Argentine scientist who challenged Monsanto dies

[Judi Lynn]

May 10, 6:24 PM EDT

Argentine scientist who challenged Monsanto dies

By MICHAEL WARREN
Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- Dr. Andres Carrasco, an Argentine neuroscientist who challenged pesticide regulators to re-examine one of the world's most widely used weed killers, has died. He was 67.

Argentina's national science council announced Carrasco's death on Saturday. He had been in declining health.

Carrasco, a molecular biologist at the University of Buenos Aires and past-president of Argentina's CONICET science council, was a widely published expert in embryonic development whose work focused on how neurotransmitters affect genetic expression in vertebrates. But none of his research generated as much controversy as his 2010 study on glyphosate, which became a major public relations challenge for the St. Louis, Missouri-based Monsanto Company.

Glyphosate is the key ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup brand of pesticides, which have combined with genetically modified "Roundup-Ready" plants to dramatically increase the spread of industrial agriculture around the world. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other regulators have labeled it reasonably safe to use if applied properly. But few countries enforce pesticide rules as rigorously as the United States, and farming's spread has increasingly exposed people to glyphosate and other chemicals.

Carrasco, principal investigator at his university's Cellular Biology and Neuroscience Institute, told The Associated Press in a 2013 interview that he had heard reports of increasing birth defects in farming communities after genetically modified crops were approved for use in Argentina, and so decided to test the impact of glyphosate on frog and chicken embryos in his laboratory.

More:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_ARGENTINA_OBIT_CARRASCO?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-05-10-17-06-17

[Judi Lynn]

1. Argentina: THREATS TO SCIENTIST WHO SHOWED ROUNDUP DANGERS

Argentina: THREATS TO SCIENTIST WHO SHOWED ROUNDUP DANGERS


Reports from Argentina say there have been attempts to intimidate the lead researcher of a study showing that Roundup - the glyphosate herbicide developed by Monsanto - can cause brain, intestinal and heart defects in fetuses. The lead researcher for the study, carried out in Argentina where Roundup is used on a massive scale on GM herbicide-resistant soy, is embryology professor Dr Andres Carrasco.

Dr Carrasco has worked for nearly thirty years in embryonic development, and was President and Assistant Secretary of Conicet (Brazil’s National Commission for Scientific Research). He now works at the Defence Ministry. Dr Carrasco has warned that the doses of herbicide used in his study "were much lower than the levels used in the fumigations(crop spraying)," and so the situation "is much more serious" that the study suggests because "glyphosate does not degrade".

According to an article in the Argentine press, after news about the study broke, Dr Carrasco was the victim of an act of intimidation, when four men arrived at his laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine and acted aggressively.

Two of the men were said to be members of an agrochemical industry body but refused to give their names. The other two claimed to be a lawyer and notary. They apparently interrogated Dr Carrasco and demanded to see details of the experiments. They left a card identifying them as being from Basilico, Andrada & Santurio, attorneys on behalf of Felipe Alejandro Noel.

Dr Carrasco also reports being subjected to offensive phone calls and there have been disparaging references to his research in newspapers with links to agribusiness. Dr Carrasco however is resisting the intimidation, saying, "If I know something, I will not shut my mouth."

http://www.combat-monsanto.co.uk/spip.php?article376