by Carey Gillam
The EPA must also start robust evaluations of formulated products rather than focusing safety assessments on single active ingredients. Instead of looking solely at glyphosate, for instance, regulators must give greater consideration to what people are actually exposed to—finished products such as Roundup. And much more research is needed on the cumulative impacts of the range of pesticides people are exposed to regularly. The fact that a single strawberry sample contains residues of more than a dozen different pesticides cannot be brushed aside as inconsequential.
It is time for the EPA to make good on its obligation to identify and restrict endocrine-disrupting pesticides to protect people as well as fish and wildlife. The Food Quality Protection Act requires that the EPA screen pesticide chemicals for their potential as endocrine disruptors, extremely damaging hormone-altering chemicals that can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders. But despite the 1996 legal requirement for the EPA to identify and act, the agency has accomplished little in the past two decades plus. The EPA’s Office of Inspector General castigated the agency in 2011 for lack of action, but the agency continues to drag its feet on identifying and restricting these dangerous types of pesticides.
The precautionary principle should be the guide. It is not always realistic or safe to wait until science is completely settled. When there is evidence of harm, when corporate proclamations conflict with independent experts’ views, the protection of people and the planet must take priority. There is no doubt that the pervasive pesticides in our lives come with risks and rewards, and balancing the interests of industry and individuals is a delicate endeavor. But too often regulators have shown a willingness to err on the side of business rather than on the side of caution. That must change.
This new path will require a cultural shift in the way we view farming and food production, and it could very likely translate to higher food prices, at least in the near term as conventional farmers shift their practices. But extra pennies for pesticide-free, or at least pesticide-reduced, foods is a small price to pay for healthier food, a healthier environment, reductions in illness and disease, and a brighter future for our children.
The damage already accrued to the environment and to individual lives cannot be undone. But the evidence of the dangers of glyphosate and other agrochemicals can no longer be suppressed, can no longer be whitewashed. The time to act is now. Some steps forward are small; others require a more aggressive stride. But we cannot stand still.
“Innovation does not happen without the courage to question the current paradigm,” said Jonathan Lundgren, the former USDA scientist who left the agency when he felt his scientific findings were being sacrificed for political purposes. “If we do not change our behavior, then humans are in trouble. We know what needs to be done to solve these problems that our planet and species are facing. What is lacking is the courage to implement the needed changes.”17
Let’s find the courage.
Epilogue
Teri McCall doesn’t like to talk much about her lawsuit against Monsanto. Even as the litigation slogs forward, as lawyers thumb through millions of documents, studies, memos, and reports, and as expert witnesses prepare their testimonies for the long-winding case that may take years to resolve, McCall is trying to move past her pain. Doing so has been made harder by the fact that she was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer shortly after losing Jack. She tackled the cancer with aggressive surgery and now considers that fight also part of her past. Still, she has lost weight; the slim blue jeans and soft blouses she favors hang loose on her limbs. Her blue eyes and honey-blond hair still have the brightness of a woman decades younger, but her face has gained shadows of grief that she is not sure will ever be erased.
She remains haunted by the final months of Jack’s failed struggle to survive. After a tumor on his neck was removed, the wound refused to heal and became infected. The chemotherapy and radiation treatments left him with burns and with a loss of taste, taking away even the enjoyment of his life’s work, the fruits of the orchard outside his bedroom window.
“I felt like we were the healthiest of people,” McCall said. She had never before worried about her food much, but now she does, fearing glyphosate or other types of pesticide residues. And she had never known how fast devastation could descend. “It’s just overwhelming when you are going through this,” she told me. “It’s a horror story, to get cancer.”
After Jack’s death, she decided she would buy a horse, learn to ride, anything that was new, that might offer a fresh diversion from memories of her life with Jack. She measured out land next to the house for a corral and started daydreaming of the escape that conquering a new skill might bring. Her own cancer diagnosis and treatment, coming even as she still faced stacks of Jack’s medical bills, added painful complications to an already excruciating effort to build a new life.
To help make ends meet, Teri rented out a garage apartment to a longtime girlfriend and reopened her home to traveling strangers as an occasional bed-and-breakfast. She encourages her guests to relax on the wide front porch, where she and Jack used to sit at the end of long days to talk and stare at the stars.
“He loved life, he loved people. He would want me to be happy,” she said, leaning back on a floral sofa in the farmhouse front room that is positioned to catch afternoon sunlight. Next to her, a rectangular white pillow is stitched with the words “Love You Forever.”
“I am trying. I am. I know I had a really good life, and I am thankful I had him for forty years,” she says. “We used to hold hands in bed every night. Who has that?”1
At Jack’s funeral, his son Paul delivered what he called an “artistic eulogy” memorializing his father’s life and his early death. It was a piercingly personal tribute, but this much can be shared:
A cosmic monarch flew south across a desert valley garden, and when had reached the sea perched upon a man reading the red letters of Luke, a man whose heart wished to speak. A man thinking of every man. A man whose shell was starting to melt.
He had answers to a child’s question…. With the faith of a child and dimpled serenity, a mind spinning in infinity, he had answers.
He rode waves…. The agrarian waves of Santa Rosa creek he rode, cultivating foremost faith, then love, then apples, children … joy. He rode a perfect point break in Baja, naked and on a full moon. He rode a pure and unhindered love for a certain woman.
He lives on. He lives on. He lives on in that friend some of us have that dares and dreams and speaks their wild mind of love without fear of judgment. He lives on in the creamy comfort of an avocado. He lives on in the post office, friendly exchanges and anywhere love is practiced. He lives on in the mystic church of many central coast hearts and hearts abroad. His spirit lives on in heaven, his thumbprint lives on in the community and his voice and image live on in the dreams of a son.
A cosmic monarch flew south across a desert garden and when had reached the sea perched upon a man reaching the red letters of Luke. The man shed his earthly shell, was transfigured and began to float away. And being guided by the monarch ascended into the heavens. And having had a desire to share his heart with us a phrase was written in the sand. “Love each other.” 2
Acknowledgments
Much love and gratitude go to my endlessly patient husband, Don, who gave me the “Go Away, I’m Writing!” sign that hangs in my office and who provided limitless support and encouragement over the many long months of writing. And to my amazingly unselfish children, Ally, Andrew, and Ryan, who allowed me the space and peace to bring the words to the pages, and who I fervently hope will find a better, cleaner, healthier future. Many thanks also to the brilliance of Gary Ruskin and Stacy Malkin, the fearless duo who founded U.S. Right to Know and forged the path that led to many of the revelations in these pages. I also owe more than I can say to the editors, colleagues, extended family members, and friends who helped keep me on track, pushed me to do more, to dig deeper, and to “stick to the fa
cts.” Here is but a partial list: Peter Bohan; Kim Bradford; Toni Cardarella; Nick Carey; Dan Margolies; Julia Sobek; Emily Turner; my father, Chuck Gillam; and my much-loved mother, Carol Heiss, who tirelessly read and reread each chapter. None of this work could have been accomplished without the many farmers and scientists (far too many to mention by name) who have taught me so much over the years and helped guide my inquiries into the story behind the spin. And finally, I am so grateful to the countless individuals—mothers, fathers, teachers, doctors, and others—who have reached out to tell me their stories and to ask me to find answers to their questions. Thank you all.
Notes
Introduction: A Silent Stalker
1. Joseph F. Rinella, Pixie A. Hamilton, and Stuart W. McKenzie, “Persistence of the DDT Pesticide in the Yakima River Basin, Washington,” U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1090, p. 9, https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1993/1090/report.pdf.
2. Stephen B. Powles, “Gene Amplification Delivers Glyphosate-Resistant Weed Evolution,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107, no. 3 (January 19, 2010): 955–956, doi:10.1073/pnas.0913433107.
3. Charles M. Benbrook, “Trends in Glyphosate Herbicide Use in the United States and Globally,” Environmental Sciences Europe 28, no. 3 (February 2, 2016), doi:10.1186/s12302-016-0070-0.
4. Douglas Main, “Glyphosate Now the Most-Used Agricultural Chemical Ever,” Newsweek, February 2, 2016, http://www.newsweek.com/glyphosate-now-most-used-agricultural-chemical-ever-422419.
Chapter 1: What Killed Jack McCall?
1. Comments and quotes in this chapter by Teri McCall and Paul McCall are from a discussion with the author on March 23, 2016.
2. J. Ferlay et al., GLOBOCAN 2012 v1.0, Cancer Incidence and Mortality Worldwide: IARC Cancer Base No. 11 (Internet) (Lyon, France: International Agency for Research on Cancer), 2013, http://www.wcrf.org/int/cancer-facts-figures/worldwide-data; American Cancer Society, “What Are the Key Statistics about Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma?,” https://www.cancer.org/cancer/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/about/key-statistics.html, last revised January 6, 2017.
3. World Health Organization, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Evaluation of Five Organophosphate Insecticides and Herbicides, IARC Monographs vol. 112, March 20, 2015, http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf.
4. Lin Fritschi, in conversation with the author, October 2016.
5. Teri Michelle McCall v. Monsanto Company, Case No. 3:16-cv-05749-VC in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, March 9, 2016, https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Teri-McCall-lawsuit.pdf.
6. The Estate of Robert Cochran by Misty Hill, Its Administrator v. Monsanto Company, Case No. 3:17-cv-00293 DRH-SCW in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, filed March 20, 2017, p. 35, https://jnswire.s3.amazonaws.com/jns-media/47/f8/535559/RobertCochran.pdf.
7. Carey Gillam, “Monsanto Weed Killer Deserves Deeper Scrutiny as Scientific Manipulation Revealed,” Huffington Post, March 17, 2017, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/monsanto-weed-killer-deserves-deeper-scrutiny-as-scientific_us_58cc5541e4b0e0d348b34348.
8. Thomas F. Armstrong (Monsanto), memorandum to Robert J. Taylor (EPA), February 9, 1987, https://archive.epa.gov/pesticides/chemicalsearch/chemical/foia/web/pdf/103601/103601-230.pdf.
9. Robert D. Coberly (EPA), memorandum to Lee TerBush (EPA), February 11, 1974, https://archive.epa.gov/pesticides/chemicalsearch/chemical/foia/web/pdf/103601/103601-009.pdf.
10. Christine Sheppard, in conversation with the author, October 2016.
11. Enrique Rubio v. Monsanto Company, Case No. 2:15-cv-07246-DMG-E in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Western Division, filed September 22, 2015, p. 6.
12. Carey Gillam, “Monsanto Says Panel to Review WHO Finding on Cancer Link to Herbicide,” Reuters, July 14, 2015, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-monsanto-herbicide-idUSKCN0PO2FM20150714.
13. William Dykstra and George Z. Ghali (EPA), memorandum to Robert Taylor and Lois Rossi (EPA), October 30, 1991, p. 1, https://archive.epa.gov/pesticides/chemicalsearch/chemical/foia/web/pdf/103601/417300-1991-10-30a.pdf.
14. Attorney General of the State of New York, Consumer Frauds and Protection Bureau, Environmental Protection Bureau, “In the Matter of Monsanto Company, Respondent, Assurance of Discontinuance Pursuant to Executive Law § 63(15), New York, NY, November 1996: False Advertising by Monsanto Regarding the Safety of Roundup Herbicide (Glyphosate),” p. 4, http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/fraud.pdf.
15. Aaron Johnson, in conversation with the author, November 2016.
16. Associated Press, “$700 Million Settlement in Alabama PCB Lawsuit,” New York Times, August 21, 2003, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/21/business/700-million-settlement-in-alabama-pcb-lawsuit.html.
17. Patrick McCreless, “New Anniston Study Shows Possible Link between PCBs and Liver Disease,” Anniston (AL) Star, October 21, 2016, http://www.annistonstar.com/news/anniston/new-anniston-study-shows-possible-link-between-pcbs-and-liver/article_2a625476-97d3-11e6-a7c0-c78 d019a1f2b.html.
18. Don Huber, in conversation with the author, August 2016.
19. Environmental Working Group, “National Drinking Water Database: Glyphosate Exposure by State,” http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/chemical-contaminants/Glyphosate/2034/.
20. Statement issued by Harrington Investments in response to a query from the author, August 19, 2016.
Chapter 2: An Award-Winning Discovery
1. Gerald M. Dill et al., “Glyphosate: Discovery, Development, Applications, and Properties,” in Glyphosate Resistance in Crops and Weeds: History, Development, and Management, ed. Vijay K. Nandula (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2010), p. 1.
2. Ernst Schönbrunn et al., “Interaction of the Herbicide Glyphosate with Its Target Enzyme 5-Enolpyruvylshikimate 3-Phosphate Synthase in Atomic Detail,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 98, no. 4 (February 13, 2001): 1376–1380, doi:10.1073/pnas.98.4.1376.
3. U.S. Patent Office, “3,799,758, N-Phosphonomethyl-Glycine Phytotoxicant Compositions, John E. Franz, Crestwood, Mo., assignor to Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Mo.”
4. National Science & Technology Medals Foundation, “John E. Franz: National Medal of Technology and Innovation, Agriculture, 1987,” http://www.nationalmedals.org/laureates/john-e-franz.
5. Stephen B. Powles, “Gene Amplification Delivers Glyphosate-Resistant Weed Evolution,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107, no. 3 (January 19, 2010): 955–956, doi:10.1073/pnas.0913433107.
6. Monsanto Company, “Biography of Dr. John Franz,” https://web.archive.org/web/20080724175539/http://www.monsanto.com/features/franz_bio.asp.
7. Nick Visser, “Monsanto Advocate Says Roundup Is Safe Enough to Drink, Then Refuses to Drink It,” Huffington Post, March 27, 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/27/monsanto-roundup-patrick-moore_n_6956034.html.
8. Monsanto Company, “Glyphosate Isn’t a Beverage; Patrick Moore Isn’t a Monsanto Lobbyist,” Beyond the Rows (blog), March 27, 2015, http://monsantoblog.com/2015/03/27/glyphosate-isnt-a-beverage-patrick-moore-isnt-a-monsanto-lobbyist/.
9. U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Development of Phosphate Resources in Southeastern Idaho: Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Reston, VA: U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1976), p. 1-8.
10. Stephen O. Duke and Stephen B. Powles, “Glyphosate: A Once-in-a-Century Herbicide,” Pest Management Science 64, no. 4 (online version dated February 13, 2008): 319–325, doi:10.1002/ps.1518, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228666854_Mini-review_Glyphosate_a_once-in-a-century_herbicide.
11. Dennis C. Williams, “The Guardian: EPA’s Formative Years, 1970–1973,” September 1993, EPA Web Archive EPA-202-K-93-002, https://archive.epa.gov/epa/abo
utepa/guardian-epas-formative-years-1970-1973.html.
12. William Sanjour, in conversation with the author, July 15, 2016.
13. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “R.E.D. Facts: Glyphosate,” EPA Reregistration Eligibility Decision EPA-738-F-93-011, September 1993, p. 4, https://archive.epa.gov/pesticides/reregistration/web/pdf/0178fact.pdf.
14. Ibid., p. 2.
15. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances, memorandum titled “Consensus Review of Glyphosate, Caswell No. 661A,” March 4, 1985, https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/cleared_reviews/csr_PC-103601_4-Mar-85_171.pdf.
16. Ibid.
17. William Dykstra (EPA), memorandum to Hoyt Jamerson (EPA), February 10, 1984, https://archive.epa.gov/pesticides/chemicalsearch/chemical/foia/web/pdf/103601/103601-166.pdf.
18. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Risk Assessment for Carcinogenic Effects,” https://www.epa.gov/fera/risk-assessment-carcinogens.
19. George J. Levinskas (Monsanto), memorandum to T. F. Evans, April 3, 1985, https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MDL1985mouseslidememo.pdf.
20. Nancy Beiles, “What Monsanto Knew,” The Nation, May 11, 2000, https://www.thenation.com/article/what-monsanto-knew/.
21. Robert Sauer, “Pathology Working Group Report on Glyphosate in CD-1 Mice,” Pathco Inc., October 10, 1985.
22. Stephen L. Johnson (FIFRA Scientific Advisory Panel), memorandum to Steven Schatzow (EPA), February 24, 1986, https://archive.epa.gov/pesticides/chemicalsearch/chemical/foia/web/pdf/103601/103601-209.pdf.
23. William Dykstra (EPA), memorandum to Robert J. Taylor (EPA), June 19, 1989, https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/EPA-on-mouse-study-repoeatHQ_0000612.pdf.