This posted is in a thread that Daniels started, thought I'd share my thoughts. Discussion is doom and gloom, chem trails, Round-Up, etc:
http://riddlem3.com/index.php/topic,1084.msg81993.html#msg81993
One thing we both seek is info not from Monsanto or the alternative peeps. I won't buy into the propaganda from the green, alternative news sources you quoted. If it has a buzzword like "natural" or "organic" attached to it....I won't even bother. One can say it causes this and that, doesn't mean there's a scientific link. Your altering a plant's enzyme response to glyphosate. It's still a debate any way you cut it.
Glyphosphate-based herbicides all work on the same biochemical principle -- they inhibit a specific enzyme that plants need in order to grow. The specific enzyme is called EPSP synthase. Without that enzyme, plants are unable to produce other proteins essential to growth, so they yellow and die over the course of several days or weeks. A majority of plants use this same enzyme, so almost all plants succumb to Roundup.
If you have read the HowStuffWorks article How Cells Work, you know a good bit about DNA and how it produces enzymes. In the same way that many antibiotics gum up enzyme production to kill bacteria, glyphosphate gums up enzymes in plants to kill them. Glyphosphate kills plants like antibiotics kill bacteria.
If you've been following farming news or the genetically modified food debate, you know that glyphosphate-tolerant seeds are now available -- you can buy genetically modified corn, soybeans, etc. that are immune to glyphosphate. These plants produce an enzyme that performs the same function as EPSP synthase but is not inhibited by glyphosphate.
The question of safety is a hard one to answer because there is a lot of polarized and conflicting information. Here are a few things we can probably say with some certainty:
Given the amount of glyphosphate sprayed on the planet every day, it is probably safe to say that glyphosphate is not violently toxic to people or animals. People do not have the same enzymes in their cells that plants do, just like human cells and bacteria differ enough that antibiotics kill bacteria cells but not human cells.
On the other hand, most people react badly to glyphosphate (and other chemicals mixed with it) when ingested or applied to the skin, so you want to avoid any contact with the chemical.
Roundup will kill almost any plant, including aquatic plants, so you want to be sure to avoid spray drift onto other plants or into water. Any pesticide should be applied carefully.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/question357.htm
And I've read in a scientific journal that soil microbial populations actually increase with the proper application of glyphosate. Also, I don't hear of any of those issues you speak of and I live in an ag area that produces hay, berries, grapes, peaches, apples, pecans, honey, and veggies.....commercially, in a big time way. You have to find out what substances the chemicals break down in to and go from there. Our community's water source are aquifers. We are good stewards of our water regarding chemical usage.
So far, I have both hands, eyes, ears, legs, arms, hands, and testicles and they all work pretty damn good. Well, about that last one mentioned.
I hear CCD may be caused by a virus, some say a mite. Then some blame a pesticide I use, imnocloprid found in Admire Pro.
The conspiracy that chem trails is some kind of government test or application of chemicals is just that, a conspiracy.
BTW, I live in a community that has more alternative peeps than Heinz has got pickles and you know what? My alternative friends all have something ailing them all the time and are taking some kind of pricy herb, or going to a chiropractic "doctor" for "relief", doing Quantum Bio-Feedback Therapy at $150 a session. Just stupid voodoo stuff, and these are friends, smart people. They're just listening to a bunch of quacks and believing it while pissing off money on costly "organic and natural" foods. It's a racket.
Wife has RA, a broken femur that has been plaqued with Staph, is on her 8th surgery. Neighbor kept on bugging me with her alternative bullshit - Japanese magnet treatments, light therapy gadgets. Con game stuff that she stands to make a buck off with her pyramid schemes using guilt conman phrases like "well, don't you want her to heal?" Finally had to tell her to shove it, didn't want to hear it anymore, she was unrelentless. I don't do quackery especially when there's money to be made by the hacks and this gal hasn't got a pot to pee in.
UB