The RoundUp is the name given to a family of Herbicide S produced by the pharmaceutical company American Monsanto. The active molecule of this product is the Glyphosate.

This chemical agent is a not-selective weedkiller, used in spreading, to prepare the zones of culture. It is also used like weeding domestic and urban.

It is harmful for the human health in its form source.
Very official American Agence of environmental protection (US Environmental Agency Protection, EPA) details the harmful effects on the health which the exposure to strong amounts of Roundup could cause: “Congestion of the lungs, acceleration of the rate/rhythm of short-term breathing”, “damage of the kidneys, effects on the long-term reproduction”.

Its degradation in the grounds leads to the aminométhylphosphonate H₂N - CH₂ - PO₃^2-.

In the presence of various bacteria the such Pseudomonas and of Chloramphenicol, it is degraded out of CH₃ sarcosin - NH - CH₂ - CO₂^- then in Glycine which is a natural amino-acid whose concentration with balance must remain low (229 + 44 μmol.L^-1).

Its short half-life and its properties explain, beyond the commercial incentives, its success. Quickly degraded by the micro-organism of the ground, the commercial specialities " Roundup" are largely used in agriculture because it is possible to sow or plant a zone weeded without delay.

It is used in Colombia by the government, supported by the the United States, in the Plan Colombia , officially to destroy the fields of Coca, in practice also on the tropical forests, and different cultures.
From 1996, Monsanto also encouraged many Argentinian peasants to sow soya transgenic " Roundup Ready" , into which a gene was introduced, which enables him to resist Roundup, which it must be associated. The attraction of the peasants for a culture presented like requiring less spreading of plant health products, therefore more profitable, appeared catastrophic for number of them. Because current reality is very different: medical problems, erosion and asphyxiates grounds, human and animal diseases, monoculture, dependence with respect to Monsanto… Many studies testify some (see Références). On this subject, to see the film Argentinian, the soya of the hunger , as well as the article of Pierre-Ludovic Viollat, in the Diplomatic World of April 2006.

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