No More Roundup In My Yard, Period

[Phoebe]

Latest developments:
Ron purchased a new container of Roundup, which we don't need at all, I don't want to use, he doesn't have time to use, and if we did use it, we would first have to let the weeds grow enough that they had leaves to spray it on, and we'd have to remove all the other plant life that I don't want shorn off the Earth.

There's more evidence of pesticides (insect, not weed) possibly linked to neurological diseases of various kinds.

California jury rules for plaintiff suing over his cancer he claims followed a long period of Roundup use. I wonder what kind of evidence they got to see, or whether there's any new evidence, or whether they were concerned about cover-ups of evidence. Anyway, it's interesting to see reaction in other countries that already are taking steps to or wish to ban this product. Are they overreacting because of a cultural tendency to give credence to this type of suspicion, or do they know something that we don't? It's all very puzzling.

If the stock price is affected like this long-term, that will cause some reaction for sure.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mons ... SKBN1KY0M5

[Bonefish]

Again, Monosanto is pure triple distilled evil, and withdrawing support from them is a morally just and righteous thing to do. Because fuck those guys.

[DMDarcs]

No thanks, they're the reason I have a house.

[Phoebe]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... 999167002/

What next. I'm sure the consumption of Cheerios in my household is somewhere in the tonnage.

[bralbovsky]

While it is uncommon for farmers to spray Roundup on their crops just before harvesting them (to finalize their ripening) it does occur. There are actually many other chemicals that are perhaps more effective (though perhaps also less studied), that are used frequently. This is not great news...

Here's my thing: Wine people (and Beer people, and whiskey people, etc down the line) pay close attention to what they call terrior, which is a fancy name for all of the trace or less than trace elements that give a drink its character. They come from the soil, the rain, etc...
This is often brought about by amounts smaller than you can measure in a lab. Nevertheless, these differences are absolutely detectable by taste and smell.

If we accept this, (and are willing to pay big money in acknowledgement) how great a leap is it to conclude that we ought to be much more careful about the trace elements of anything we are putting into what we put into our bodies? Especially things that are deposited by companies whose track record on giving a f... about their impacts vs their bottom line isn't great.

This is a deep rabbit hole, but in general, the less stuff we lay onto our food, the better. We are carrying around an increasingly measurable quantity of plastic in our tissues right this second, just a half a century after "The Graduate." We have no idea what it's doing to us, but my money is on it not making us healthier.

[Kyle]

[bralbovsky]

Cigarette butts.
I must have seen my father flip away a thousand fragments of tobacco and fiberglass. They weren't pretty or tasty. What could the impact of a cigarette butt possibly be? Well, how many have we manufactured? How many litter our beaches and parks and water treatment systems...?

I'm not really suggesting that a single dose of anything, be it a mouth x-ray, or some rosemary oil, is going to butterfly effect someone into some altered state. I am worried, in more than just an undefined unease, that the yellow dye from mountain dew, and the apple wax, and the new car smell, and the whatever is in fish these days, are taking their toll. I'm unlikely, on the obverse, to suffer an overdose of patchouli.

Do I pooh-pooh homeopathics, ya, except by observation (placebo? Maybe.) Do I understand that everything I can smell has already made its way inside me, in a personal contact with particles or drops kind of way? Ya.

It's one straw, for chrissakes. Don't worry so much.

[Kyle]

I've... I've... I've never been peppered with so many sarcastic slogans before.

But seriously, I get your point and think I agree.

[bralbovsky]

I apologize for the salty peppering.
The folks who make money, both the chemical people and the supplement people, have totally wrecked any chance of real science being published.
There is a glimmer of hope in relating genomic specifics to impact of trace elements, but as it becomes monetized and attractive to actuaries, the hope fades that inventions or research will ever be purely useful.

Why do some folks die of second hand smoke and others persevere through chain smoking? There's an answer somewhere, that also has a key to Agent Orange inconsistencies, and Roundup, on down the list. Cigarettes are still legal.Thalidomide took over a decade. Statistically, a third of coal miners might have black lung.

We, or at least I, am a little glib about it because it's so pervasive and unavoidable. I asked my oncologist if there was a way I might have avoided lymphoma. "Don't live in 21st century America, or anywhere else for that matter." As far as effects, he believes cancer is a when question, rather than an if question in the modern world. Inasmuch as Roundup specifically is part of that, be as attentive as possible. Say "no thanks" as a default, and, even though you get only one specimen each, keep close tabs on the constant lab experiment that is you and the ones you love.

[Phoebe]

I'm so sorry. This problem is so frustrating - just feels like slow-motion violence about which we are relatively powerless to do anything. Some progress was made when Obama + Congress were functioning, and now a lot of that has been rolled back or will be rolled back soon. I don't understand why people hate themselves so much as to feel people don't deserve protection.

[Ronster]

a little manual weeding would do us all some good.