RoundUp, Glyphosate. Monsanto. Those words are becoming a larger part of the discussion in many homes. For people that aren’t so familiar with those terms, Ed Brown is directing an upcoming documentary titled A New Resistance. This film is designed to educate the public about the truth regarding glyphosate.
After directing, producing and editing the acclaimed film Unacceptable Levels, Ed has become a trusted voice in the health and well being of people around the world. Dedicated to uncovering the truth as it relates to the chemical pollution of our bodies, when this project was presented to him, he felt this story had to be told.
I had the opportunity to ask Ed a few questions about glyphosate and A New Resistance. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.
1. What inspired you to direct A New Resistance?
That’s always easy to answer, because my life and the direction it has taken is all about protecting my children. Seriously, that is the bottom line for me, because they are my inspiration for doing everything that I do every single day. I always want to not only improve myself, but the changes that I am making in my own lifestyle and in theirs is about setting them up for a great future. To be honest, I really didn’t see myself making another film about toxic chemicals, but this one… This one particular chemical deserves a lot of special attention, and I figured that I would give it a massive spotlight by way of a movie. And everyone will see why this year.
2. What do we need to know about glyphosate?
First thing that people need to know is that it is everywhere, and like it or not, it’s inside of most if not all of us right now. A lot of people get it confused and equate it to RoundUp, which is the best selling herbicide in the world, but glyphosate is the active ingredient inside of many different weed killing products on the market today. It is designed to kill bacteria, and it had been doing it pretty effectively for several decades. But even the industry understands that it isn’t working like it used to, so now they’re designing chemicals that really make things hard on the planet, people, animals, soil and beneficial insects everywhere. So, in a nutshell, it is the active ingredient that kills bacteria in plants, and it is in a great deal of the processed foods that we eat in this country and abroad.
3. What are some of the health effects of glyphosate that we should be concerned about?
This is where it gets touchy, because the industry has done such an amazing job of only testing glyphosate on rats for 90 days and then pushing this short form science out as if it is a case closed study. To truly understand the real health effects of this one chemical is also difficult, as it is not the only chemical at the moment – they work in tandem across the spectrum to kill weeds. At the present moment, we understand that there are a variety of chronic diseases that this chemical is linked to, which are autism, Crohn’s disease, infertility, cancer, ALS, Alzheimer’s disease and Multiple Sclerosis. Now, we always need to preface this with a full understanding that due to current patent laws on this chemical, the companies creating it are not allowing a third party independent assessment of this chemical to provide our society with a clear understanding about health impacts. Imagine cars being allowed to drive on the highway with only the manufacturers safety assessment for us to rely on to determine safety. That’s the situation that we find ourselves in.
4. Do you have tips on how we can avoid glyphosate in our daily lives?
I joke about living in a bubble or in a Tibetan monastery often with audiences – which does not receive the kind of laughs I hope for by the way – but in all practicality eating organic and not spraying your gardens, schools, lawns or anything with herbicides would be the best way to avoid it. I mean, there are hundreds of schools all across this nation that are backed up against farmers fields and they spray that everywhere, in the belief that it is fine. It’s not like the kids at school are going to speak up about it, so what do we do? How do we avoid direct contact that way? After all, you can spray herbicides up to 90 feet from a school, and that is suggesting that drift doesn’t happen from the application, which is astounding to me that companies can get away with suggesting that. We have to work with farmers to get them to try something new. We have to get people to buy something new. We have to get people to think something new as well. Once we can start making that happen we can all start making a real difference.
5. How can people help stop the use of glyphosate?
We have all of the control, so stop buying into this nonsense that we can’t do anything about it. The companies do not have all of the power in this, so people need to stop believing that. We have a responsibility to each other, especially the next generation. So, consider how exciting and strong we can all feel by understanding that fact. We have all of the control here, and there is ONE agency that has full control over the license at this point, and that is the EPA. If people can get celebrities flooded with comments, and new agencies have people throwing their thoughts around and we can get them to reconsider their positions about whatever, why not get everyone focused to put pressure where it needs to be? It’s the EPA. Lets get them to reconsider where their priorities are, whether it’s our children or the chemical companies, and then we can really start to see what the situation is from their perspective. Then, it will be time for the parents out there, especially the mothers who have glyphosate in their breast milk and in their infant formula that’s going straight into their babies, we’ll let them chime in as well. It’s all up to us. Always. So, lets put that control in our hands and change the world and the way we eat.
A New Resistance is expected to be released sometime this year. Follow A New Resistance on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to keep updated on the release date.
Feature image courtesy of Scot Nelson