"Were we not given this a short while ago?
Glyphosate's Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases
Entropy 2013, 15, 1416-1463; doi:10.3390/e15041416"

I looked a bit closer at One paragraph when it was quoted on another Forum...another installment in The Peoples Homework.


This particular work is not a "study"....there was no experiment performed by the authors. This was a "review article"...looking at a bunch of published literature, and using them as data to consider new conclusions. In such a paper, both the quality (and substance) of the source material is important, as is the ability (and willingness) of the authors to accurately interpret what was contained in those studies.

On another forum, this study was discussed, and the following passage quoted (a single paragraph)...with the footnotes intact. I've broken it up here into 4 parts to examine the source material for each statement. Unless you are going to rely on the reputation or credentials of an author, you have to look at the source material in order to understand and evaluate a work of this type.

"A 2005 study in Alberta (Canada) revealed a reduced wild bee abundance and highly-correlated reduced pollination in GM canola compared with organically grown canola [126],"

...look it up. The organic field and the conventional field were planted with entirely different species of plant (both produce canola, but are not the same plant at all). The organic fields no insecticides were used at all, in the conventional fields they all had been treated with a broad spectrum herbicide _and_ 3 of the 4 were also sprayed with Matador (a pyrethroid insecticide) on the open bloom. I don't think the organic or conventional treatments were real world, and it is less than surprising that there are less pollinators found in fields where herbicides are used) _and_ insecticides are sprayed on the open bloom ...but this is all used as data about GM crops, not the massive use of herbicides and insecticides (on flowering crops, no less).

The same reference continues with the following:

"with Roundup-treated non-GM canola coming in at an intermediate level."

Roundup was not used in the study at all. BASF Odyssey and Matador were both used, Roundup was not.

"A study comparing bees exposed to glyphosate and/or Roundup® against a control population demonstrated a significantly higher mortality rate in the glyphosate-exposed bees (p < 0.001) [127]."

Don't you think it's a bit much to use data from a high school student's summer project (a Junior) and expect the paper to be taken seriously? Don't you think that caged bees fed Roundup in a sugar solution have been "fed" Roundup rather than "been exposed" to Roundup?

"Neonicotinoids such as imidacloprid and clothianidin can kill bees, and have been implicated in colony collapse disorder [128]."

I didn't bother looking this one up.

".... a study of human self-poisoning has demonstrated that organophosphate ingestion synergistically greatly enhances the toxicity of ingested neonicotinoids [129]. "

...But the study referenced states: "All patients presenting to a study hospital with a history of imidacloprid exposure were considered for this study. Patients under 14 years, pregnant women and patients presenting with co-ingestions are excluded from the study. "

...so a study that excluded anyone with a co-ingestion (other pesticides in addition to imidacloprid) is a reference for the increased toxcitiy of co-ingestion of neonics with organophosphates?

That is just one paragraph. There are almost 300 references in this paper. It's possible that all of the rest of them are impeccable and damning...there are certainly some with titles that pique my interest. But these are glaring problems for a review paper, and I think it's enough of a sample to judge the quality of the work. I don't care who has what credentials...this doesn't hold up under mild scrutiny.

deknow

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