Glyphosate Chemophobia Grips Sonoma County: Sprayers Don Hazmat Suits, Respirators After Switch to 'Safer' Organic Weed Killers

If you've followed the often acrimonious debate over GMOs in foods, you've probably seen pictures of farmers walking through corn and soy fields bedecked in hazardous material suits and respirators. Why do they wear protective gear? According to anti-GMO activists, they are protecting themselves from glyphosate, a chemical often paired with GMOs that they claim is a cancer-causing herbicide. These people wearing hazmat suits are actually Greenpeace activists ripping up genetically engineered plants in the Philippines in 2011. That's ironic in a tragic way as the plants being uprooted are engineered with the natural soil-dwelling bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to protect crops against pests. Farmers who grow Bt use about 95% less insecticides, according to the USDA. Organic farmers use the same Bt pesticide on their crops in a sprayable form. Here is another of literally hundreds of similar scare pictures on the Internet. Note the accompanying line: "If it's not safe to breathe...is it safe to eat?" It's a fabricated image and tag; glyphosate has a toxic profile akin to table salt. Farmers use such a diluted form (and such a small amount) of glyphosate on their fields that it does not require the use of protective gear. Farmers do sometimes use hazmat suits and respirators. Take a look at this picture taken from this video produced in 2011. You can see the farmer decked out in a full protection gear with chemicals spewing from the back of his tractor. Looks pretty ...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news