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Monsanto Accused of ‘Killing’ Cancer Study

The following article is reproduced in the interest of public safety. EPA Official Accused of Helping Monsanto ‘Kill’ Cancer Study by Joel Rosenblatt, Lydia Mulvany, and Peter Waldman – March 14, 2017, 6:18 PM GMT March 15, 2017, 12:44 AM GMT The Environmental Protection Agency official who was in charge of evaluating the cancer risk…

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The following article is reproduced in the interest of public safety.

EPA Official Accused of Helping Monsanto ‘Kill’ Cancer Study

by Joel Rosenblatt, Lydia Mulvany, and Peter Waldman – March 14, 2017, 6:18 PM GMT March 15, 2017, 12:44 AM GMT

The Environmental Protection Agency official who was in charge of evaluating the cancer risk of Monsanto Co.’s Roundup allegedly bragged to a company executive that he deserved a medal if he could kill another agency’s investigation into the herbicide’s key chemical.

The boast was made during an April 2015 phone conversation, according to farmers and others who say they’ve been sickened by the weed killer. After leaving his job as a manager in the EPA’s pesticide division last year, Jess Rowland has become a central figure in more than 20 lawsuits in the U.S. accusing the company of failing to warn consumers and regulators of the risk that its glyphosate-based herbicide can cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“If I can kill this I should get a medal,” Rowland told a Monsanto regulatory affairs manager who recounted the conversation in an email to his colleagues, according to a court filing made public Tuesday. The company was seeking Rowland’s help stopping an investigation of glyphosate by a separate office, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, that is part of the U.S. Health and Human Service Department, according to the filing.

A federal judge overseeing the glyphosate litigation in San Francisco said last month he’s inclined to order Rowland to submit to questioning by lawyers for the plaintiffs, who contend he had a “highly suspicious” relationship with Monsanto. Rowland oversaw a committee that found insufficient evidence to conclude glyphosate causes cancer and quit last year shortly after his report was leaked to the press.

Monsanto Statement

Monsanto vice president of global strategy Scott Partridge said in a phone interview that it would be “remarkable” if Monsanto could manipulate the EPA under the Obama administration. The unsealed emails represent “a natural flow of information” between the company and the EPA, Partridge said. “It’s not an effort to manipulate the system.”

Asked about emails specifically describing Monsanto working with Rowland to kill the glyphosate investigation by the toxic substances agency, Partridge said he would review the messages and respond at a later date.

Read full Article at BloombergMarket – https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-14/monsanto-accused-of-ghost-writing-papers-on-roundup-cancer-risk

41 responses to “Monsanto Accused of ‘Killing’ Cancer Study”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    Here is something minister of agriculture can help the people by opening his mouth in the House of Assembly in the interest of the people he serves.

  2. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    David,

    I have been concerned for years about the quality of food imported from the US. All Americans agricultural products are genetically modified, that is why they are banned in Europe.. All US chicken is washed in chlorine, again banned in Europe.
    We have no food scientists, no food standards authority, our chief medical officer and leading nutritionists do not give advice on what to eat and what to avoid. The people leading this campaign are those who, for health reasons, have had to teach themselves.
    The big offenders in this are t he media who seem to want to keep people in ignorance.
    The most important thing about GM products, is that traditionally in Barbados we grow corn, for example, allow a few husks to dry in the field and those are used as the seeds fore the next season.
    With GM products you cannot do that. You have to buy fresh seeds every year. This is what they have done to large parts of Africa. It is duplicitous theft.

  3. David Avatar
    David

    @Hal

    This and other important topic should be driving the national conversations, instead we have become mired what is irrelevant.

  4. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    David,
    We are what we eat.

  5. David Avatar
    David

    This true BUT as you know lifestyle behaviour Trump’s good sense these days. Check our NCD number if there is any doubt.

  6. Rosemary Parkinson Avatar
    Rosemary Parkinson

    Really? I mean really, really? Maybe now people will stand up…just maybe because they have not in the past when Monsanto has created even more atrocious happenings around the globe (there are videos to prove it!).

    I have been screaming, shouting and almost crying over this. I refuse to buy products from the USA. Rather starve. I even started a petition must be two years ago…addressed to our Minister of Agriculture as well as the PM and all those in our government…and who signed it…mostly people outside of Barbados. Spread it all over begging and NUTTING. Have written about Monsanto, their GMO crap, their horrific product that we continue to use willy-nilly the awesome killer RoundUp…nearly had a serious stroke at the EU/ACP meeting in Brussels last September, where I was invited to talk about my books, but instead, much to the chagrin of the big-ups, I laced into our ignorance when it comes to agriculture…I blasted Monsanto right there too…and at the end, all I got was “how could you”…and “this is why I wanted you to give me your speech before you went on live”…what all ya tink I did not know that my rant would have been stopped and therefore I claimed I had not finished it until minutes before I went on, and even then did not give out all in case I was banned from speaking.

    After that incident, I decided because of my own health and sanity to stop preaching to the unpreachable. Hopefully the youth can now take this cause up if they care. But I am suggesting that nobody does bar one or two of us shouting in the wilderness to the barren land. This whole food situation is so deplorable and we here in Barbados should be ashamed to be allowing such huge importation of second-class foods into this island…we should be ashamed to even look at those half-arsed apples filled with pesticide (yes it has been proven)…we should be ashamed of what is allowed in our animal feed…we should be ashamed that our farmers are not encouraged with far more so they can feed us clean food – it will take years of cleansing the soil to make it organic, do not be fooled…years…not one or two but YEARS UPON YEARS…this rant right here on BU could go on for years too…not with me for sure…because already I feel my blood pressure going up because we are so dyamned chuped…all the way chuped…we fill the aisles of supermarkets that dare to buy all the crap and fool the people till dem land up with heart attacks and cancers…but then…

    I realized, and even mentioned it at the EU, that why should anything change, does anyone realize how much money our governments (both of them…no all of them because other islands just as bad) cash in on taxes for our over-the-top purchases of tenth-class nasty food from the US where nothing is sacred…why? because the lobbyist there are paid millions by the big food manufacturers and that includes Monsanto to allow the crap. Imagine that a tin of food years ago picked up in a supermarket, and on reading the label had in an ingredient I did not understand, and when I checked it at home on the internet, having written it down on a piece of paper because it was too much for me to remember, I found out it was rocket fuel. Yes BLOODY ROCKET FUEL. since then the situation has gotten worse by the minute.

    Anything leftover from anything gets shoved into food. Time for others to do something about it. We need to grow more food. And we need to seriously start looking at the EU for imports if this is what we have to continue to do, and leave out the US until they can clean up their own act. Now I real done.

    Enjoy the rest of your day peoples. Stay healthy.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    Thanks for sharing Rosemary, you have confirmed what some of us know and that is there is cover-up by the establishment. Stay strong!

  8. Wily Coyote Avatar
    Wily Coyote

    Question……..

    How come I can buy Monsanto and other chemicals at the local hardware store in Barbados that have been banned in Canada, USA and Europe for a number of years.

    Just saying……..

  9. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Monsanto is, and has been, the Devil’s own global chemical company since its formation. When that demon Dick Cheney became Vice President we saw deliberate efforts to subvert the FDA and to coverup, and promote, global poisons like ’roundup’ and ‘aspartame’.

    Wunna could preach like Peter, it will NOT make any impact..,because the Devil running things bout here …and no amount of common sense can get between brass bowls and their favourite products.
    People are ADDICTED to the poisons being promoted as food, and they either pretend not to know of the dangers, or they resign themselves to the INEVITABLE consequences of diseases, illnesses and poor health.
    Brass bowlery is a TRULY AMAZING condition, …one where you can CLEARLY see that it makes no sense, but you CANNOT help yourself from doing it….
    …like our national condition of spending more than we earn, YEAR AFTER YEAR…and somehow expecting that it will turn out OK after all….
    Well…If wunna doubt that this is a SPIRITUAL condition then wunna cannot even be helped…

    It IS true that we are what we eat…. perhaps that is why brass bowlery is running at 99%.

  10. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    Wiley it isnt all bad, at least your drugs and food stuffs in barbados dont have expiry dates on them

  11. Wily Coyote Avatar
    Wily Coyote

    @lawson March 16, 2017 at 11:37 AM #

    “Wiley it isnt all bad, at least your drugs and food stuffs in barbados dont have expiry dates on them”

    I KNOW……. they are already EXPIRED!…. the question is expired by how much….

  12. David Avatar
    David

    @Wily

    We read about the developed world dumping drugs in third world markets as they are referred mainly because of economics, ignorance and greed.

  13. David Avatar
    David

    Do we have standards as it applies to labelling of products for example? In a country with high incidence of NCDs should an enforced standard not be a priority?

  14. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    The Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for monitoring the quality of all things imported relating to agriculture including seeds,pesticides,weedicides,herbicides,nutrients,etc,etc

    The Govt. lab has responsibility for ensuring that imported foodstuff is suitable for consumption by Bimmers.

    We have a medical board responsible for all imports relating to our health.

    John Public needs to ask questions of these agencies and hold them to account…..not that they were not told about a number of …..cides that were harmfull and did nothing ….like wise the insane mosquito fogging exercise which kills beneficials……..we need to plug in our activism streak and stop allowing the merchants to convince govt. to bring in all these things willy nilly that are detrimental to our health for the sake of the dollar.

    Many local alternatives exist……unfortunately the merchants cannot benefit.

  15. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    The bajan dilemma when poison drugs become expired do they become more poisonous or less poisonous

  16. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    Vincent when did that all start I can remember sending two potted 12 inch blue spruce trees home with my wife one year so her father could plant in his yard and he did.

  17. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    lawson March 16, 2017 at 1:25 PM #

    That is very interesting….the Min. of Ag. has a Plant Quarantine dept at the airport,sea port with it its head office in Crumpton street the city and have been in operation prior to independence.

    A person close to me brought in some hybrid seeds from the UK which were seized and dispossed of in their incinerator at Crumpton street……..I can only assume that because they were hybrid they were unacceptable and that your spruce trees were a known quantity and acceptable,I cannot give a reason.

    My point was that mechanisms exist in this country to protect us but they are not working.

  18. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    this was in about 1988, but what about the pests and soil ,thinking about it now it never should have got through she carried them in each arm.

  19. vincent haynes Avatar
    vincent haynes

    Correct should not have happened.

  20. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Vincent
    The Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for monitoring the quality of all things imported relating to agriculture including seeds,pesticides,weedicides,herbicides,nutrients,etc,etc
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Ha ha ha ha
    LOL
    Ohhh Shiirt….!!!

    Don’t mek we laugh this afternoon man Vincent nuh!!!
    Things bad enough already …with Froon just coming to the realisation that it may not be a good idea to keep on spending more money than you earn….
    ..now you coming with this impractical concept …of people at the MoA doing WORK…. !!!
    ha ha ha ha
    Muh belly!!!

    Vincent gone bonkers….

  21. Shontelle R. Brathwaite Avatar
    Shontelle R. Brathwaite

    I am The Meeting, pure-blooded line, it’s really strange that I look an Arawak Carib…red-skinned, and people think I’m African…Africa doesn’t produce red-skinned people, Amerindians are known to be red-skinned, Red Indians, if we’d like to become archaic.

    More about Arawaks and Caribs (Pride of Barbados)…common sense
    https://onenote.com/webapp/pages?token=ChPUYv8CYVx5pXDZzsr0vYGY93khMFfBTkVX-fm8fmGwHN40OzSXrT0Lkaat9DI-1C_kieXR9qYsmHiYXbOaO2HV1s1Y6Z3S0&id=636252890210300622

    Almost no other chiefs lines being nobilities are still alive in numbers as The Meeting is visibly in Barbados, Arawaks walking with their foot shunning almost at a right angle, Caribs with a spin, rolling and throwing….”waling a certain way” as known in the Spanish speaking Caribbean…

  22. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Bushie

    Chuckle…..comprehension again………I said they were responsible…….I never said that they were efficient as evidenced by the Lawson scenario…..DDT and …cides,Mosquito fogging …cides,etc,etc.

    If you would stop trying to pick a fight and read before jumping to print you would see that we have little to disagree on re the systems and the mismanagement of them by succesive govts I highlighted some of the areas in my original post

    Why yuh doan ansuh muh unduh estimates nuh????

  23. GreenMonkey Avatar
    GreenMonkey

    A few quotes that beautifully illustrate the useless travesty that is the USA’s FDA. This is the agency that theoretically exists to protect US citizens from unknowingly consuming products which, although they might be profitable bottom line boosters for powerful and influential, psychopathic corporations and their year-end bonus seeking executives, have the potential to wreak havoc with public health:

    “Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA’s job.” [The FDA is the US government’s Food and Drug Administration, responsible for food safety]
    Philip Angell, Monsanto’s director of corporate communications, “Playing God in the Garden”, New York Times Magazine, 25 October 1998

    “Ultimately, it is the food producer who is responsible for assuring safety.”
    US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “Statement of Policy: Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties” (GMO Policy), Federal Register, Vol. 57, No. 104, 1992, p. 229 

    “One thing that surprised us is that U.S. regulators rely almost exclusively on information provided by the biotech crop developer, and those data are not published in journals or subjected to peer review… The picture that emerges from our study of U.S. regulation of GM foods is a rubber-stamp ‘approval process’ designed to increase public confidence in, but not ensure the safety of, genetically engineered foods.”
    Dr David Schubert of the Salk Institute commenting on a comprehensive, peer-reviewed study of federal regulation of GMOs he co-conducted, quoted in Brian Tokar, “Deficiencies in federal regulatory oversight of genetically engineered crops,” Institute for Social Ecology Biotechnology Project, June 2006

    One of the main products of the genetically modified crop revolution has been the patented GM seeds introduced to produce crops like corn, soybean and sugar beets which can withstand significantly greater quantities of glyphosate based weed killers (like Monsanto’s Roundup) compared to the traditional non-GM crop varieties. The weeds (now branded as super-weeds) in many farm fields growing GM crops have developed glyphosate resistance over the years due to overuse of glyphosate based weed killers, and Agro-chemical companies like Monsanto have “solved” the problem tempororarily by introducing new versions of their patented, genetically modified seeds which are resistant to other types of even more potent weed-killing chemicals in addition to glyphosate.

    Note that over the years Monasanto has also been buying up seed companies left right and centre and has been taking the non GM seeds off the market or at least making it much more difficult for famers to source the non GM varieties of seeds should they wish to to get off this corporately imposed GM treadmill.

    http://gmwatch.org/articles/gm-quotes/16079-regulatory-breakdown

  24. Fly On Den Wall Avatar
    Fly On Den Wall

    Lobbyist are self serving. Perhaps we will get to know who are the lobbyist are against the 8MW BWA Solar Power plant within GOB and the BWA. Light & Power is saying electricity will have to go up if the loose the BWA business.

  25. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger

    I wont worry about telling bajans that the imported foods they eat, the weed killers that are banned in the countries that export them all have cancer causing carcinogens, they will not believe you, they will eat it anyway and get sick and due anyway, because it is from another country and they are too lazy to grow their own.

    Here is a 2015 contributing article from Forbes business on exporting chicken for processing in China and then
    re importing them to the US.

    “Processing American Chicken In China: Smart Business Or Ruthless Profiteering?

    Markets JUL 19, 2015 @ 10:45 AM 25,181 VIEWS
    Processing American Chicken In China: Smart Business Or Ruthless Profiteering?

    Panos Mourdoukoutas , CONTRIBUTOR
    I cover global markets, business and investment strategy

    Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
    Let me be clear from the beginning. I’m an enthusiastic advocate of globalization and free trade, and see clear benefits for investors, companies, and consumers.

    Nonetheless, I cannot help but add my voice to all of those who are concerned about a peculiar trade between the US and China that followed China’s entry to WTO — and which received the blessings of USDA recently — the export of American-raised chickens to China for processing and then re-import to America.

    First, I cannot see any clear economic benefits of this trade for American consumers. Meat processing is a highly automated process. Add transportation time and costs, and profits from the trade are likely to be limited or eliminated — unless there is a secret element to the trade that makes it extremely profitable.

    Second, I can see many obscure costs when it comes to the quality of processed food. This is evidenced by scores of stories of people getting seriously sick or dying — both inside and outside China — from tainted food, medicine, and personal care items. Examples include dental paste and cold syrup mixed with poisonous chemicals, substandard baby formulas, and more.”

  26. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    David,
    Have you noticed that the Brazilians have been caught out selling rotten red meat and chicken to customers in 150 countries. I wonder if Barbados is one of those. Are our journalists even asking questions about this awful scandal?
    They have also been caught falsifying documents. All this has been raised in BU before. I remember warning people not to buy chicken from the Brazilians, Dutch and Chinese. They are all fraudsters, which has been in the public domain..
    Can you seriously imagine the Chinese trying to sell us rotten chicken and the authorities in Barbados turning it away? This will be an interesting development since the Chinese will almost certainly call in all their debt. We are a sitting target.

  27. lawson Avatar
    lawson

    bajans will never turn away chinese chickens they like that third drumstick

  28. David Avatar
    David

    @Hal

    Leadership is always required in any sphere of activity. Have we heard the minister of agriculture being as vocal about agriculture as heis about matters of finance? Have we heard the head of the BAS James Paul, a DLP member of parliament, holding the government’s feet to the fire? Do we have a vibrant consumer advocacy movement whose mandate is to protect champion the interest of the people etc etc.

    LEADERSHIP required!

  29. David Avatar
    David

    The following comment is repeatedly posted to BU without a response. BU posted it to Facebook to solicit a response from James Paul with no response.

    A “LAND FOR AGRICULTURE and FOOD SECURITY POLICY” would have been addressed by the White Paper on Agriculture prepared by Dr. Chelston Brathwaite. A document quoted in May 2012 by the Ministry of Agriculture as being “the first step in a process that will lead to the transformation and repositioning of the agricultural sector in Barbados.”

    http://www.agriculture.gov.bb/agri/index.php?option=com_content&id=645:background-document-on-a-white-paper-on-agriculture

    According to a story in the Nation Newspaper dated Wed, November 27, 2013 reporting on comments made by Minister Estwick the paper said:

    “The minister told the country today that a White Paper on Agriculture, which should be going before Cabinet soon,…….”

    That was November 2013. This is March 2017.

    Now when you come to my door tell me what I should do!

  30. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    If the economy continues to decline “Agriculture” will become important.

    Farming in Barbados is easy. You just need operating capital and markets for what you produce.

  31. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    You also need a consumer with a cultivated taste in local produce.

  32. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ David the “cultivated taste” will come when you run out of forex to pay for imported food.

  33. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    David,

    Food security is important going in to the 21st century. Have the local media been checking to see if Barbados is on the countries sent rotten meat?

  34. David Avatar
    David

    @Hal

    It is the weekend, the folk probably limig after some pudding and sous.

  35. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    David,

    Journalism is 24/7.

  36. David Avatar
    David

    @Hal

    A reporter’s job is 9 to 5 or shift.

  37. bajans Avatar
    bajans

    The Americans if they export 2,000 chickens to China for processing, get 5,000 back. That is where the profit is. Chinese chicken cheaper than US’ chicken so that is how they smuggle in cheap chicken from China.

  38. GreenMonkey Avatar
    GreenMonkey

    EPA scientist warns that glyphosate (RoundUp) herbicide strips minerals out of food, leaving the body deficient in Zinc and Magnesium

    The scientist, Dr. Marion Copley, D.M.V., who died from cancer, worked for the EPA for three decades until her illness made it impossible for her to continue. In a letter to EPA colleague and Monsanto “mole” Jess Rowland in 2013, two years before a public debate over the carcinogenic effects of glyphosate began, Copley – a senior toxicologist at the EPA’s Health Effects Division – voiced major concerns about how Rowland and the EPA were dealing with the compound.

    “Since I left the Agency with cancer, I have studied the tumor process extensively and I have some mechanism comments which may be very valuable to CARC based on my decades of pathology experience. I’ll pick one chemical to demonstrate my points,” she wrote.

    “Glyphosate was originally designed as a chelating agent and I strongly believe that is the identical process involved in its tumor formation, which is highly supported by the literature.”

    Copley goes on to note:

    — Chelators prevent the process of apoptosis, which is a necessary bodily function to kill off tumor cells;

    — Chelators act as endocrine disruptors, which in turn plays a role in the growth of tumors;

    — Chelators serve to bind zinc, which is a necessary mineral for proper immune system function;

    — Chelators also bind calcium and magnesium, as well as other minerals, thereby making foods “deficient for these essential nutrients;”

    — Glyphosate has been found to be a genotoxic substance, which is key in cancer formation;

    — Chelators can often cause damage to the kidneys or pancreas, which glyphosate does, serving as another cancer formation mechanism;

    — Glyphosate is responsible for destroying good gut bacteria and in the gastrointestinal system at large is 80 percent of the body’s immune system;

    — Chelators’ tamping down of the body’s immune system also leads to cancer formation.

    http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-03-19-epa-scientist-warns-that-glyphosate-roundup-herbicide-strips-minerals-out-of-food-leaving-the-body-deficient-in-zinc-and-magnesium.html

  39. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    David,
    I am sure that is how it is in Barbados. In the wider world reporters are never off duty. It is 24/7. Reporters are often called out on important family occasions in the UK. News is not 9-5.

  40. David Avatar
    David

    What is Barbados doing?

  41. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    BARBADOS HAS IMPLEMENTED a temporary ban on the importation of all meat and meat products from Brazil.

    http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/94825/temporary-ban-meat-meat-products-brazil#sthash.U4XnHo6f.dpuf

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