Toxic Legacy: How the Weedkiller Glyphosate Is Destroying Our Health and the Environment

MIT computer science researcher Seneff debuts with an underwhelming take on the dangers of the herbicidal agent glyphosate. Patented in 1961 as a means of stripping mineral deposits from hot water pipes, glyphosate, commercially known as Roundup, was re-patented by chemical giant Monsanto as a weed killer in 1968 and became widely used worldwide. Seneff connects the glyphosate boom to Monsanto’s 1980s introduction of “Roundup Ready crops,” which were genetically modified to be resistant to glyphosate. Noting the United States uses more of the herbicide per capita (about one pound per person annually) than any other industrialized nation, Seneff warns that it is “a diabolical and insidious disruptor of systemic metabolism.” Citing a wealth of studies “likely” linking it to cancer, kidney failure, liver disease, birth defects, and neurological disorders, Seneff explains at length—in dense chapters better suited for the lecture hall—that glyphosate hijacks proteins and acts as a “biochemical imposter.” She writes with passion of her “dogged journey to identify environmental factors that might be causing the increase in autism in America’s children,” though her fascination with finding that link can border on obsession and the science is hard to parse— nonspecialists will likely get lost. Readers in search of a Silent Spring-esque exposé won’t find it here. (June)