Do you own property? Land? Here is what you NEED to know NOW about Glyphosate and Agent Orange.
August 21st, 2023 - Amber Nestor - Firm Owner - Land Specialist Broker
Image Above: Stock Photo
If you are using Round-Up, glyphosate, or something similar casually to handle "weeds" in your yard. You need to stop.
You are poisoning your soil, your water table, your pets, your loved ones, and your community.
Below are a few resources to help you to learn the truth about the true impact of these extremely toxic chemicals.
Pesticides, Herbicides, etc. these things are designed to POISON. Ultimately, they kill everything.
One of my Grandfather's was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam. He has had his leg amputated, and multiple cancer surgeries, and a lifetime of suffering and health complications. Both of my Grandfathers survived Vietnam.
Pesticides, Herbicides, etc. are simply not needed, especially in residential areas. Round-Up types of products being sold casually to the public is as equally absurd as selling cigarettes and vaping devices to 18-25 year-olds. It's just plain stupid.
Do these products HEAL or HARM? They HARM. And they are not needed. A lot of people are getting sick, and pets as well, and the environment, soils, and water resources are being destroyed. There are already enough risk factors in modern living. This is one that is easy to eliminate. Simply STOP buying products like this, and spread awareness about the true damage that these products cause.
There are basically 2 reasons people purchase products like Glyphosate:
Common residential and landscaping "beautification" applications.
Large farming operations that are trying to maximize profits scalably.
The fact is, no one in a residential or grounds-keeping setting needs to use highly toxic, life destroying, soil and water destroying poisons like glyphosate. Period. You are likely already having someone mow, and trim, why spray poison too? It's just not necessary. Want to modify or manipulate the composition of your grasslands? Use tilling machines, weed eaters, burn techniques, cover techniques, and implement buffalo grass.
The fact is, no one in a large farming operation needs to use glyphosate either. The proof of this exists in the many, growing certified organic farming operations. The mass producing farms that have relied too heavily on these extremely toxic chemicals for so long need pressure to convert their operations in stages that MAKE SENSE scalably. Everyone around them should not suffer because of their business model: Poison, poison, poison, contaminate, contaminate, contaminate.
I understand that big farming operations have been manipulated by the marketing tactics of Monsanto, Bayer, and the like for many years. And these farmers are NOT at fault! They are victims of the products themselves, and they, and their families and employees, are statistically riddled with health problems disproportionately as a result of their exposures. Farming is the hardest work there is, and there is NOTHING easy about feeding a population. But, as a society we MUST work to utilize and implement organic and safer methods and strategies that we already know work and exist.
People becoming more aware of the seriousness of the issue, learning about alternative ways of living, managing property, and managing farms, and choosing NOT to buy the cigarette (glyphosate) are what will ultimately make the difference. Because the extremely wealthy companies producing and distributing these products will not suddenly wake up today and care more about the negative impact they are having MORE than they care about their profits in this scenario. Not to mention, when a corporation is this incredible large, transitioning it into something positive in society is NOT an easy task. There is a lot of money at stake. It takes incredible wisdom to shift gears on that large of a scale.
Remember, there once was a time when doctors did not wash their hands in-between performing an autopsy and delivering a baby.
Times change. We learn new things. Getting people to change takes time, love, education, patience, and education.
Here are some facts about the way common pesticides, herbicides, and fungicide chemicals are designed to work (poison):
"...disrupting the sodium/potassium balance of the nerve fiber, forcing the nerve to transmit continuously...."
"...inhibiting the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, allowing acetylcholine to transfer nerve impulses indefinitely and causing...weakness and paralysis..."
"...function similar to plant growth hormones, and grow cells without normal cell division, crushing the plant's nutrition transport system..."
"...interfere with photosynthesis..."
"...poisoning..."
"...a systemic pesticide moves inside a plant following absorption..."
"...poison pollen and nectar in the flowers, may kill bees and other needed pollinators..."
"...inhibit the fungi's detoxification enzymes..."
"...costs to the environment...to human health..."
"...acute and delayed effects..."
"...irritation to the skin and eyes to more severe effects...affecting the nervous system mimicking hormones causing reproductive problems, and also...cancer..."
"...most studies on non-Hodgkin lymphoma and leukemia showed positive (aka correlated) associations with pesticide exposure..."
"...cosmetic use of pesticides should be decreased..."
"...neurological alterations..."
"...neurological, birth defects, and fetal death..."
"...American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting exposure of...children to pesticides and using safer alternatives..."
"...The World Health Organization and the UN Environment Programme estimate that each year, 3 million workers in agriculture in the developing world experience severe poisoning from pesticides, about 18,000 of whom die..."
"...one study...25 million...poisoning yearly..."
"...pet groomers, groundskeepers, fumigators..."
"...pesticide...one third of suicide worldwide..."
"...epidemiological review...autism..."
"...air, water, and soil. Pesticide drift..."
"...resistance...greater dose..."
"...dissolve in fats and are not excreted, organisms tend to retain them indefinitely..."
"...Biological magnification...ecological pyramid...Global distillation..."
"...Human health and environmental cost from pesticides in the US is estimated at 9.6 billion offset by about $40 billion in increased agricultural production..."
"...Additional costs include the registration process and the cost of purchasing pesticides. The registration process can take several years...$50-$70 million for a single pesticide. Annually the US spends $10 billion on pesticides..."
source: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticides/ July 8th, 2017
The notes above were taken from a study guide I created when researching a variety of toxins in the environment, including herbicides, pesticides, and round-up while I was researching factors that could have contributed to my own personal battle with SEVERE endometriosis, for which I have had 4 major DaVinci Laparoscopic Surgeries in span of only 7 years.
It matters what we put on our bodies, in our bodies, and in our environment. Choose not to buy these chemicals. Period. If you are NOT a mass producing farming operation, there is literally ZERO reason for you to use poisons in your groundskeeping. You are NOT feeding a nation. You are NOT feeding the world. You are just playing in your yard. You are just nit-picking on the edges of your property. It's silly when you think about it.
Choose to enjoy the incredible beauty and variety of plants that we have been gifted by God in our environments. Eastern TN is world famous for the expansive variety of flora and fauna we have, especially in our protected forests and wildlife management areas. Those of use who have the great blessing and opportunity to own a piece of land in TN have the option to cultivate it, protect it, or destroy it and poison it forever. What will you choose?
Glyphosate does not just kill "weeds". It kills EVERYTHING. That is why farmers using it on large crops have had to buy Genetically Modified seeds in order to keep using it while farming. And the long term effects of these Frankenstein products are not known our out nutrition and health outcomes.
Check out these resources below to learn more:
Legal Information about Glyphosate in Comparison with Agent Orange:
https://www.hillandponton.com/weeds-not-worth-killing-with-roundup/
Glyphosate Documentary:
I pray that God blesses you with health, wealth, and wisdom.
Amber Nestor - Firm Owner and Professional Real Estate Broker for TN