January 31, 2015

The Evil Mpire – Part II

The Evil “M”pire

By PETER SCHUTT

Part II

Over the past several weeks, we have been struggling to connect the dots as to why the forage value of our hay hasn’t been improving like it should, while also our mama cows have not been not coming into breeding season like they have in the past; and that our laying hens for months have dropped production by 80%.

How can this be? We haven’t used chemicals on our farm for almost 10 years. We have applied copious amounts of ground limestone to all our pastures and cropland. Our cows have been dispersing manure and urine all over the farm, adding natural nutrients to the soil. Our soil IS getting healthier – we’ve seen native grasses like switchgrass, bluestem and white clover return to our pastures. And nightcrawlers are showing up in great masses in some pastures.

So what’s up?

Let’s go back about 8 years, when during the winter, about a dozen of our Tennessee Walking Horses suddenly began dying, apparently due to the inability of their digestive systems to break down the hay we were feeding them. We did everything we could – had a vet come and force natural clay and salt down their throats to try and absorb any toxins in their guts. Nothing helped.

We sent a couple of carcasses to universities around the South for autopsy, and we sent tissue samples. No sign of bacteria, virus or disease! It was a mystery to the experts. The only commonality was that the food in their stomachs was totally undigested.

Here, let me say that the scientific method is pretty simple: you formulate a hyposthesis, fashion an experimental method, do research and try to deduce whether your hypothesis is valid or not.

At Winchester Farm, we have been forced to adopt the hypothesis that somehow, glyphosate is a major factor in the health of our farm’s plants and animals. One would think that almost 10 years without applying glyphosate would be plenty of time for any residue to leach out of the soil. Or is that enough time? Surely someone has studied the lifecycle of the chemical, given its widespread use.

Well, turns out that in the past 15 years almost no science has been done on the effects of glyphosate on animals that are fed grains or hay containing glyphosate – at least none by U.S. labs, most of which are in universities! The reverse is true in Europe, however; in one study I just read, the author (in Germany) cited 59 other studies and papers written recently on the subject. Not one was from the U.S.

The most disturbing impact that has been found by European scientists is its effect on bacteria, particularly beneficial bacteria in the digestive systems of livestock, birds and humans.

The early studies on glyphosate done in the US claimed that when applied once to vegetation, the chemical broke down quickly (a few weeks) in the soil, and that lab animals fed smallish concentrations of it for a few weeks showed no ill effects.

But that was 20 years ago. Since then, farmers generally have had to dramatically increase the number of applications and increase the concentration of glyphosate in order to kill weeds. (Even with area farmers using four to six applications of glyphosate per growing season, several common weeds in our area have become immune to the chemical!) All the while, more and heavier doses of glyphosate enter the soil, get washed into waterways by rainfall and irrigation and disperse into the air.

The results of a recent paper published in the Journal of Organic Systems, 9(2), 2014 showed that since the introduction of GMO seeds in 1996 the amount of glyphosate used on crops in the US has increased from 27 million pounds in 1996 to 250 million pounds in 2009 (US Geological Survey pesticide use maps, 2013). Charles Benbrook (2012) showed that there was a 527 million pound increase in herbicide use in the United States between 1996 and 2011.

The paper quotes a 2012 study as follows:

“The connection between glyphosate and chronic disease has been outlined in a recent review paper by Samsel & Seneff (2013a). The authors show how glyphosate disrupts the metabolic process by interfering with the Cytochrome P450 (CYP) pathways. The CYP is known as a super-family of enzymes that are present in most tissues of the body. They are responsible for around 75% of the reactions involved in drug metabolism and the oxidation of organic molecules. According to the authors, “glyphosate enhances the damaging effects of other food borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body. Here, we show how interference with CYP enzymes acts synergistically with disruption of the biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids by gut bacteria, as well as impairment in serum sulfate transport. Consequences are most of the diseases Swanson, Leu, Abrahamson & Wallet Journal of Organic Systems, 9(2), 2014 ISSN 1177-4258 10 and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.”

At Winchester Farm, we have neighbors on all sides of our pastures who farm conventionally and probably use glyphosate. Through the years, our reputation has spread, and they all know that we are chemical free. While some may not understand why we eschew glyphosate and other chemicals, in the long run they will.

We have found a lab that will test the hay and grain grown on our farm for traces of glyphosate. It’s not cheap, but as we work through our scientific method, at some point we will do some tests.

We’ll keep you posted!

In the meantime, it is now clear that Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Bayer Crop Science and probably others, are unleashing a new herbicide to replace glyphosate in the agribusiness world. It is reportedly much more lethal on the super weeds that have become immune to glyphosate.

Scary thought.