Farmers sprayed 2.6 billion pounds of Monsanto’s glyphosate herbicide on U.S. agricultural land between 1992 and 2012, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Glyphosate has been the go-to weed killer for use on genetically engineered, or GMO, crops since the mid-1990s, when Monsanto introduced its “Roundup Ready” corn and soybeans.

Click here to watch a time-lapse video of the spread of glyphosate across America over the 20-year period.

http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2015/04/glyphosate-spreading-cancer-across-us

Glyphosate Is Spreading Like a Cancer Across the U.S.

Monsanto Co.'s undisclosed recruitment of scientists from Harvard University, Cornell University and three other schools to write about the benefits of plant biotechnology is drawing fire from opponents.

Monsanto’s profits are slipping and the agriculture giant best known for its GMO Roundup Ready seeds announced Thursday that restructuring will occur, including layoffs. Monsanto missed its fourth quarter earnings and is offering share buybacks, according to Seeking Alpha. The revisions come after the company lost 19 cents per share when they were expected to break even in the fourth quarter.

Two scientists in the U.S. have published an opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine, on GMOs (genetically modified organisms), herbicides and public health. Herbicide resistance is the main GM trait for plants. Corn and soybeans genetically engineered to resist glyphosate (Roundup) were introduced in the mid-1990s and these “Roundup-Ready” crops now account for more than 90% of the corn and soybeans planted in the U.S. Along with this, glyphosate use increased by more than 250 times, from 0.4 million kg in 1974 to 113 million kg in 2014. Glyphosate-resistant weeds are now found on nearly 100 million acres in 36 states. Farmers have to resort to using stronger herbicides. Residues of glyphosate have been detected in food and water.

It already passed the U.S. House, but there is no stopping the debate over whether the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act really does inform New England consumers about GMO food.

After Hawai‘i County’s ban on GMOs, companies like Monsanto and Syngenta have been pushing back. It’s up to big agricultural business to prove it can responsibly conduct open-air testing and grow GMO crops without a negative effect on Hawai‘i’s ecosystem before it can be allowed to do so.

Now supported by more than three-quarters of state lawmakers, legislation that would require all genetically engineered food to be labeled won praise from proponents this week as a consumer protection that would help people make informed choices about what to eat.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its newest data on the organic sector, featuring results from a survey of organic farmers conducted earlier this year.

When it comes to the subject of GMO (Genetically-Modified Organism) food, it's hard not to have an opinion. You might be skeptical or inquisitive, outraged or indifferent; perhaps more often than not, you feel a little of each.

The second most common trait of genetically modified (GM) plant is insect resistance. This is usually obtained by introducing, into the plant’s genome, genes from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which produce insecticidal proteins. A new study has compared the quality of a GM insect-resistant maize (MON810) and its appropriate non-GM near-isoline counterpart as feed for Daphnia magna (a water flea) and found significant differences.

D. magna fed with the Bt maize leaves displayed a significantly smaller body size as well as reduced fecundity later in the life cycle, indicating increased stress levels, compared to those fed non-Bt leaves. They reproduced approximately 20% less offspring.

This is the first study to examine GM-plant leaf material in the D. magna model and provides evidence of negative fitness effects of a GM maize hybrid on a non-target model organism under chronic, high dietary exposure. The scientists postulate that the transgenic proteins exert a non-target effect in D. magna and/or unintended changes were produced in the maize genome by the transformation process, producing a nutritional difference between GM-maize and non-GM near-isoline.

The scientists call for further studies over the full life cycle of model organisms, considering that important biological effects may only be detected after chronic exposure. Furthermore, they highlight the importance of conducting safety testing for GM plants with plant material and plant-produced recombinant proteins, rather than with microbially produced recombinant proteins.