More and more individuals are becoming aware of Monsanto’s evils, especially concerning it’s best-selling herbicide Round Up and its carcinogenic ingredient glyphosate. But we’re just learning about the registration of said chemicals in the form of GM crops as antibiotics. And we’re just learning how these chemicals are fueling the ever-expanding issue of antibiotic resistance.
Propaganda-spewing sites like GMO Answers try to tell us that the overuse of antibiotics in the only cause of super bugs, and that glyphosate has nothing to with this epic problem:
“The overuse of antibiotics in humans and the intensive use in hospital settings is a major problem, but use of antibiotics in agriculture can sometimes result in the selection of antibiotic-resistant organisms, and these organisms may then cause problems in the form of resistant human infections.
This matters only if a chemical (or a close relative with cross-resistance) is use in both clinical medicine and agriculture. Because glyphosate is not used in clinical medicine (and has no relatives used in medicine, either), the use of glyphosate in agriculture has nothing to do with resistance to antibiotics used in human medicine.”
Before I debunk this ridiculous statement, let’s start with the fact that more than 80 percent of the animals raised as livestock (that is, for food, be it milk, eggs, or meat) are subject to antibiotics, along with GMO soy and corn. Corporate industrial farming has definitely contributed to the super bug phenomenon, but it wasn’t without help from the biotech industry.
Researchers from New Zealand and Mexico have discovered that glyphosate (aka Monsanto’s Roundup), dicamba, and 2,4-D all play a key role in antibiotic resistance.
The paper published in American Society for Microbiology explains that:
“Increasingly common chemicals used in agriculture, domestic gardens, and public places can induce a multiple-antibiotic resistance phenotype in potential pathogens. The effect occurs upon simultaneous exposure to antibiotics and is faster than the lethal effect of antibiotics. The magnitude of the induced response may undermine antibiotic therapy and substantially increase the probability of spontaneous mutation to higher levels of resistance.
The combination of high use of both herbicides and antibiotics in proximity to farm animals and important insects, such as honeybees, might also compromise their therapeutic effects and drive greater use of antibiotics. To address the crisis of antibiotic resistance requires broadening our view of environmental contributors to the evolution of resistance.”
To whit, all three of Monsanto’s trademarked chemicals were tested on E. coli (which causes more bacterial infections than almost any other type), and Salmonella bacteria with one of five commonly prescribed antibiotics: Ciprofloxacin, chloramphenicol, ampicillin, kanamicin, and tetracycline.
Even very low levels of herbicides induced antibiotic resistance with these bacteria – and before the antibiotics even had enough time to kill the bacteria off.
In a few cases when two of the herbicides were combined, they made the bacteria more susceptible to the antibiotic, and sometimes there was no impact. But overwhelmingly, the study shows that Monsanto’s chemicals caused antibiotic resistance.
While the traces of these chemicals found in food were not enough to trigger antibiotic resistance, you have to understand that it starts on the farm, and ends up in your stomach.
According to the authors of the study:
“The effects found are relevant wherever people or animals are exposed to herbicides at the range of concentrations achieved where they are applied.
This may include, for example, farm animals and pollinators in rural areas and potentially children and pets in urban areas. The effects were detectable only at herbicide concentrations that were above currently allowed residue levels on food.”
The idea that we are supposed to believe that the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Round Up, which is patented as an antibiotic that completely alters gut flora, has no impact is laughable.
The next question you have to ask yourself is how this connects to the medical system, even though sites like GMO Answers will say there is no correlation.
I suggest the promotion of vaccines as an answer to superbugs is directly related.
I’ll leave it to you to connect the dots.
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