France vows to outlaw Monsanto’s glyphosate by 2018 amid fears herbicide is destroying biodiversity, causing mass honeybee die-offs

Wednesday, July 13, 2016
By Paul Martin

by: Wes Maxwell
NaturalNews.com
Wednesday, July 13, 2016

The EU is making international headlines yet again, but this time for their mandated 18-month extension of the license for the use of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, which is used widely in French agriculture. The use of glyphosate in French farming and wine agricultural practices was supposed to cease entirely by June 30, 2016, but after the EU Standing Environmental Committee failed to come to an agreement on whether or not to enforce a ban, they extended the deadline by an additional 18 months.

Roundup has been widely used across France for the past two decades, serving as an effective pesticide to facilitate the growth of the country’s farming and wine industries. Even though France consistently voted against the EU’s extension due to complaints filed by farming and wine industry representatives, the opposition expressed by the nation’s federal government was ignored.

Studies conducted by the World Health Organization “found that the herbicide solution [Roundup] was ‘probably carcinogenic to humans,'” prompting France to implement federal regulations to outlaw the increasingly harmful pesticide.

Segolene Royal, the French Minister for Ecology, voiced her displeasure about the extension, and claimed that France remains “determined to ban the use of glyphosate in France by January 1, 2018.”

Aside from the obvious potential danger to human health, Royal discussed glyphosate’s impact on the country’s biodiversity, particularly the increasing disappearance of honeybee populations.

In September 2014, Natural News reported on the numerous detrimental effects glyphosate has on honeybees and other natural pollinators. In a study published by the Journal of Experimental Biology, researchers discovered “both chronic and acute effects in honeybees exposed to Roundup at real-life levels.”

In the study, researchers from the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina observed how trace levels of glyphosate affected honeybees’ foraging ability and overall memory retention. To no one’s surprise, they “found a reduced sensitivity to sucrose and learning performance for the groups chronically exposed to GLY [glyphosate] concentrations within the range of recommended doses.”

Researchers found dramatic reductions in memory retention of honeybees exposed to Roundup, as well as the presence of “tainted nectar” in hives, putting the livelihood of the entire colony in danger. According to Natural News, “the distribution of Roundup via nectar did have a cumulative effect on the entire hive’s ability to function, which includes foraging.”

The Rest…HERE

Leave a Reply

Join the revolution in 2018. Revolution Radio is 100% volunteer ran. Any contributions are greatly appreciated. God bless!

Follow us on Twitter