I think the theory is that the inhibition of EPSPS pathway could adversely affect the microscopic plants in the bee's gut (or maybe other innards - I'm a little fuzzy on that part of the claims).  Assuming that enough glyphosate is already in the bee's gut and assuming that our oxalic makes its way there too, it might amplify that inhibition in the gut flora, maybe killing off some fraction.  Presumably, it would kill not just the bad gut flora but also some of the good gut flora, though that was not evident from the patent application.  Kill enough and you might throw the internal balance out of whack, leading to a list of bad stuff.  If you look at all the stuff the probiotics industry claims it can do for you, killing off your gut biome would probably cause the reverse of that list.  But we're not killing off all the gut biome so it would probably be some undefined fraction of that list.

Whether glyphosate actually does any of that (at field-relevant exposures) and whether oxalic amplifies it to any significant degree and whether gut biome changes affect bees the same way we think they affect humans and whether [any of the rest of the stacked inferences] are all unproven from what I can tell so far.  As I said, more questions than answers.

Mike Rossander



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