More About Pesticide Safety

My Dec. 20, 2024, article on “Pesticide Safety?” received a lot of attention. It seems to have shaken up a number of readers. To think that a pesticide could poison the entire family while washing clothes! But others told me that this couldn’t happen because the dose would be way below the limit to do any harm.

Last December,AcresUSA magazine (#642) published an article titled, Glyphosate Does What It’s Designed to Do-Kill. Interviewee Don Huber, PhD. who began studying the chemical in 1974 discussed how glyphosate kills organisms. He also noted how it causes more disease in the environment, and that “it is toxic to us”. And by us he means people. In 2000, Monsanto patented glyphosate as an anti-parasite and antibiotic compound. That should signal that it not only kills parasites, but the biota in our guts and the environment.

The article went on to talk about Huber’s research and how the chemical not only kills the plant, but “changes the mineral availability – not for a half inch or an inch, but for 20, 25 feet” (beyond the plant it killed). He went on to say that “…glyphosate can have a half-life as long as 22 years.” And if you are a person that adds phosphorus fertilizer to the pasture or garden, it can desorb the glyphosate in the soil and kill the next crop.

I once heard Don Huber talk. He scared the stuffing out of the audience with what he had to say about Roundup and glyphosate. And what was not mentioned in the article was that glyphosate applications don’t just kill in parts per hundred or parts per million, but parts per billion. That is one molecule in one billion parts of soil or plant organism. There can be 30 billion living organisms in one teaspoon of soil. It doesn’t take much glyphosate to kill.

One reader texted me that an aircraft had sprayed the land adjacent to her ranch, killing her organic garden. The damage was caused by drift. I’ve also had experience with drift. My ornamental nursery in the Seguin area was once drifted from a farmer five miles away. How do I know? I saw the farmer spraying and as soon as he saw me, he stopped and went to his barn. I called the Texas Department of Agriculture agent who came out and found that the only farmer spraying in that area that could have done damage was indeed that farmer. Again, we are talking about particles in the air of parts per billion or less.

I experienced severe damage at that same nursery by Roundup drift. The Monsanto representative came out, looked around and said, “That’s not Roundup damage”. He took a sample to test and promptly lost the sample. But I had five other samples properly taken and sent to five different laboratories. The first was a week after the spraying the last over 180 days later. Monsanto said there would be no trace that long afterwards. It was the Monsanto representative who took the last sample after losing the first. And each sample came back positive for glyphosate in parts per billion. The Monsanto representative vowed that the product was not or could not be present. His own laboratory results proved otherwise.

Further proof was given when Dr. Mary Ketchersid came to examine the nursery. She said “This is not Roundup damage. I did my PhD. dissertation on Roundup and know more about it than anyone.” She was an Extension Weed Specialist and is now a retired Assistant Professor & Extension Specialist at Texas A&M. It wasn’t until she saw the five laboratory results and went home to experiment with the part per billion ratio that she concluded that yes, I had been drifted with Roundup. She told me that her husband (a professional photographer) took over 1,000 photographs of damage to plants that had never before been recorded. The farmer that drifted me and his wife died of cancer.

The problem with most glyphosate drift is that it is LEGAL in Texas. You read that right. While Roundup cannot be sprayed in winds over 10 miles per hour, other products with glyphosate can be sprayed in a hurricane. I often see applicators spray it in winds over 10 miles per hour and gust up to 30 mph. I know, because I have recorded it as it happened. So, if you are downwind (even as far as five miles), you can still get poisoned by glyphosate.

I have become more of an expert on glyphosate than most farmers, ag agents and weed specialist. I can usually spot glyphosate damage while driving down the highway at 55 miles per hour. It doesn’t always kill the plant but may deform the leaves or cause partial death on some portion of the plant.

And while I am driving, I often see the County applicators spraying the sides of the road, the culverts, bases of sign post and trees with glyphosate. I feel sorry for the applicators and their families being poisoned as they do their job. Most of the spraying is not needed.

I know that there are people that doubt me. But this information is well known and documented. And glyphosate is just one of the many chemicals that are causing the silent poisoning of our population. The best way to avoid direct poisoning is to stop using toxic chemicals. More to come.

David E. Will is a Fayette County rancher and consultant. He can be reached at 830-629-9876 or by email at dwill207@satx.rr.com.