China: Largest producer and exporter of glyphosate
China
is the largest producer and exporter of glyphosate, the declared
active ingredient in Monsanto's infamous and highly toxic Roundup
herbicide, as well as in other glyphosate based herbicides (GBHs). In
2015, China produced over 800,000 metric tons of glyphosate, which
represented roughly 70% of global production. Over 80% of China's
production of glyphosate is exported in six countries, with the US,
Brazil and Argentina representing 55-60% of the export market. The
balance is consumed locally in China.[1]
China:
Largest importer & consumer of GM RR Soy and corn
China
is also the largest importer and consumer of genetically modified
(GM) Roundup Ready (RR) soy beans, importing over 90 million metric
tons of GM RR soy beans in 2015, with imports and consumption
projected to exponentially increase to over 140 million metric tons
by 2020-2025 (see graph below). The overwhelming vast majority of the
GM RR soy beans imported into China are used for livestock feed; the
rest is used for human consumption. [2]
The US, Brazil and Argentina are the three biggest producers and exporters of genetically modified Round Up Ready soybeans, accounting for over 80% of global production and 90% of global exports, with China representing 60% of their export market. The US, Brazil and Argentina are also the three largest GMO producers, accounting for 78% of global GMO production in 2016. [3]
The
industrial chemical-intensive agricultural production of RR GM soy,
corn, cotton and canola doused in glyphosate/Roundup and other
poisonous pesticides/biocides is mass poisining both billions of
humans, animals, the soil, water, the air, the environment and all
web of life in South America, in the US and elsewhere around the
planet, as numerous peer reviewed and published studies have
documented. [4][5]
As
the late prominent scientist and director of the Institute for
Science in Society Dr
Mae-Wan Ho wrote
and warned: “The vicious circle is now complete. China gave up
producing soybeans and invested heavily in producing glyphosate
instead, shortly after Monsanto’s patent for glyphosate expired in
2000. Most of the glyphosate is shipped to the top GM soybean
producing countries US, Brazil and Argentina, where it is sprayed on
Roundup Ready soybean to be exported back to China. Excessive
glyphosate spraying has sickened people & wildlife in GM soybean
producing countries (not to mention millions of hectares of natural
forests cut down and natural grasslands destroyed), and a billion
Chinese people are poisoned with toxic soybeans. The international
group of NGOs are right [1], China holds the key to world health,
only China can break this vicious circle that devastate people and
planet.” [6]
How
Monsanto “cheated” to obtain approval of glyphosate/Roundup and
of GM RR soybean and maize in China.
China’s
Ministry of Agriculture has been accused of fraudulently authorizing
Monsanto’s GM RR soybeans and maize that
“cause systematic harm to mankind, animals, plants, microbes and
the ecological environment” to enter and flood the Chinese market
without carrying out proper risk assessments to make sure that GM RR
soy and corn are safe for human consumption.
A
petition [7] signed by more than 600 people all over China submitted
to the State Council Legislative Affairs Office claims that the
Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has “colluded” with Monsanto,
allowing Monsanto to provide “fake samples, to carry out “false
tests” and to “falsify safety conclusions”
and have
thus “cheated” both the Chinese government and billions of
Chinese consumers, and seriously violated the State Council’s
“Agricultural GMOs Safety Administration Regulation”, amounting
to a “crime of endangering public security.”
“Not
only has the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture ignored the harm that
can be caused by glyphosate/Roundup residues in Monsanto's GM RR
soybeans; it has also refused to tell the truth on how Monsanto’s
Roundup herbicide obtained its pesticide registration in China in
1988, and how Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soybean 40-3-2 and NK603
maize obtained their bio-safety certificate from the Chinese Ministry
of Agriculture.
“It
transpired that for its pesticide registration of Roundup, Monsanto
“cheated” the Chinese government and the Chinese people. First,
Monsanto intentionally did not inform the Chinese Ministry of
Agriculture that glyphosate was patented as a chelator, which causes
systematic harm to the health of the soil, microbes, crops, animals
and humans.
Second, Monsanto failed to inform the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture that the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) had in 1985 classified glyphosate as a possible carcinogen.
Third, Monsanto did not provide reports on the long-term, lifetime and three-generation study revealing the carcinogenicity of glyphosate. And fourth, Monsanto submitted a “Roundup toxicology test report issued by Younger Laboratories on 23 December 1985”, which has all the appearances of being an “outright fraud.
As for the bio-safety certificate for glyphosate-tolerant GM soybean 40-3-2 and maize NK 603, the petition alleges that the leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture, China’s Centers for Disease Control and Monsanto “colluded internally and externally.” They used “fake samples, falsified tests, and made false safety conclusions”, writes Dr Mae-Wan Ho.
The petition includes 23 attachments containing documentary evidence bearing out its allegations of the Ministry of Agriculture’s wrongdoings, four of which are in English, the rest in Chinese. Among the attachments are collections of scientific papers published in Chinese and in English on the toxicities of glyphosate herbicides. [8]
Marked
deterioration in China’s public health blamed on imports and
consumption of GM RR soybeans.
The document highlights the rapid deterioration of public health in China over the past 10-20 years, correlating with the rapid increase in imports and consumption of GM RR soybeans in China [10]
• In 1996, the rate of birth defects among the newborn in China was 0.87 %; in 2000, it increased to 1.09 %; and in 2010, to 1.53%
• A survey reported by Reference News on June 2, 2013 found the rate of severe depression in people over 60 years old in China is as high as 40 %
• The Xinmin Evening News reported on 22 November 2011 that the rate of precocious puberty in Chinese girls has increased 10-fold over the past 10 years
• The first “Public Health White Paper” issued by the Beijing Municipal Government in 2010 revealed that Type II diabetes has increased 11.7 fold
• The Zhengzhou Daily News reported on 2 April 2013 that the number of children confirmed with autism has increased 100 fold during the past 20 years
• The Chengdu Daily reported on 20 February 2013 that the prevalence of childhood cancer is increasing, on average there is one cancer patient for each 10 000 children. Among juvenile cancer patients, leukaemia, brain tumour, malignant lymphoma and neuroblastoma are the top 4.
• The “2012 Chinese male sperm quality survey white paper” of the China Population Association reports that the total number of infertility patients in China already exceeded 50 million, accounting for 15.6 % of the child-bearing age population. Ten years ago in 2002, this figure was 8 %, and 20 years ago in 1992, it was 3 %, 40 years ago during the 1970s, infertility was not more than 1 %
• According to a report by the Xinhua website, the prevalance of Parkinson’s patients in China has increased more than 20-fold during the last 20 years
• Currently, the prevalance ofcardiovascular disease has exceeded 13 %; and prevalence of chronic kindney disease has reached 10 %.
These grim figures in China echo the increases in 22 chronic and lethal diseases in the US that closely parallel and correlate with the exponential rise of glyphosate/Roundup and GMO's in the US [11,12]
Similar upsurges in birth defects and cancers have also been observed in Argentina as GM RR soybean cultivation increases. [13]
Environmental and human health NGO's ask China to ban glyphosate/Roundup and GM RR soy/corn
Ten environmental health NGOs have written an Open Letter [14] to the Chinese Ambassador to the UK asking China to suspend exports of glyphosate and imports of GM RR soy/corn while independent testing is carried out.
Excerpts of the Open letter:
“We are genuinely frightened by the harm currently being done to the health of your citizens and indeed the health of people across the planet. We understand that China already is the largest producer and exporter of glyphosate in the world, including supplies exported to Monsanto for use in the manufacture of Roundup formulations worldwide.
Accordingly, we ask that your Government accepts that it shoulders, together with Monsanto, some responsibility for the devastating harm to public health in those countries importing glyphosate/Roundup from China. We are also concerned that there may be massive claims for compensation in the near future.
China is also the largest importer of 'Roundup Ready' (RR) soybeans and maize, thus contributing to the ongoing production of these varieties in the USA, Argentina and Brazil. It will be no easy thing to close down factories and to ban the use of the chemical in town and country; and if imports of RR soy and maize are stopped, they will have to be replaced with other products. But we respectfully ask you to take a global lead in this matter.
First, will you please commission appropriate scientific institutions in China to carry out independent long-term carcinogenicity, teratogenicity, endocrine developmental disruption, and multiple-generation reproduction toxicity tests on glyphosate alone, and on Roundup formulations? These studies should be carried out by institutions with no commercial or academic interest links with the glyphosate and/or related products industries, and with no connections to the earlier safety evaluation of glyphosate and/or related products.
We also believe that in China, as elsewhere, there should now be a nationwide programme of testing for glyphosate residues in surface water, underground water, animal and human urine, breast milk and blood. In parallel, we hope that you will see merit in a nationwide epidemiological investigation of the link between glyphosate/Roundup pollution (including traces contained in imported GM soybeans) and the increased incidence of malignant diseases during the past 20 years.
Second, before such studies are commissioned, we ask you as an essential precautionary measure immediately to suspend production/sales and exports of glyphosate, to suspend imports of Roundup formulations, and to suspend imports of all agriculture products (such as RR varieties) containing any glyphosate residues.
Finally, given the past frauds practised by IBT and Craven Labs in carrying out industry tests on pesticides, including glyphosate, we urge you to challenge Monsanto to place certain key reports [15] immediately into the public domain. If the corporation will not cooperate by releasing these documents without deletions or alterations, we will assume that there has been scientific malpractice and that the WHO findings of a glyphosate/cancer link are well founded.
Glyphosate should have been banned globally 35 years ago, and Roundup should never have been placed on the market. After decades of health damage, it must be in the interests of the whole world for these lethal chemicals to be taken immediately out of use before any more harm is done.
While many scientists in Europe and the Unites States share the concerns expressed above, there are many political and commercial obstacles to change. If China could take a lead in the manner which we respectfully suggest, placing the safety and good health of future generations above the commercial aspirations of multinational corporations, that would be something of truly historical importance for our planet.”
China
has (tragically) decided and announced to become a global biotech/chemical superpower!
Unfortunately
and tragically, the Chinese State has instead decided to embrace
GMO's and pesticides and become a global leader in biotechnology.
China must “boldly research and
innovate, [and] dominate the high points of GMO techniques,”
President Xi said in a 2013 speech. “[We] cannot let foreign
companies dominate the GMO market.” [16]
To
do so, ChemChina - China's State-owned chemical company- has decided
to buy Syngenta – one of the largest biotech/chemical company in
the world for $US 43 billion. “ChemChina has won around 82 percent
support from Syngenta shareholders for its $43 billion takeover of
the Swiss pesticides and seeds group, China's biggest foreign
acquisition to date, the two companies said on Wednesday, 10 May
2017. [17]
Conclusion
To
summarize and to conclude, China is the largest producer and exporter
of glyphosate in the world, producing and supplying over 70% of the
global market. China supplies glyphosate to Monsanto and the
biotech/chemical industry, who in turn use it to manufacture Roundup
and other toxic/poisonous glyphosate based herbicides (GBHs) which
are copiously sprayed on both GM RR soybeans, corn and other GM RR
crops, as well as on conventional food crops worldwide as a
dessicant. Glyphosate/Roundup has been proven to cause a myriad of
chronic and lethal human diseases as well as widespread environmental
pollution and destruction worldwide, as numerous peer reviewed and
published studies have documented.
China
is also the largest importer and consumer of genetically modified
(GM) Roundup Ready (RR) soy beans and corn, which are used for both
livestock feed as well as human consumption. The consumption of GM RR
soybeans and corn doused in glyphosate/Roundup are also extremely toxic to both
human and animal health. Moreover, the industrial and chemical
intensive agricultural production of GM RR soy and corn is mass
poisoning billions of people, animals, the soil, water, the air, the
environment and all web of life in South America, in the US and
elsewhere around the world where GM RR crops are grown.
Therefore,
China must stop producing, exporting and supplying glyphosate to the
biotech/chemical industry and stop importing and consuming GM RR
soybeans and corn to protect and to save both the health and the
lives of billions of Chinese and humans around the world as well as
the environment globally.
Arya
Vrilya
Footnotes
& references
[2]
Ibid
[3]
Source ISAAA report
http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/briefs/52/download/isaaa-brief-52-2016.pdf
[4]
Banishing Glyphosate, Institute for Science and Society:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Banishing_Glyphosate.php
[5]
A Roundup of Roundup® Reveals Converging Pattern of Toxicity from
Farm to Clinic to Laboratory Studies, Institute for Science and
Society: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Roundup_of_Roundup.php
[10] http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Chinas_Ministry_of_Agriculture_Accused_of_Colluding_with_Monsanto.php
[11]Swanson NL, Leu A, Abrahamson J and Wallet B. Genetically engineered crops, glyphosate and the deterioration of health in the United States of America. Journal of Organic Systems 2014, 9, 6-37.
[12]Saunders PT. Marked deterioration of public health parallels increase in GM crops and glyphosate use, US government data show. Science in Society 65
[13] (Devastating Impacts of Glyphosate Use with GMO Seeds in Argentina, Institute for Science and Society.
[14] Source: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Ten_NGOs_Ask_China_to_Stop_Producing_Glyphosate.php
[15] 'A Three-Generation Reproduction Study in Rats with Glyphosate' (Final Report; Bio/dynamics Project No. 77-2063; March 31, 1981) -- submitted by Monsanto to EPA
'Addendum to Pathology Report for a Three-Generation Reproduction Study in Rats with Glyphosate. R.D. #374; Special Report MSL-1724; July 6, 1982' EPA Registration No 524-308, Action Code 401. Accession No 247793. CASWELL#661A' -- submitted by Monsanto to EPA
'A Lifetime Feeding Study of Glyphosate (Roundup Technical) in Rats' (Report by GR Lankas and GK Hogan from Bio/dynamics for Monsanto. Project #77-2062, 1981: MRID 00093879) -- submitted by Monsanto to EPA. Including the study's 4-volume Quality Control evaluation of the Bio/dynamic assessment performed by Experimental Pathology Laboratories, Inc. (2,914 pp).
Also Addendum Report #77-2063
Knezevich, AL and Hogan, GK (1983) 'A Chronic Feeding study of Glyphosate (Roundup Technical) in Mice'. Project No 77-2061. Bio/dynamics Inc for Monsanto. Accession No #251007-251014 -- document not available but cited in EPA 1986 Memo.
Follow-up study: McConnel, R. 'A chronic feeding study of glyphosate (Roundup technical) in mice: pathology report on additional kidney sections'. Unpublished project no. 77-2061A, 1985, submitted to EPA by Bio/dynamics, Inc.
