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Message: <blockquote data-quote="netlife007" data-source="post: 16357969" data-attributes="member: 79514">On earlier occasions too (The Island  of 1st January 2014 and  the The Island of 3rd February 2014) there were  news items in its front page  that CJ, with the assistance of the GMOA  was going to ask the government to  institute legal action against  multinational agrochemical companies to claim  damages to the tune of a  million US dollars per CKD patient . Is there adequate  evidence to do  so? There is now a news item doing the email rounds that  Monsanto’s  glyphosate is the culprit for the kidney disease. An always  vociferous  cabinet minister remarked over the Derana news channel the other day,   that the Monsanto Company is poisoning our farmers with toxic fertilizer  (‘visa  pora’)! He is not even aware that the matter relates to  herbicide and not  fertilizer. Misinformation spreads fast with  disastrous repercussions. There are  now perhaps two dozen companies,  many of them in China , manufacturing  glyphosate. Are they all to be  sued?  Glyphosate (often referred to as Roundup by most  users, the  trade name given by its inventing company, Monsanto) is a  very effective broad  spectrum weed killer, very widely used the world  over. Glyphosate and its  degradation products were reported to be more  environmentally benign than most  other herbicides. Its advantage is  that it is inactivated in the soil by being  bound to soil particles,  and is eventually broken down by microbes. Hence it is  not available to  plants through the soil. Its median half life in the soil is  reported  to be 47 days and in water, it varies from a few days to some three   months, depending on the environment. Erosion and run off can carry  glyphosate-bound  soil particles into water bodies, and settling down as  silt. However, glyphosate  may be toxic to living organisms at some  dosages and in some environments. . No  pesticide, for that matter, is  absolutely safe. Much depends on their judicious  and proper use  In  a further newspaper report, CJ had pointed out that  glyphosate is  widely used in paddy farming. On the other hand, the plantations  crop  sector, afflicted with acute labour shortages, uses glyphosate far more   intensively for weed management. Its benefits vis a vis risks should,  therefore,  be thoroughly considered, if any decision on its future  availability is to be  made. Modern agriculture is obligatory on  agrochemicals, despite their attendant  evils, to produce the world’s  food demand. Much touted alternative technologies  such as organic  farming has yet only about 8% of the total global agricultural  land  under it of which some 60% is said to be under pastures! Far more  research  is needed to develop safer pesticides and alternative  agro-technologies with  minimal pesticide use. There is no evidence that  our research institutions are  addressing these matters resolutely. The  Department of Agriculture (Registrar of  Pesticides) and the Central  Environmental Authority should, as a matter of  highest priority,  analyze, at least the water bodies in the Rajarata for  glyphosate and  other commonly used pesticides and educate the public and policy   makers. There is apparently going to be a CKDU Project under a ministry.  Any  biased officials at its helm could mislead gullible politicians  with disastrous  consequences.    Dr U P de S Waidyanatha</blockquote>

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