Several weeks ago we helped host German film producer Volker Barth, who was traveling through several countries to document the effects of glyphosate on soil organisms, animals and people.
The video is now streaming from a website in Germany, with narration in German. An English subtitled version will soon be available.
Visit this link to see and play the new video in German. There are several American sources interviewed, such as our friends — veterinarian Art Dunham, consultant Bob Streit, scientist Dr. Don Huber and farmer Keith Schlapkohl.
The film’s focus: The “American farm experience” with Roundup and the many other formulations of herbicide based on glyphosate.
Volker’s concern: The regulatory process of toxic chemicals in the European Union is apparently preparing to re-approve glyphosate, and Volker’s investigations have uncovered many serious conflicts of interest among participants in that regulatory process. Some of those are documented by the Institute for Science in Society in a report, “Scandal of Glyphosate Re-assessment in Europe.”
One of his interests was the health of livestock fed corn, soybeans and other feed containing glyphosate residues. And one of the most knowledgeable sources for that is Art Dunham, DVM, who has for years served counties across northeast Iowa. Volker was Art’s guest, and interviewed some of his livestock clients.
Earlier, Volker had attended the BRT field day at the non-GMO Keith Schlapkohl farm near Stockton, IA. He shot footage of Keith and Dr. Don Huber there.
Crop consultant Bob Streit and his wife Carol also hosted Volker. Bob has many sources for the kind of information needed in the documentary. Volker intends that his documentary add solid information from the U.S. for the benefit of European Union and German agencies which are reviewing the re-approval of glyphosate.
As a documentary producer, Volker is looking for objective evidence “on the ground” in regions with many years of exposure to Roundup. One of his concerns: The regulatory bodies in Europe look strictly at studies which evaluate the “safety” of technical glyphosate only — not the complete formulations like Roundup, which have an array of “adjuvants” which multiply the effect of herbicides.
Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment has concluded that glyphosate is safe, and has even signaled an increase in allowed residue levels in crops treated with glyphosate.
At our farm, our flock of nearly 20 wild turkeys paraded on review for Volker’s video camera. He understood the point: Wildlife tend to gravitate toward farms with non-GMO crops.
