a foreign corporation and small organic farmers have to go extinct or convert to grow only GMO, and where they have no more any right to save their own seeds;

WHEREAS this model of corporate control may be dangerous for Canada’s food security and very foundation of her political and economic independence;

WHEREAS supporting GM technology flies in the face of the very concept of being “Green”;

WHEREAS a growing number of Canadians stopped believing the Government on GMO and pesticides and are engaged in direct self driven and funded initiative to conduct a nationwide test of Glyphosate in people, their environment and food;

WHEREAS our counterparts in the US are also engaged in a coast to coast testing of Glyphosate of their body fluids and food;

THEREFORE, we request, that you too join this grassroots movement, paying for your own urine sample for measuring Glyphosate content if any, costing around $32 only for batch processing in a lab in the US, and also paying for another homeless or low income person that does not have the luxury of eating carefully selected organic food, and cannot afford even $32, to get his/her urine tested. Please write email to glyphosate.testing@gmail.com to join and partake in the test and encourage your other party members to do the same. Also, while you and your party is always begging the people for donations, here is a counter suggestion of donating back some of that public fund towards a crowd sourcing scheme to allow homeless and poor people to pay for their own Glyphosate test at : https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nationwide-glyphosate-testing.

Thanking you

Tony Mitra

(Address and tel #)

And now, the original wording of the motion the full text here :

Comments:

This policy motion will force a rewrite of G06-p14, G06‐p34, G06‐p53, 1998 Environment, 1996 and 1998 Agriculture policies, which declare support for a complete ban on the Canadian use of genetic engineering in agriculture and pesticides, and oppose experimentation and research by Agriculture Canada.

Preamble:

WHEREAS national science academies of the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, China, India, Brazil, and Mexico, Third World Academy, World Health Organization, International Council for Science, European Academies Science Advisory Council, Health Canada, U.S. National Research Council, American Medical Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Society of Toxicology, Washington State Academy of Sciences, American Society for Cell Biology, American Society of Plant Biologists, Scientific American magazine, Science magazine, European Commission’s review of 130 studies across 25 years from 500 independent research groups, an Italian review of 1783 studies, and 600 peer-reviewed papers have concluded that genetically engineered foods are safely regulated;

WHEREAS bioengineered organisms from anthocyanin-rich purple tomatoes to vitamin A-rich golden rice have no universal biochemical traits distinct from products developed through thousands of years of traditional breeding;

WHEREAS peer-reviewed literature over a 20-year timeframe found bioengineered Bt contributing to biodiversity through decreased insecticide usage in northern China (Nature, 2012), with similar findings from a Landes Bioscience review of 155 papers (Carpenter, 2011), and a Nature Biotechnology review of 49 peer-reviewed journals surveying farmers of 12 countries, finding the greatest bioengineering benefits for developing world farmers (Carpenter, 2010);

WHEREAS dissenting papers identifying health harms in animals have methodological errors such as missing hypotheses, testing of specific products like NK603 instead of the engineering process, or retraction like with the Food and Chemical Toxicology journal to the 2012 Seralini study;

Operative:

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Green Party of Canada will support Health Canada’s existing regulatory regime for genetically engineered foods and will permit bioengineering experimentation by Agriculture Canada.

Letter to Minister of Health, Canada

Posted on June 25, 2014 by admin

Letter to the Minister of Health – Govt of Canada

The Honourable Rona Ambrose, P.C., M.P.Health CanadaBrooke Claxton Building, Tunney’s PasturePostal Locator: 0906COttawa, Ontario K1A 0K9
cc: Libby Davies, MPNew Democrat Health Critic542-N Centre BlockHouse of CommonsOttawa, ON K1A 0A6	Libby Davies, MPNew Democrat Health Critic2412 Main StreetVancouver, BC V5T 3E2
cc: Hedy Fry, MPLiberal Health CriticRoom Number 800 Justice BuildingHouse of CommonsOttawa, ON, K1A 0A6	cc: Hedy Fry, MPLiberal Health CriticDenman Place Mall, 106 – 1030 Denman StVancouver, BC, V6G 2M6
cc: Alex Atamanenko, MP337 Columbia Ave,Castlegar BC V1N 1G6

Friday, June 20, 2014

Dear Honourable Minister Ambrose

Subject: Testing body fluids including milk for presence of Glyphosate, for Canadians

We are a group of concerned citizens in a grassroots organization, Canadians for Glyphosate Testing, that wish to know the extent to which this synthetic killer chemical named Glyphosate has entered our living space, our food and our body.

Glyphosate is the active poison in Monsanto’s RoundUp weed killer and in many other brands today, and is the highest selling poisonous chemical in the planet. It is also suspected to be linked with rapid rise of many serious illnesses from autism and cancer to celiac, crown’s, infertility and others, and with possible species extinctions in the past 20 years.

People are basically fed up with inaction from our medical and political system with regard to finding out to what extent people may have been poisoned by Glyphosate. it is their right to know, so they decided to engage directly and get the tests done with their own money, bypassing the entire Government health system.

In this endeavour, we were shocked to learn that there is no lab in Canada that can even test Glyphosate in body fluids. This is being considered as evidence that the Canadian Government never considered accumulation of this weed killer in humans as a safety concern, despite doubts raised on the subject globally both by independent scientists and public. Canada apparently has never ordered any long term independent study, outside of control of the industry or politicians, to test toxicity effects on mammals due exposure to Glyphosate or its accumulation in body. Canada does not even have a lab to check presence of Glyphosate in animals and people. Labs here can apparently test for Glyphosate only in water and soil, and nothing else, that too at a relatively steep cost of $250 to 300 per test – quite out of range for ordinary Canadians.

We have thankfully found labs in the US that will use ELISA screening (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) method to test for Glyphosate in all kinds of matrices such as water, urine, soil, milk, and various kinds of food at a more reasonable cost of $100 to 150.

Further, we found that some labs may consider performing these tests in large batches, if there is public interest, thus bringing the price substantially down, within reach of average people. Thus, the people in Canada are now engaging in a nationwide Glyphosate testing initiative. Groups are forming in all regions that will collect samples and order testing in batches, collecting funds to do so. Poor & homeless people are likely more exposed to the toxin since they cannot afford to be selective on what they eat. They are also least likely to be able to afford testing their urine. So we initiated a crowd funding scheme to support them.

Testing of milk, both human breast milk from nursing mothers and cow milk has posed a problem. Although individual labs can do these tests in USA for over $100, we could not find any lab initially that could do batch processing of milk at a lower cost.

Testing milk is important. Monsanto claims that Glyphosate does not pose a problem even if ingested by mammals, because the body flushes it out through urine and feces. Based on that assumption, the limit to which the chemical can be present in the environment has been set higher. Therefore, finding it in breast milk, or even cow milk, would prove that mammals cannot flush it all out and it can accumulate, and that the limits allowed in the Environment should be lowered drastically. Glyphosate has been discovered in breast milk from nursing mothers in the US recently.

Luckily, we have obtained details of how a lab can separate the clear liquid in milk from the white fatty matter so that this clear liquid can then be tested accurately for Glyphosate, using the ELISA kit. Technical documents on this have been passed to a few inquisitive US and Canadian labs. We hope that some day, Canadian labs would be able to test human breast milk, cow milk and a whole range of other food products economically, for Canadian citizens, even if the Government or the healthcare industry will not engage in it.

The purpose of this writing is two fold. This is not to plead with the Government to consider funding this Citizen’s test. People believe that the ministry of health might only look for excuses why this test should not be done. The people have therefore decided to bypass the Government and conduct their own tests, and find out how much they have been poisoned and from what sources.

The reason we write this are to ask:

If the Government might consider assisting and encouraging a few labs in Canada to expand their services to include low cost volume processing of human body fluids as well as food etc for presence of Glyphosate, so that we do not have to send money overseas and support the US lab science industry. We should be supporting our own.
Why does the Government bother setting safe limits of Glyphosate in water, if it does not care if the same Glyphosate accumulates humans and animals?

Please also note, this grassroots group is transparent and open source. This letter may be circulated among members, volunteers, local organizers and the general public, through emails, social media or on the web, and may get into my own blog at – www.tonu.org.

Thanking you

On behalf of Canadians for Glyphosate Testing

Tony Mitra
Blog: http://www.tonu.org/
Web: http://gmofreenetwork.com/

Exchanges with Dairyland

Posted on June 23, 2014 by admin

(To Satupo, parent company behind the Dairyland milk products)

July 16, 2014

Dear Ms Elke,

Thank you for your response today July 16th, to my message dated June 20th.

I have the following for your record:

My question was not if your milk product satisfied existing standards, but more specifically, if you would like to join us in testing your milk for presence of Glyphosate. By your below answer, your firm appears to be unwilling join us in this test. In such a case we shall proceed to test it ourselves.
Your message seems to imply that you expect Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and Health Canada to enforce science based standards such as Glyphosate in food. But you did not clarify who enforces it, and what the standards with regard to Glyphosate in milk might be. Appreciate if you can advise us what limit is set for Glyphosate in milk, who is doing the testing, and what the results are.
We believe no one has ever tested any milk in Canada for Glyphosate, because we cannot find a single lab in this country that is prepared, or set up, to test Glyphosate in milk, or in fact any other food. I would request you to name us a single lab inside Canada that you know will test milk for Glyphosate. We are consequently sending your milk samples to USA for testing.
We have no desire to speak with Canadian Dairy Farmers, whose contact you did not include, nor did you copy us in when you sent our email to them. We believe it should be your responsibility to check if Dairyland milk products contain the largest selling week killer in the planet as a response from our query, irrespective of what Health Canada, Canadian Food Inspection Agency or Canadian Dairy Farmers think about it. Since cost of a mere couple of hundred dollars for each test should not break your bank, we had expected you to readily join this exercise to prove that your milk is clean, or learn if there is a cause for concern. However, you must have your good reason to be reluctant to test it, while falling back on existing regulations, or as in this case, a lack of it.
We also note you did not respond to the comment that it is very hard for a consumer to find a contact details of a real person in your organization
Further, since we are a grassroots, and we follow people’s wishes and concerns, and since people are concerned about Glyphosate and are getting engaged in testing it at their own cost, we shall be putting up your response as well as this note, as a follow up to my earlier message to you, which is already on the web, at : http://www.tonu.org/2014/06/23/dairyland/
When we test your milk products in a certified lab in the US, we shall be disclosing the results too on the web for all to see. We hope the results would turn out clean without trace of Glyphosate. We have raised crowd funding efforts and private donations to collect funds to pay for testing urine, breast milk of nursing mothers as well as some food items, such as your milk. A lot of people have contributed, including Mr. Alex Atamanenko, Member of Parliament, House of Commons, Ottawa.

I am copying this message to Mr. Alex Atamanenko, MP, who is very keen on the topic of testing humans and food for traces of Glyphosate, which is suspected to have links with a series of diseases and who has been writing to the minister of Health in Ottawa to look into this matter.

Thanking you

With best wishes

Tony Mitra

(Address and contact)

(Dated July 16, 2014)

Dear Mr. Mitra:

Thank you for contacting Saputo regarding glyphosate in milk products. Please accept our apology for the lengthy delay in responding to your e-mail.

We would like to assure you that we take food safety and quality assurance very seriously and comply with all standards and regulations applicable to our operations. In addition, we rely upon Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, respectively, to set standards for residue limits of compounds such as glyphosate in food products and to ensure that these science-based standards are applied and enforced. We have also referred your letter to the Dairy Farmers of Canada, the national organization representing Canadian dairy farmers that ship quality milk from their farms to our company and all of the other dairy processors in the country.

We appreciate you taking the time to contact us in this regard and would suggest contacting the Dairy Farmers of Canada directly if you have any additional questions.

Sincerely,

Deborah
Consumer Relations Coordinator
Marketing Department
Saputo

Saputo Dairy Products Canada G.P.
6800 Lougheed Highway
Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1W2

Tel: 1-800-672-8866 / Fax: 604-588-1284
www.saputo.com

Dairyland

June 20, 2014,

Subject: Testing for Dairyland brand of milk sold in local stores, for presence of Glyphosate

Good day,

We, Canadians For Testing Glyphosate, a citizen’s grassroots body, are engaging in a massive citizen driven nationwide program to test if Glyphosate is present in our water and soil, in our body, and in the food sold in our stores, such as in Safeway, 7450 120th St in Surrey, BC.

In case you are wondering what Glyphosate might be – it is the active ingredient (poison that kills organisms) in Monsanto’s ‘RoundUp’ herbicide weed killer, and what is suspected to be linked to rise of a multitude of serious illnesses and deaths, and possible species extinctions in the last 20 years.
In that respect, we intend the following items that may contain Dairlyland brand of products such as:

Regular milk
Organic Milk
Chocolate milk
Strawbery milk
Egnog
Buttermilk
Cream
Lactose Free Products

etc

Our legal team is advising that we do not really need to either inform you or take your permission to test these products, if we buy these items and draw the sample from there to send to the labs, and that we have the right, as citizens living in a free country, to test the food that we buy to eat or drink from any store that are open to public.

However, this note is sent to seek your opinion on this, and to check if you might like to join us in this test. Good quality tests involving, say the ELISA method (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) costs around $150 or so per test in an accredited lab and possibly less in batch processing in other labs.

We shall be glad if your organization decides to join us by funding some of these “independent” tests on your own products, or shares data with us about your own third party testing results. We are planning to conduct them any way, but thought it might look better if your store were perceived to be cooperating.

Please note, we are only focussing on Glyphosate for now, and we are also checking many many items that are not your products.

Also, should you have an objection to the testing, i.e. if your position is that we may drink your product and feed our family with it, but we may not test it, I shall appreciate if you shall validate that with a proper statement.

Lastly, we aim to be a transparent organization that let the public know of our involvements in this regard, so this letter, and others like it, may be circulated among members and in social media and internet, for others to either write similar letters, or compose their own.

Absence of a response may be taken as you do not feel comfortable discussing this matter with us.

Please also note, we wished to send an email to your parent corporation Saputo, but could not locate their email address. Please also note, we failed to find even your email address and the mechanism you provided to send you any suggestion or comment to be very restrictive through this on line form. Here in Canada, even the prime ministers office has an accessible email for the people.

I shall be more than happy to meet you or speak with you about our effort, and shall be looking forward to any response from you.

Thanking you
On behalf of Canadians for Testing Glyphosate
Tony Mitra
(contact)

Letter to Agropur Cooperative about testing for RoundUp herbicide in their milk

Posted on June 21, 2014 by admin

We could not find an easy way to send an email to Agropur Cooperative regarding a citizen’s nationwide plan to test ourselves, our environment and our food, for presence of Glyphosate, in Monsanto’s weed killer RoundUp. In that effort we wished to include various brands of milk products, such as the Dairyland, Silk and Natrel group.

We prefer to have a name, a rank and an email address of firms that sell us food, so citizens can directly send them messages of public concern. However, there seem to be a serious effort by these firms to hide behind a wall of secrecy, and make it really hard for people to find contact details of relevant persons to write to with either a complaint or a suggestion. Agropur Cooperative was found even worse than the others, because their online complaint box allows only short messages, too short for us to send the attached email.

So, we said we wished to test their milk for Glyphosate and since we could not find an easy way to send them this letter electronically and directly, we are putting it up on the web, and sending them the link. We are still hoping that the firm will cooperate with our effort, especially if their milk is free of Glyphosate while competitors might not be.

Agropur Cooperative, Consumer Response

Subject: Testing for presence of Glyphosate in milk products

Good day,

We, Canadians For Testing Glyphosate, a citizen’s grassroots body, are planning to engage in a large scale citizen driven nationwide program to test if Glyphosate is present in our water and soil, in our body, and in the food we buy in our stores.

In case you are wondering what Glyphosate might be – it is the active ingredient (poison that kills organisms) in Monsanto’s ‘RoundUp’ herbicide weed killer, and what is suspected to be linked to rise of a multitude of illnesses, deaths, and possible species extinctions in the past 20 years.

In that respect, we are planning to be checking a few brands of milk including milk from Natrel. The range of products we might test, could include the fine filtered, lactose free, organic, flavoured, enriched and cafe versions etc.

Our legal team is advising that we do not really need to either inform you or take your permission to test these products, if we buy these items, taken them home and draw the sample from there to send to the labs, and that we have the right, as citizens living in a free country, to test the food that we buy to eat or drink from any store that are open to public.

We have identified labs, in the US, that can test for Glyphosate in milk. This test is considered vital for us. Monsanto claims that the toxin does not accumulate mammals even if ingested, and that it gets flushed out through urine. Therefore, any presence in milk would be proof that the claim may be false and that if it can accumulate in cows, it can also accumulate in humans that drink this milk. On the other hand, if some of your milk products prove to be Glyphosate free, in other words if Glyphosate was not present in the food cycle of the dairy cattle that provided the base stock, then the people can list out those products as safe to drink with regard to this pesticide.

This note is sent to seek your opinion on our plan to test your products, and to check if you might like to join us in this initiative. Good quality tests involving, say the ELISA method (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) costs around $150 or so per test in an accredited lab in the US. We shall be glad if your organization decides to join us by funding some of these “independent” tests on your own products. It might look good if your firm was perceived to be cooperating.

Please note, we are only focussing on Glyphosate for now, and we plan on a wide ranging scheme that will test many items which are not your products at all.

Should you have an objection to testing your milk products, i.e. if your position is that we may drink your milk and feed our family with it, but we may not test it, we shall appreciate if you will validate that with a proper statement.

We aim to be a transparent organization that let the public know of our involvements in this regard, so this letter, and others like it, may be circulated among members and in social media and internet, for others to either write similar letters, or compose their own.

Absence of a response may be taken as you do not feel comfortable discussing this matter with us.

Please also note, we failed to locate a proper name of a contact person with an email for your parent company in Canada. Even the prime ministers office has an accessible address and email contact for the people. We find this lack of easy access with a credible name, rank and contact email from vendors that demand such details from people writing to them through a heavily restricted on line comment section to be anti-people, poor in quality control tools and not too transparent.

We shall be more than happy to meet with you or speak on phone about our effort, and shall be looking forward to any response you might have.

Some of our friends in USA, also engaging in similar activity, might also approach you regarding products sold in American stores.

Thanking you

On behalf of Canadians for Testing Glyphosate

Tony Mitra

(address)

Letter to the BC Ministry of Environment, regarding Glyphosate testing

Posted on June 18, 2014 by admin

To: The Ministry of Environment, British Columbia, through the office of the Primier

Subject: ELISA testing for Glyphosate – an inquiry

Good day,

This letter is to ask if your office might assist a group of citizens in locating a suitable laboratory in Canada that will engage in batch processing using ELISA kits for measurement of presence of Glyphosate in various samples.

We are a large and growing group of Canadians that want to engage in self funded initiative to have a large number of samples tested for Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto’s RoundUp weed killer) in our water, urine, breast milk, cooking oil, processed food, raw grains etc.

We are not interested at this point of time to debate or engage in any discussion with any scientist or Politician about whether Glyphosate in food is acceptable as a health risk or not. We simply indent to find out if it is present and to what extent in which sample.

We are also not requesting for any Government funding for this project. Citizens are going to spend money out of their own pocket for this test, as they believe it is their right to know if any specific synthetic chemical that they are concerned about is in their food web or not.

This request is merely to see if your office might assist in finding a suitable laboratory in Canada.

We have been looking around for such labs and have so far failed to locate a single lab in Canada that are accredited to test Glyphosate in anything except water and soil. They mostly seem to use HPLC (High-performance liquid chromatography) method which is also costly for individual citizens.

Meanwhile, we have received more favourable quotes from the US, using ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) screening method, for individual tests for around $100 to 130, and also much lower costs for batch processing using ELISA kits, at almost half the cost. There are yet more labs that are not accredited to test Glyphosate yet, but are able to provide the service, presumably with comparable accuracy, at even a fourth of the cost. We are investigating these sources. A large number of concerned Americans too are joining us in the same quest.

There are courier charges involved in shipping to the US, along with possible customs formalities, which we are looking into.

Meanwhile, if indeed Canada has no labs that can test for Glyphosate in body fluids, in our food and drinks, using ELISA batch processing as a public service where people can pay for these tests themselves, at their cost, then can we request your good Government to consider setting such a lab up in BC ? That way we do not have to send money and samples across the border to help science lab industry in the US, and can support our own institutions instead.

We hope your office would be interested in looking into this.

I shall be happy to speak with you on phone, should you have more questions.

Thanking you

On behalf of Canadians for Glyphosate Testing

Tony Mitra.

(address)

Meanwhile, a crowd sourcing program started to raise $6,000 to get the homeless and low income group, suspected to be most affected by Glyphosate in their body through junk food, charity food and food bank supplements. If you can, please consider donating $5,10 or whatever you can spare.

2nd Letter to Mayor, Delta, BC about testing for Glyphosate

Posted on June 12, 2014 by admin

To: Ms Lois Jackson,
Mayor, Delta, BC
Dated June 12, 2014

Good day.

I had written to you on May 15, 2014 (http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/15/deltamayor/) on this topic, but received no response.

This letter is a reminder that we are still awaiting a response, and to keep you updated and to see if you or the Municipality of Delta, which collects our taxes, and which is our representative local Government, might have any interest in the wellbeing of its residents regarding exposure to nasty pesticides.

We have started a nationwide drive to check how much of Glyphosate is present in our drinking water, agricultural runoff, in our food sold in stores, and in our body. The basic concept is described in the blog :http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/31/glyphosate_testing-ca/. This is a citizen’s direct action, since our Governments so far appears non-plussed about it.

In case you are wondering what Glyphosate might be, it is the active ingredient (poison that kills) in Monsanto’s RoundUp weed killer. We have found no evidence that any government in Canada or any organization, have ever tested for accumulation of this weed killer in human body fluids or in food sold in local stores, or grown in local farms. This chemical is suspected to be involved in epidemic level rise of various auto-immune diseases. Government and the industry are resisting independent study of the effects of this pesticide on environment, on food and in people. Of relevance is a new book – ‘Poison Spring’ by Mr. Vallianatos, who worked for 25 years in EPA (Environment Protection Agency, USA) and describes how the EPA has continuously bypassed safety and allowed poison makers a free hand in running the institution. Our Ministry of Health has, instead of conducting independent safety checks on these substances, approves them based on tests done by the poison maker, and on EPA approval. I have spoken with the author and whistleblower Mr. Vallianatos himself. You can find it here : http://www.tonu.org/2014/06/06/poisonspring/

We have also written to Walmart and Safeway to check if they might like to join us in our testing food items sold in their store, for presence of this weed killer (http://www.tonu.org/2014/06/12/walmart-safeway/), but have not received any response.

The grassroots organization is citizen funded and a lot of people have joined hands to make this happen. Those that can afford to pay, will fund their own tests of samples collected by them, while we have just created a crowd funding program yesterday for others to contribute, so that poorer sections of the population, who cannot afford to pay for their tests, but who are likely more affected by Glyphosate poisoning, can be tested :https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nationwide-glyphosate-testing/x/7927653

We have also written to the BC ministry of agriculture and forestry, for release of data about the quantity and type of pesticides used in wood preservation industry in BC (http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/10/pesticide-in-bc-forestry/) and followed it up with a letter to the MLA Mr. Scott Hamilton (http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/20/scott_hamilton/). We have received letters of acknowledgement from both, though are still waiting for the data.

Incidentally, some of these questions have been picked up by MP Alex Atamanenko of BC and placed directly with the Minister of Health, in Ottawa. MP Mr. Atamanenko informed me from Ottawa about it:http://www.tonu.org/2014/05/29/atamanenko/

We shall be attending Municipal Council meetings in near future where we might present these questions to your council.

Meanwhile, here is a second request to you, to see if the Municipality or its environment, food, agriculture or health initiatives have any interest in joining our effort, or to use some of the tax it collects from us, to test how much RoundUp, the the most used Pesticide in Canada, has gotten in our water, our urine, in breast milk of our nursing mothers and in the food that are sold in our stores, in Delta BC.

Should there be another mechanism for approaching your good office to raise these questions – I shall be obliged if you advise me the details.

Being a fully transparent and citizen supported initiative, this letter may be circulated among friends and other partners, by email, on social media, and on internet.

We shall be more than happy to see you, or meet your council, or converse with you on phone on this matter that is considered to be of utmost importance by a large body of people.

Thanking you
Tony Mitra
(address & Tel)