Here we are with the third episode in the "food additives" series, and this week we're digging into the health, economic and ecological impacts of Syngenta's Atrazine herbicide.
If you're not familiar with this herbicide, you're not alone but it's something you might want to know about that is lurking in our food supply.
It's been around since the late 1950's, and farmers and folks who grow our food on a large scale spray upwards of 70 MILLION pounds of it, annually. Despite Syngenta's continual denial of the impacts this herbicide has and continues to create, Atrazine is a known endocrine disruptor, has been studied and proven to alter sex hormones (by Dr. Tyrone Hayes), and it has been proven that it contaminates our water supply.
So much so, that the work of Dr. Hayes was pivotal in the class action lawsuit that was brought by 23 cities in the Midwest against Syngenta for the contamination of the regional water supply. And the cities WON!
There is no doubt that this is a complicated issue. Farmers who grow monocrops (like cereal grains, corn, sugarcane, pineapples, etc.) for our food consumption want to avoid crop failure so that we can continue to be able to eat and afford food, but do we want that more than we want clean water or clean food? Do we want our legislators being "bribed" by political action committees who are funded by companies like Syngenta? Do we want to continue to lose species that positively contribute to our ecosystems?
The question is obvious, do the benefits outweigh the costs?
I'll let you decide, so I hope you'll listen in.
I really hope you share this episode with someone you love, because with more information, we can all begin to put the pieces together and do something good...for ourselves, our future generations, our wildlife, our waterways, our soil, and our food.Until next time, I'll see you on the other side of the plate.
Chow, Michele
p.s. If you haven't checked out some of my short videos that I make every week, take a moment to watch one or two. It will really help spread the word about what's going on in our food supply chain! You can subscribe to the YouTube channel or watch them on https://foodslain.com/food-slain-videos/
I appreciate your listening support!
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