Confronting ‘chemical war’ on the world
Published on February, 23 2015
By Ginger Harris, St. Louis Branch member
On short notice, eight St. Louis WILPF members, three of their friends, and WILPF US Section President Mary Hanson Harrison joined up on January 30 in St. Louis to rally with others as representatives of our Human Right to Health and Safe Food Campaign. They joined with national representatives of the Organic Consumers Association, Moms Across America, Sum Of Us, and local representatives of St. Louis’ Gateway Green Alliance, GMO-Free Midwest, Interfaith Committee on Latin America, Southern Illinois’ Food Works, doctors from St. Louis and San Francisco and other health and environmental advocates -- altogether 40 or more people.
The purpose was to let the shareholders, inside Monsanto headquarters and folks driving along the arterial road, know that Monsanto should stop producing the agricultural poison glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide
Moms Across America founder Zen Honeycutt cited the long list of diseases associated with glyphosate and with foods that have been genetically engineered to tolerate glyphosate (so far: soy, corn, cottonseed oil, canola, sugar beets, alfalfa, Hawaiian papaya and some summer squash) and crops that have not been gene-spliced, but use glyphosate in other ways, such as drying wheat for faster harvesting.
She explained that glyphosate is an antibiotic (that works against the body’s biological systems) that reduces the effectiveness of our immune system over time the way heavy use of antibiotics in our health system has allowed the growth of bacteria that we don’t currently have an antidote for, and the same way that heavy use of glyphosate to kill weeds has by now prompted the development of "super-weeds” immune to glyphosate. This has led Monsanto to apply to the US EPA for approval of their new GMO crops that are Dicamba-ready similar to Roundup-ready crops. Glyphosate is also a chelator, combining with and thus depriving our bodies of essential nutrients. Honeycutt then, by prearrangement, gave the same speech inside the rather heated shareholders meeting, along with the spokeswoman for SumOfUs, which had arranged to introduce a shareholders resolution to make Monsanto more sensitive to health and integrity issues.
Jeff Ritterman, MD from San Francisco, gave a fairly comprehensive explanation of how and why glyphosate is so damaging to humans and all vertebrate animals, including especially developing fetuses: glyphosate is an endocrine disrupter and DNA mutagen, thus causing birth defects. According to Dr. Ritterman, Monsanto knew as far back as the 1980s that high levels of glyphosate were statistically associated with birth defects, and as far back as 1993 that medium and low levels of glyphosate were also associated with birth defects.
Our own WILPF President Mary Hanson Harrison gave the most rousing speech: about how Monsanto has for decades been waging “chemical war” on the world -- and the most emotional speech about growing up on an Iowa dairy farm where her father, mother, sister and brother either died of diseases associated with DDT poisoning (e.g., cancers) or developed Parkinson’s disease. Monsanto began producing DDT in 1944, along with some 15 other companies.
After the speeches, rally-ers constructed a “road-side"-type memorial in front of Monsanto’s corporate sign with photos of many individuals who died due to glyphosate exposure. Most of us WILPFers and friends then returned to our St. Louis WILPF Branch president’s home to continue the conversation about “corporate chemical warfare” and how to spread the word, which will be challenging in a metro area heavily influenced by the number of scientists who have been on Monsanto’s payroll and the number of high-profile civic institutions, like the public radio station, symphony, and world-renowned botanical garden, that have been the recipients of Monsanto’s highly publicized charity! We’re hatching some plans! For more as the St. Louis Branch devel ops plans, contact Ginger Harris at gngr8s [at] gmail.com.
Photo: WILPF US President Mary Hanson Harrison speaks at rally in St. Louis MO outside the Monsanto shareholders meeting January 30, 2015. Ginger Harris photo
