Glyphosate, the main ingredient found in Monsanto's best-selling herbicide, Roundup, has poisoned Lake Erie.
Scientists from Ohio Northern University (ONU) in the U.S. have
discovered that glyphosate is largely responsible for an increase in harmful algae blooms that contaminate lake water and kill off life dependent upon this habitat.
Namely, dissolved reactive phosphorous (DRP) has been contaminating Lake Erie and the Maumee watershed. This DRP comes from surrounding farms that rely on Monsanto's weedkiller to grow their crops.
The runoff ends up in the lakes, killing fish and contaminating the water.Though Lake Erie's trouble with phosphorous is not new,
there has been an alarming increase in DRP, which caused scientists to question its probable origins.
Christopher Spiese, a chemist at Ohio Northern University suggests that an increase in the use of glyphosate is causing the problem. DRP loads in Lake Erie have been increasing since the early 1990s — the same time that Roundup was being sold to farmers across the U.S.
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