Big News: Costco To Become First Major Retailer To Stop Selling Roundup Herbicide? from Collective Evolution
By
Arjun Walia
Arjun Walia
In Brief
- The Facts:According to the non profit group Moms Across America, Costco is set to stop selling Roundup herbicide.
- Reflect On:Despite the fact that harmful products continue to be approved across North America, the ultimate power to stop their use is us. When we become aware, we stop buying, and their profits drop. We are the ones that use it. Vote with your dollar.
It’s
hard to even know where to start with the herbicide Roundup. Despite
years of science exposing the inarguable health and environmental
consequences of Roundup, federal health regulatory agencies in North
America are still approving the herbicide, while multiple other
countries have banned it and made its use illegal, citing various health
and environmental concerns. Sri Lanka, for example, banned it five
years ago due to its link to deadly kidney disease.
advertisement - learn more
Furthermore, the countries approving it
are doing so with massive amounts of corruption. These approvals come as
a result of corrupt regulatory agencies here in Canada as well as the
US, specifically the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centres
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The list of examples is very
long when it comes to corruption and government connections to
corporations like Monsanto, the corporation that created and sells
Roundup. This is the only way these products get approved. It’s not
science, it’s simply because of lobbying efforts and shady politics.
“It is commonly believed that Roundup is among the safest pesticides… Despite its reputation, Roundup was by far the most toxic among the herbicides and insecticides tested. This inconsistency between scientific fact and industrial claim may be attributed to huge economic interests, which have been found to falsify health risk assessments and delay health policy decisions.” – R. Mesnage (et al., Biomed Research International, Volume 2014 (2014), article ID 179691)
The latest approvals of glyphosate, the main active ingredient in Roundup, came from within Canada as well as Europe.
EU regulators recently decided to relicense glyphosate, a decision that was based on an assessment plagiarized from industry
reports. It’s quite backwards that, for years, health regulators have
been relying on the scientific reports from the companies that
manufacture these products instead of seeking out independent scientific
studies.
A group of MEPs decided to commission an
investigation into claims that Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk
Assessment (bFr) copy-and-pasted tracts from Monsanto studies. You can
read more about that here.
advertisement - learn more
In addition, Monsanto colluded with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stifle cancer research that had any connection to their products.
The corruption is never-ending when it
comes to the link between corporations and government agencies. In fact,
only a few years ago, more than a dozen scientists from within the CDC
put out an anonymous public statement detailing the influence
corporations have on government policies. They were referred to as the Spider Papers.
Related CE Article: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Explains How Big Pharma Completely Owns Congress
Costco
The corruption that plagues our federal
regulatory agencies runs deep, and no matter how obvious the
science becomes, like the dangers of Roundup, products that negatively
impact our health seem to often get approved anyways. But something
special on planet Earth is happening, and that’s massive awareness. We
are finally starting to see through the veil that’s been blinding the
masses in so many different areas within human life.
Sure, these products may continue to get
approved, but we are the ones who are constantly choosing to do so. We
don’t have to buy them, and that is why awareness is key.
Zen Honeycutt, the leader of Moms Across America, announced this week that Costco will not be selling the glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup Ready.
In a live video update posted on Facebook, Honeycutt stated that she received word that Costco was no longer selling Roundup or glyphosate-based herbicides.
While she’s allegedly not received any
official word yet from Costco, she stated that she has talked to various
people at the headquarters and regional offices confirming this news.
This is huge news because, according to a 2015 article in
National Geographic, Roundup is the second-best-selling herbicide in
the U.S. for home lawn and garden use. Under a lucrative contract with
Monsanto, Scotts Miracle-Gro owns the exclusive right to market Roundup
in North America and much of Europe. Scotts distributes about
$154 million worth (5.5 percent of the company’s total sales) of
Roundup each year to retail giants including Amazon, Home Depot and
Walmart.
So let’s hope it’s true.
I asked for an official statement and was told that usually, Costco does not issue press releases, etc discussing which items they have discontinued. Despite not hearing back from the Costco PR department, I decided to announce the information anyway. I told them that the 89,000 people who signed a petition to Costco, Home Depot, and Lowe’s deserved to have an answer. I knew that they would be happy to know that Costco was doing the right thing. – Honeycutt (source)
It’s weird how this is even a debate in
some circles. This has been known for a very long time, and we’ve seen
similar happenings with DDT in the past.
“Children today are sicker than they were a generation ago. From childhood cancers to autism, birth defects and asthma, a wide range of childhood diseases and disorders are on the rise. Our assessment of the latest science leaves little room for doubt; pesticides are one key driver of this sobering trend.” – October 2012 report by Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) (source)(source)
Glyphosate is really getting a bad name,
as this new information regarding Costco is coming off the heels of
some bad press for Monsanto (Bayer) as the case regarding school
groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson was
the first lawsuit claiming that glyphosate causes cancer to go to
trial. There are thousands upon thousands of similar pending cases. Any
jury that reviews all of the scientific evidence will not be able to
rule in favor of Monsanto, and Johnson’s case was a great example that
showed glyphosate caused his cancer.
The Takeaway
At the end of the day, it’s us who
decide to use these products. Obviously, we’ve been misled and made to
trust our federal regulatory agencies who are supposedly in
charge of protecting us from these harmful products. It’s the complete
opposite, and what these agencies do is actually quite criminal. This is
why conscious media is so important. The same powers that control these corporations have a tight grip on mainstream media as well.
This is why this issue goes largely
ignored, and the fact that so many people rely on mainstream media for
information about what’s really happening in the world with regards to
health, environment, finance, politics, etc. is why a lot of people are
still completely unaware of important issues. This is also why
governments have started a war on ‘fake news,’ which seems to be a cover
for protecting corporate and government interests.
Help Support Collective Evolution
In order to stay truly independent, we need your help. We are not going to put up paywalls on this website, as we want to get our info out far and wide. For as little as $3 a month, you can help keep CE alive!
SUPPORT CE HERE!
No comments:
Post a Comment