Jeremy Grantham on Toxicity, Fertility and the Hidden Cost of Modern Life
WHO IS JEREMY GRANTHAM
Jeremy Grantham is a British investor and co-founder of GMO LLC, a Boston based asset management firm that managed assets exceeding one hundred billion dollars at its peak. He built his reputation over six decades by correctly identifying major financial bubbles before they burst, including the Japanese asset bubble, the dot com collapse and the 2008 housing crisis. He holds a CBE awarded for his environmental philanthropy, and in 1997 he and his wife Hannelore established the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, to which they have committed close to all of their personal wealth. In recent years he has become an increasingly vocal advocate for understanding the link between everyday chemical exposure, environmental toxicity and the global decline in human fertility.
This interview, recorded for The Diary of a CEO, covers a wide range of subjects across investing and economics, but a substantial section is dedicated specifically to the link between pesticides, industrial chemicals and declining human fertility. Given Grantham's standing as one of the most credible voices in global finance, his willingness to speak openly and at length about this subject carries real weight.
Watch on YouTube
The Diary of a CEO with Jeremy Grantham
Opens at the toxicity and fertility section, 1 hour 16 minutes in
What This Section of the Interview Covers
Grantham explains that his foundation has spent close to three decades focused on environmental issues, and that this work led him directly into researching chemical toxicity and its relationship to fertility. He discusses why he believes this deserves far more public attention than it currently receives.
He references a fertility clinic study tracking 180 men, where those eating the least pesticide contaminated produce had double the sperm count of those eating the most, and a related study with women at the same clinic showing nearly double the live birth rate among those eating the cleanest diets. He explains why pesticides are absorbed into the structure of fruit and vegetables rather than simply sitting on the surface, making washing alone insufficient.
A significant portion of the conversation covers atrazine, a widely used herbicide that peer-reviewed research from UC Berkeley found could chemically alter the sex of male frogs at exposure levels below current drinking water safety limits, and which has been linked in humans to reduced testosterone and sperm motility.
Grantham also discusses the developing fetus as being many times more vulnerable to chemical exposure than an adult, and references Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, expressing his own ambition to produce something with a similarly significant impact on public understanding of chemical toxicity today.
"We have to detoxify. We have to create an environment where people want to have children. If we do not, we fail as a society pretty quickly."
Why This Matters for Purify The World
Much of the research discussed in this interview informs the statistics referenced throughout our Start Here and Food and Nutrition pages. Hearing it explained directly by Grantham, alongside the seriousness with which he treats the subject given his background in identifying overlooked risks, adds important context beyond what any single article on our own site could provide alone.
Related reading: Start Here covers the broader picture of pesticides, forever chemicals and microplastics. Food and Nutrition covers the practical Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen guidance referenced throughout this interview.
Video source: The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett, featuring Jeremy Grantham. All rights to the original interview content belong to the original creators. Linked here for educational reference with original commentary provided by Purify The World.