i round-up no longer
Posted on April 9, 2007
Filed Under environmental crisis, homeownership, kids, parenting, snark, suburban joys | 5 Comments
The folks over at Project Censored have amassed a list of the most important but under reported news stories of the year, those that were effectively ignored due to more pressing and newsworthy events like the death of Anna Nicole and the ensuing paternity hullabaloo, Brittney and K-Fed’s divorce and her subsequent breakdown and Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s adoption of the entire nation of Ethiopia. Ron Davidson of R World has issued a request that concerned bloggers feature one of these important but overlooked stories on their own site in the hope that such an internet outcry will shame the mainstream media into reporting news that matters, not just news that sells copies of In Touch magazine to fifteen year olds.
If I start talking about Halliburton or genocide in Africa or how the Pentagon is exempt from The Freedom of Information Act or the torture induced death of detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq, I may never shut up so I’m heeding the call with talk about the herbicide called RoundUp. According to smart scientists who study things like the toxicity of herbicides, Round Up, even in very low concentrations, causes fetal damage, liver cancer and inhibits RNA transcription. (This is my rather lazy regurgitation of some disturbing facts about RoundUp. If you’d like to digest the whole shocking write up please feel free to click on over to Project Censored.)
Being ill equipped to vet scientific data after consuming 1200 chocolate eggs, I have chosen to give the study’s authors my implicit trust. These purportedly informed and brilliant professionals imply that RoundUp is still on the market because manufacturer Monsanto wields great power in the agricultural industry.
Until now, I have been a HUGE RoundUp fan, having been known to douse entire weed ridden lawns with the stuff in order to start anew (nothing triggers OCD of the annal retentive variety like dollar weed in an otherwise perfect swath of sod). I was so certain of product safety that I often performed the dousing bare handed while wearing flip flops with the wind blowing. And, though I’m a little concerned about having laid the foundation for my own future agonizing death from liver cancer, I’m more than worked up about what I’ve done to G.
The weeks before I knew of G’s conception (she was in there but I wasn’t yet aware of it), I was waging a huge, RoundUp heavy offensive against the weeds in our yard. I spent whole days out there pumping and spraying and letting the toxicity drip down my arms. I learned of her conception a few days after I’d annihilated the enemy and, even then, five years before I read the report citing the certain hazards of RoundUp use, I was slightly concerned that G might be born with extra digits or a tail.
Now I’m sweating it anew. Though G has only ten fingers and toes and doesn’t seem to have a prehensile tail, she does have that little cough she gets in the Winter months that seems so much like asthma and her right leg seems to fall asleep an awful lot, she picks her nose and she chews her hair, nails and even her toenails if allowed. There’s a laundry list of little quirks and medical mysteries that I’m will surely now attribute to that RoundUp exposure. I am hoping that nothing more serious than asthma and an oral fixation befalls my little G because Monsanto covered up the dangers of RoundUp.
And I swear to you, no matter how bad the lawn looks this Spring as all the hearty tufts of wild violet and crabgrass push up where sod once I grew, I’m not going to fall back on old methods and prime my sprayer. Never mind that in order to accomplish this Round Up abstinence, I’ll have to walk by the lawn with my eyes closed and just sort of experience Spring and Summer with only my olfactory senses. In honor of my liver and the livers of those I love, I’m committed to go without.
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
