EDIT: Originally I had false information that I failed to properly verify before creating this petition. The vineyard I was told would be spraying, is in fact, not spraying the chemical. 

There was communication about the chemical being used on the railway tracks and it caused a misunderstanding which I am responsible for perpetuating and spreading that misinformation and for that, I sincerely apologize. 

It is a good reminder for me, because I am usually more thorough with researching, but even I was too quick to take the word of a friend and hit the panic button before doing my due diligence. 

However, glyphosate is still being used in our community, not by the vineyard as was falsely accused, but by the company that manages the railway. 

*** End Edit. 

As a resident in Cowichan Station for the past 10 years, we've grown what is now a maturing garden of organic fruit trees, berry bushes, medicinal perennials and our annual vegetable gardens and we have taken great measures to produce soil that is teeming with life of healthy fungi and bacterial populations. We are extremely worried about the negative impacts of glyphosate contamination from the wind getting onto our land, and being in the air with our children playing and walking by. 

Glyphosate, commonly known as "Round-Up" was patented in 1974 and hit the market in 1976. By 1992 it was approved for use on wheat as a desiccant and its use exploded 15 fold with the introduction of genetically modified (GMO) crops. 

It is now the most used herbicide in human history and 18.9 Billion pounds (8.6 Billion Kilograms) have been sprayed worldwide since 1974!

Glyphosate is an organophosphate (in the same category of agent orange) which are known to be neurotoxic (toxic to nerves) and uses the amino acid glycine as its backbone. Glycine is a fundamental structure that is critical for the structure of the human body and you've got this chemical that takes it, adulterates it with a phosphate group on one side an an amine on the other and try to claim that it's safe which is being proven over and over that it is toxic and absolutely hazardous to human health and the fabric of biology on this planet. 

Being water soluble, this chemical is now in 75% of air and rainfall, and it is found in our blood, our spinal fluid. It gets everywhere that water gets. 

This chemical kills plants by killing fungi and bacteria. It blocks the shikame pathway they use to make amino-acids, and when the plant can't build proteins, it dies. 

Our bodies don't utilize the shikame pathway, but our gut bacteria and fungi do, and we depend on a thriving inner ecosystem of these microorganisms in order to maintain health. Glyphosate undermines the ecology of our intestinal tracts and further more causes direct damage to the protein structures that support the lining of the gut. 

That same protein structure (tight junctions) is used in every macro membrane in the human body including our blood brain barrier, in our kidney tubule cells and in our blood vessels and liver. The effects are far reaching, but basically this chemical is turning our bodies in to leaky sieves, which leads to inflammation, malnutrition and dehydration.

To sum up the known effects of glyphosate:
It kills bacteria and fungi in our intestinal tracts.
It directly damages the barrier of the intestinal tract.
It destroys the tight junctions in the liver and undermines the liver's ability to produce glutathione which is an important substances we need to detoxify many chemicals in the body.
It impacts our mitochondria which produce our energy at a cellular level.
It causes leaky blood vessels (from the weakening of tight junctions).
It weakens the blood brain barrier and blood vessels in the brain. 
It makes us a permeable mess and leaves us rapidly aging, dehydrated and undernourished.

The undeniable facts are that on this planet, we've destroyed 40% of our biology over the past 50 years alone. This is contributing to major impacts to human health and chemicals, especially glyphosate are a major part of the problem. 

We know we can do better and we must do better. 

For our communities, for our eco-systems, for our children, for this planet. 

There are so many examples out there now of organic and regenerative farming and agricultural operations that are able to produce food without the use of chemicals in a way that supports the health of the soil and the health of each other and the greater environment. 

I hope we can all help our farmers and business transition away from using this chemical so that we can stop poisoning our earth and each other. 

Your neighbors, community members and allies.