Antivaccine versus anti-GMO: Different goals, same methods

[FarCenter]

37. Condemning Monsanto With Bad Science Is Dumb

Did you see the latest indictment of Monsanto making the rounds? It's a "peer-reviewed" paper in the journal Entropy, co-authored by Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff, blaming glyphosate, the compound in the herbicide Roundup, for virtually all the ills that can befall us.

But here's the thing -- they made it up. Or, all but. They say, "We explain the documented effects of glyphosate and its ability to induce disease, and we show that glyphosate is a 'textbook example' of exogenous semiotic entropy: the disruption of homeostasis by environmental toxins." Exogenous semiotic entropy! That sounds serious. Google it, though, and you find that those three words occur together in only place. This paper. They made it up. At first, I thought the whole thing was one of those jargon-laden academic hoaxes but, alas, it isn't.

Slog through their argument (and, please, if you take this seriously, read the paper!), and you find it boils down to two things. Glyphosate, they claim, 1) inhibits CYP enzymes, which are active in lots of metabolic processes, and 2) disrupts gut bacteria, which are susceptible to its mechanism (disrupting the shikimate pathway), even though humans are not. Therefore, any condition that involves metabolic processes or gut bacteria must be affected by glyphosate exposure. QED!

Here's the list of ills they blame, at least in part, on Roundup: inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, Alzheimer's, autism, anorexia, dementia, depression, Parkinson's, reproductive issues, liver diseases and cancer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tamar-haspel/condemning-monsanto-with-_b_3162694.html

You too can publish in Entropy for 1250 CHF, and you get to nominate your own peer reviewers.