{"id":129469,"date":"2014-08-27T00:31:32","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T19:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=129469"},"modified":"2014-09-04T10:11:36","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T04:41:36","slug":"banning-glyphosate-shooting-the-sentinel-to-save-the-weeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/banning-glyphosate-shooting-the-sentinel-to-save-the-weeds\/","title":{"rendered":"Banning Glyphosate – Shooting The Sentinel To Save The Weeds?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chandre Dharmawardana<\/span><\/a> –<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Prof.<\/a>

Prof. Chandre Dharmawardana<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/b>A news item states that the Task-force on Kidney Disease<\/span><\/a> of unknown origin (CKDU<\/span><\/a>) has got the government to ban Glyphosate, a harmless herbicide, in agricultural provinces like Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and Badulla.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cDoing something\u201d about CKDU\u00a0 has become a\u00a0 political\u00a0 necessity.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0 glyphosate is the sentinel that stands guard against weeds clogging up our plantations. Minister Abeywardena says that according to agricultural experts\u00a0 \u201cthe country\u2019s economy would collapse if glyphosate was banned\u201d, but \u201cthe loss of a life could not be measured in terms of money\u201d. What proof\u00a0 lives will be saved? Unfortunately, not one human life\u00a0 will be saved,\u00a0 although the lives of many weeds will be saved.<\/p>\n

It is a grievous\u00a0 case of a strong divergence between the public perception and scientists’ perception of things. The type of unreasonable\u00a0 public fear resulting from incomprehension is quite common.<\/p>\n

Many readily accept that CKDU, and all sorts of other ills\u00a0 are due to\u00a0 industries or modern agriculture. Of course, generally speaking this is good sense, especially in societies where the rules\u00a0 regarding public safety etc., are not properly enforced. The collusion between politicians and big business wishing to cut corners and make a profit is well known.\u00a0 The same is suspected of the global food business which sells unhealthy highly-sugared pop-drinks and salted, processed , preservative-laced foods. These are, however, much safer than the traditional \u201cKalu-dodol, vatalappan or Kiri-paeni\u201d etc. for sugar, and \u201cLunu-miris, Jaadi or karawala\u201d or \u201ckola-kaenda\u201d for salt. In fact, the\u00a0 \u201cenvironment\u201d\u00a0 has become far safer than ever before. Hence people live longer, and the population is increasing at a dizzing rate. Their common ailments (diabetes, hypertension, and consequences there of) are related to their\u00a0 life-styles\u00a0 or due to aging (cancer,\u00a0 dementia etc.) rather than to \u201cthe environment\u201d.<\/p>\n

A king-pin of traditional agriculture was human labour, be it in the form of slaves, surfs, or \u201cindented\u201d labour. Modern tea estates (and other corp plantations) use vastly less labour per bushel of produce than in the 1960s. In addition, we have far more plantation acres than ever before. This great\u00a0 elimination of human suffering and servitude has been possible by the introduction of safe herbicides, fertilizers and modern know-how from agricultural science and plant physiology. This is why a couple of farms in Saskatchewan, operating only in the summer, can produce all the\u00a0 \u201cparippu\u201d (dahl, lentils) that Sri Lanka needs! Sri Lanka is not there yet, and imports its dahl from wintry Canada.<\/p>\n

Thus the discovery of the virtually non-toxic Glyphosate by John E Franz in 1970 was an epoch-making event in agriculture. Glyphoste acts only on plants and not animals. This made it possible to eliminate a huge burden in manual weeding, soil erosion due to constant uprooting, as well as the time up-take in planting. Glyphosate was commercialized (under the name \u201cRoundup\u201d) by the agri-giant Monsanto for many decades till its patent ran out, and since then other companies have re-marketed\u00a0 it under other names, and even began trade wars against ‘Roundup’.<\/p>\n

In Sri Lanka, just recently,\u00a0 in desperate gestures to pin the blame on CKDU on a politically attractive targets like agri-business, it was first claimed that the water, as well as our tea, rice and vegetables coming from the Rajarata are contaminated with Arsenic, or Cadmium and other toxins. The boycott – Lanka Diaspora lobby caught onto this with glee. When the extensive WHO-study, as well as other studies (Chandrajith et al, Japanese-Sri Lankan studies, Australian-Sri Lankan Studies)\u00a0 showed that such toxins were not present in critical amounts, a desperate attack on Glyphosate was undertaken, even when there is clear evidence that Glyphosate is NOT perceptibly present in our water or soils.<\/p>\n

CKDU was first detected in the Balkan regions in the 1950s, long before the discovery of Glyphosate. In Sri Lanka, CKDU may have begun in the 1980s, decades before the use of Glyphosate.<\/p>\n

So why ban it when it cannot be the culprit? Why not go for its causes?<\/p>\n

What is the cause of CKDU? Many plantations and farmers use five to ten times the needed amount of fertilizer (containing potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus), hoping to get booster\u00a0 harvests. But the excess fertilizer gets washed by the heavy rains in the hills. It\u00a0 is brought to the Rajarata by irrigation schemes like the Mahaweli and contaminates the water. This writer believes that CKDU arises from the contamination of drinking water (a detailed discussion is given in a recent research article<\/span><\/a> in \u201cEnvironmental Geochemistry and Health\u201d)<\/p>\n

If we are to save lives, fertilizer should be sold to farmers in controlled quantities, just as pharmaceuticals are sold to patients using a prescription. Then nature, and heavy monsoons that wash away the offending stuff, will soon bring matters to normal.<\/p>\n

Banning glyphosate, or\u00a0 banning modern inorganic fertilizers outright, will indeed lead to extensive starvation, loss of lives as well as the rapid collapse of our agricultural sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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