Full extent of EPA officials’ collusion with Monsanto revealed

EPA’s gag on Roundup report went even higher than thought

If you’re going to make something as dangerous as Roundup, it’s good to have friends in high places.

Some just-released secret emails have revealed that there’s more to the story about how our supposed watchdogs at the EPA were asked by Monsanto to put the brakes on a Roundup safety review.

And guess what? That’s exactly what they did!

Plus that, we’re now also hearing how officials there even went so far as to keep their friends at Monsanto updated on how everything was going.

The more you know about the devious ways this killer herbicide has managed to stay on store shelves, however, the better.

Because it would make sense to think that glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) wouldn’t be allowed to be sold unless it was fully investigated and found to be safe for us to use.

But when you hear what’s really going on, hopefully you’ll realize that the time has come to do whatever it takes to steer clear of this chemical — on both your property and your plate.

Drawing the line on Monsanto

Monsanto has tried to sell us Roundup with commercials showing manly guys “shooting” dandelions into the “great beyond” and, most recently, even cartoons that tell us to “draw the line” on weeds.

But what it really wanted to shoot into the stratosphere was a review on glyphosate that had been planned by The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a federal public health agency!

Two years ago, ATSDR announced that it was going to put out a “toxicological profile” on glyphosate — something Monsanto wasn’t about to let happen.

And surprise! The information that ATSDR said would become available in October, 2015 has yet to materialize.

The consumer group U.S. Right to Know sums it up this way: The documents that were uncovered “reveal this was no accident, no bureaucratic delay,” but instead the result of a “collaborative effort between Monsanto and a group of high-ranking EPA officials.”

I previously told you how Jess Rowland, a deputy division director at the EPA, had promised the company he would try and shoot down that review — but these documents show those helping hands at the EPA went even higher up the ladder than Rowland.

Of course, even though that ATSDR report got buried in the EPA’s basement, plenty of other research has come out showing how dangerous this herbicide is.

At the same time that federal report was muffled, a branch of the World Health Organization, called the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IRAC), listed glyphosate a “probable carcinogen,” especially connected to cancers such as non-Hodgkin lymphomas and similar ones.

And adding to Monsanto’s troubles is the state of California, which just this summer announced that Roundup will now have to come with a warning label saying it may cause cancer.

But the thing about Roundup — and glyphosate — is that you can still be exposed to it, even if you avoid this toxic spray like the plague when it comes to using it in your home.

That’s because genetically-modified crops like corn, soy, canola and sugar beets are drenched with glyphosate in the field. And it doesn’t all magically disappear when those crops are processed into scores of different foods that we eat, either.

On top of that, Monsanto has also encouraged farmers to use the chemical as a drying agent on a bunch of crops just before harvest. Why, testing done last year even found residues of it on oat cereal for babies!

But while we can’t avoid this chemical menace entirely, here are three ways to cut your exposure to it as much as possible:

#1: Go for organic when buying bread and other items made from flour, as well as lentils, peas, dry beans, flax, barley, potatoes, and oats. Those are crops most likely to have been sprayed with the chemical before harvesting.

#2: For the big three GMO crops — soy, canola and corn — your choices should always either be organic or those labeled “GMO-Free.”

And of course, don’t let those cheesy commercials lure you into using Roundup anywhere in the vicinity of your home!

“Collusion or coincidence? Records show EPA efforts to slow herbicide review came in coordination with Monsanto: Carey Gillam, August 17, 2017, Organic Consumers Association, organicconsumers.org