Re: [tomato] Round Up... Unfortunately...
bill (Tomato@GlobalGarden.com)
Mon, 28 Jun 1999 09:39:52 -0500
Unfortunately, certain invasive plants, particularly common fescue, is near
impossible to get rid of without some--and I don't know exactly who or what to
believe about Round-up.
For me, fescue is very destructive--animals will only eat it if starved,
wildlife does not eat it, fescue poisons the ground so that nothing else will
grow. Fescue does hold the ground, and was a last ditch effort at soil
conservation in the midwest--ironically used when nearly all the soil is long
gone. Fescue is also very difficult to mow, is a fire hazard, --very, very
difficult to plow under--etc.
I recently started using Roundup to spray 18" diameter circles to plant tree
seedlings in, (they will not survive otherwise), in the hope that gradually the
trees will take over. In gardens, repeated cultivation, over the last 12 years
has eliminated most fescue (unless I turn my head, then it's back).
Heavy cultivation, fuel, burning, etc. are very destructive--maybe worse than
roundup.
I don't, by the way, spray with anything but a handheld tank and nozzle, so the
nozzle is an inch or two off the ground, and not anywhere near water, pets,
vegetables.
Bill, in Missouri
Tantrika wrote:
> Before you automatically believe Monsanto's claims. Consider also,
> Monsanto's one most popular selling chemical is roundup... Wish their
> claims were true, but I don't believe a chemical corp especially one
> involved in the Terminator Seed creation.
>
> Round-Up Problems:
>
> Compiled by Caroline Cox, Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to
> Pesticides- (NCAP)
>
> Roundup, and related herbicides with glyphosate as an active ingredient,
> are advertised as products that can "eradicate weeds and unwanted grasses
> effectively with a high level of environmental safety." However, an
> independent, accurate evaluation of their health and environmental hazards
> can draw conclusions very different from those presented in the ads.
> Consider these facts:
>
> 1. Glyphosate can be persistent. In tests conducted by Monsanto,
> manufacturer of glyphosate-containing herbicides, up to 140 days were
> required for half of the applied glyphosate to break down or disappear from
> agricultural soils. At harvest, residues of glyphosate were found in
> lettuce, carrots, and barley planted one year after glyphosate treatment.
>
> 2. Glyphosate can drift. Test conducted by the University of California,
> Davis, found that glyphosate drifted up to 400 meters (1300 feet) durng
> ground applications and 800 meters 12600 feet) during aerial applications.
>
> 3. Glyphosate is acutely toxic to humans. Ingesting about 3/4 of a cup can
> be lethal. Symptoms include eye and skin irritation, lung congestion, and
> erosion of the intestinal tract. Between 1984 and 1990 in California,
> glyphosate was the third most frequently reported cause of illness related
> to agricultural pesticide use.
>
> 4. Glyphosate has shown a wide spectrum of chronic toxicity in laboratory
> tests. The National Toxicology Program found that chronic feeding of
> glyphosate caused salivary gland lesions, reduced sperm counts, and a
> lengthened estrous cycle (how often an individual comes into heat). Other
> chronic effects found in laboratory tests include an increase in the
> frequency of lethal mutations in fruit flies, an increase in frequency of
> pancreas and liver tumors in male rats along with an increase in the
> frequency of thyroid tumors in females, and cataracts. (ne fruit fly study
> used Roundup; the other studies used glyphosate.)
>
> 5. Roundup contains toxic trade secret ingredients. These include
> polyethoxylated tallowamines, causing nausea and diarrhea, and
> isopropylamine, causing chemical pneumonia, laryngitis, headache, and bums.
>
> 6. Roundup kills beneficial insects. Tests conducted by The International
> Organization for Biological Control showed that Roundup caused mortality of
> live beneficial species: a Thrichgramma, a predatory mite, a lacewing, a
> ladybug, and a predatory beetle.
>
> 7. Glyphosate is hazardous to earthworms, Tests using New Zealand's most
> common earthworm showed that glyphosate, in amounts as low as 1/20 of
> standard application rates, reduced its growth and slowed its development.
>
> 8. Roundup inhibits mycorrhizal fungi. Canadian studies have shown that as
> little as 1 part per million of Roundup can reduce the growth or
> colonization of mycorrhizal fungi.
>
> 9. Glyphosate reduces nitrogen fixation. Amounts as small as 2 parts per
> million have had significant effects, and effects have been measured up to
> 120 days after treatment. Nitrogen- fixing bacteria shown to be impacted by
> glyphosate include a species found on soybeans and several species found on
> clover.
>
> 10. Roundup can increase the spread or severity of plant diseases.
> Treatment with roundup increased the severity of Rhizoctonia root rot in
> barley, increased the amount and growth of take-all fungus, a wheat
> disease), and reduced the ability of bean plants to defend themselves
> against anthracnose.
>
> These facts about Roundup are taken From a two-part article about the
> health and environmental hazards of glyphosate published in NCAP's Journal
> of Pesticide Reform. Copies of the article, with complete references for
> all of .the information presented, are available from NCAP for $2.00. NCAP,
> PO Box 1391; Eugene, OR 97440; (541) 344-5044.