I hate weeds even more now…
It was a warm Wednesday evening in June. I was out walking the dog and chatting with my neighbors. Enjoying the green grass and the blooming gardens. My phone rings, its my Dad. He only calls when something is wrong, when there has been an accident or someone dies, or if its my birthday. I answer, he says he left me voice mail earlier but I didn’t see that. I always have lots of red circles on my phone and one more voice mail was no cause for concern. “Well,” he starts “I have something to tell you about my health he starts…I listen intently, trying to understand what he is telling me. Something about his blood work and the doctor has been watching it for almost a year, something about good cells and bad cells and cell counts and finally he says “chronic lymphocytic leukemia”. I consider my self somewhat of a scientist, I understand chronic, I understand lymphocytic probably means related to the lymph nodes and leukemia, I knew that meant cancer, my Dad is tell me he’s been diagnosed with cancer. He’s still talking, he has no symptoms and feels fine and there is no treatment until he gets sicker…WHAT? I’m floored by this, the fact that its there, but it’s not causing symptoms and there is no treatment. He’s telling me there is no cause for concern and not to worry, but all I can think about is all the things he’s done for me that I probably never thanked him for. (tying my hockey skates, feeding me chocolate donuts with chocolate frosting with chocolate milk, filling my car up with gas, paying for college…)
When I return home, I quickly google CLL and sure enough, it’s cancer. Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. I read up on the wholistic treatments, green tea extract, Vitamin D and no gluten. I stop. No gluten, why no gluten. I, myself have a gluten sensitivity. This all stays on my mind for several weeks. I tell a few friends about my Dad’s diagnosis, they all say they are sorry, but he’s not sick so it seems premature to be sorry. And cancer is so common these days, it’s just surreal.
Several days later, I opened a browser and saw and advertisement “Diagnosed with CLL?” I clicked, I landed on a page where I could submit my information to be part of the lawsuit against Monsanto and its owner Bayer AG. YIKES! BAYER, don’t they make baby aspirin and sunscreen? Yes, yes they do. This started a fury of research. White males over the age of 60 are most likely to get CLL, glyophosphate, but my dad isn’t a farmer. How much roundup have you used, or how much flour have you eaten?
According to Wikipedia, Roundup is the brand name of a systemic, broad-spectrum glyphosate-based herbicide originally produced by Monsanto, which Bayer acquired in 2018. Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the United States. Monsanto introduced glyphosate-resistant “Roundup Ready” crops enabling farmers to kill weeds without killing their crops. Roundup Ready crops is a cute name for “genetically modified” and covered in glyophosate. Most of the wheat we eat in the US is genetically modified. That’s my connection to cancer and four.
So many questions, so few answers. It is moments like these that fuel my passion for sustainability. Wasn’t somebody watching? Wasn’t someone making sure that toxic ingredients aren’t in my food? Maybe regulatory bodies aren’t enough. People are enough. People must demand that companies are doing more good and not just less bad. We must demand that with our wallet. Enter sustainability. Make sure you are only buying products that have people and the planet at the forefront of the mission statement. There are too many stories similar to mine because we didn’t know or we turned a blind eye. Become educated about the products you buy and the brands that you support.
