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Playing Chicken with Glyphosate from the previous page
biochemical cells use and interact with.” During this synthesis, modification of a glycine analogue such as glyphosate will alter the physical and chemical properties of proteins and alter their “folding, stability, activity, and ultimately, the function of the protein”1. As a glycine analogue, glyphosate is a major factor in carcinogenesis2. “Roundup was able to replace and work synergistically with estrogen, which is required for growth of breast cancer cells.” It did so by being incorporated into polypeptide chains during protein synthesis. Of the 1,550 genes analyzed, the expression of 680 was either increased or decreased. This was found in Roundup formulations down to 0.00023% dilution of the commercial formulation: “Alteration of estrogen-regulated gene expression in human cells induced by the agricultural and horticultural herbicide, glyphosate”.3 In September of 2019, the journal Frontiers in Genetics published “Glyphosate Primes Mammary Cells for Tumorigenesis by Reprogramming the Epigenome in a TET3Dependent Manner.” There is a heightened oncogenic response in mammary cells via the TET pathway (9/27/19). In the 2012 Gilles-Eric Seralini two-year study of glyphosate, he and his team found that female rats fed glyphosate “developed large mammary tumors almost always more often than and before” rats that were in the control group4. It didn’t take long to find studies that evidenced adverse health effects from “pure” glyphosate on human breast cells. The effects were found in human hormone-dependent breast cancer. But, risk becomes complicated when science is compromised by governmental agencies. Lessons are hard to cull from studies when those studies follow methodologies that are lacking, when rigor is compromised by financial gain. Knowledge about cause and effect is sucked into agribusiness’ black hole and risk becomes part of our diet! Near the end of 2015, Jason Best, writing for TakePart, concluded that “it doesn’t take more than five minutes poking around on Google or WorldCat to begin turning up fairly recent studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals that include sentences like “a growing body of knowledge suggests the predominance of endocrine disrupting mechanisms caused by environmentally relevant levels of exposure to glyphosate-based herbicides.” For instance, various studies from South America, Europe, and the United States have evidenced low doses of glyphosate altering the development of the female reproductive tract, acting as “re8 Joaquín APRIL 2021
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productive toxicants.” It affects the differentiation of ovarian follicles and the uterus. This exposure can happen prior to puberty or during gestation5. Another study by Samsel and Seneff was published in 2016 in the Journal of Biological Physics and Chemistry that found (...) glycine, the smallest amino acid, has unique properties that support flexibility and the ability to anchor to the plasma membrane or the cytoskeleton. Glyphosate substitution for conserved glycines can easily explain a link with diabetes, obesity, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary edema, adrenal insufficiency, hypothyroidism, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, prion diseases, Lupus, mitochondrial disease, nonHodgkin’s lymphoma, neural tube defects, infertility, hypertension, glaucoma, osteoporosis, fatty liver disease and kidney disease (“Glyphosate pathways to modern diseases V: Amino acid analogue of glycine in diverse proteins”.) A recent study from scientists in England, France, Italy and the Netherlands found that the same mechanism of action by which glyphosate kills weeds and Thomas Block plants also kills or alters Middlefield, OH the composition of the gut microbiome in animals that include the bacteria and fungi that impact immune functions in their bodies. The analysis of gut and blood biochemistry “revealed evidence that the animals were under oxidative stress, a condition associated with DNA damage and cancer” and that glyphosate interferes with the shikimate biochemical pathway in gut bacteria, similar to its actions in weeds and plants6. NOTAS/NOTES
1. Wikipedia 2. See Joaquin, July 2019 3. Human and Experimental Toxicology, 2007 4. See Dr. Rosemary Mason, 10/10/18 5. US Right to Know, 8/12/20 6. US Right to Know, 1/27/21
Jugando “Gallina”con Glifosato viene de la vuelta
productos y células bioquímicas que finalmente utilizan y con las cuales interactuarán”. Durante esta síntesis, la modificación de un análogo de glicina (como el glifosato) alterará las propiedades físicas y químicas de las proteínas y alterará su “plegamiento, estabilidad, actividad y, en última instancia, la función de la proteína”1. concluye en la pág. 26
EXPERIENCIA LATINA mi periplo a UOP
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ace 57 años me bajé del autobús Greyhound en el centro de Stockton; era estudiante del primer año en el Raymond College de la UOP, la primera de las nuevas escuelas autónomas dentro la universidad. Nunca había estado en el campus. De hecho, nunca había estado a 100 millas al oeste de mi casa en San Antonio, Texas ¡Nunca había visto una montaña! No solo era el único latino en mi clase de primer año, era el único hispano en la universidad. No fue hasta mi segundo año que la universidad matriculó a su primer estudiante afroamericano. No solo era el único latino, sino también era “importado” de Texas. En otras palabras, la universidad no tenía hispanos del condado San Joaquín o siquiera de California. Quizás igualmente sorprendente, en ese momento no encontré nada raro en todo esto —no esperaba que hubiera otros estudiantes latinos. Hoy en día, el sitio virtual de la UOP informa que hay un 23 por ciento de matriculados hispanos y un 21 por ciento de blancos no hispanos. (Me parece divertido cómo los términos junto a mi casillero étnico han cambiado a lo largo de las décadas: mexicano-americano, hispano, chicano, latino, hispano blanco, latinx). La mezcla étnica de UOP evidencia un importante cambio social. A pesar del racismo, la cultura de la supremacía blanca y el sentimiento antiinmigrante que estamos presenciando en Estados Unidos, la mayoría de nuestras principales instituciones continúan siendo más diversas. Estamos seguros de que seremos más diversos en los próximos años, ya que los ancianos que morirán son en su mayoría blancos y la mayoría de los jóvenes son lo que ahora llamamos “personas de color”. Más allá de estos datos demográficos de personas que ya están aquí y que nacerán aquí, estamos seguros de que seguiremos viendo una continua inmigración desde México y América Central. Incluso los comentaristas conservadores —que no
