Innocent-Looking Food Can Contain Glyphosate – How Can You Tell? And What Can You Do About It?
They say glyphosate in our bodies is “disturbing” and “concerning”. I’d use much stronger language than that – but scientists are known for their “careful”, non-emotional language.
Released this month (July 2022), a report by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) shows that more than 80% of people in the US have a dangerous, toxic weedkiller in their bodies. This includes children aged 6-18 ¹.
Have you heard of Roundup? It’s sold all over the world, and it’s used to kill weeds in gardens and in food crops. The active ingredient is glyphosate – a toxic chemical that increases your risk of cancer, and kills bees which are important pollinators for our food.
As well as cancer, the weedkiller is also linked to kidney disease, liver damage, reproductive problems, and birth defects in humans and animals – even in small quantities.
Is It Widespread?
Glyphosate has been increasing since the 1990s when Monsanto introduced genetically-modified (GM) corn and soybeans that could be sprayed directly with Roundup, as well as on non-GM wheat and oats. (Some countries have banned Roundup or are planning to).
That means you’ll find it in breakfast cereals, bread, crackers, oatmeal and granola, as well as corn and all its uses such as high-fructose corn syrup which is used in the US instead of sugar in sodas, processed foods and more. You can even find it in baby food.
More than 200 million pounds of glyphosate are used annually by US farmers on their fields. Many farmers also use it before the growing season, including spinach growers and almond producers. It is the most widely used herbicide in history. All over the world.
It’s not your fault if you’re eating glyphosate without knowing. It’s everywhere!
Should I Worry About Glyphosate?
Glyphosate has been present for years, but the CDC has only recently started testing for it in the US. There are growing concerns globally about the levels of pesticides and herbicides in our food and water. They can have a big impact on our health – and the health of our planet.
You should be worried.
It’s bad enough for adults.
But it’s even worse for children.
Children are more heavily exposed to pesticides than adults because pound-for-pound they drink more water, eat more food and breathe more air. Also, kids have many years of future life when they can develop diseases with long incubation periods such as cancer. This is particularly a concern with glyphosate.
This report is not the first that shows how unsafe the weedkiller is – and it probably won’t be the last.
Monsanto and Bayer say that glyphosate and Roundup products are safe – but the WHO (World Health Organization) classified glyphosate as dangerous in 2015.
What Can You Do?
Here are 5 things you can do to reduce your exposure.
- Buy organic food as much as possible.
- Look for “glyphosate-residue-free” labels
- If you’re buying from a Farmer’s Market, ask them what pesticides and herbicides they use on their food.
- Grow your own vegetables – then you can guarantee it’s non-toxic
- Don’t use Roundup in your garden. If you have a garden service, ask them not to use it. Pour boiling water or vinegar over weeds, or pull them out, including the roots. Why? Weedkiller can be tracked into your home on shoes.
¹ 2,310 urine samples were taken from people said to be representative of the US population.
Are you worried about glyphosate? Do you know others ways to reduce your exposure? What’s it like where you live? Let me know in the comments below.
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Warm regards,
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Thank you Clare for your article on glyphosate which I’ve shared on my FB page. I try to pull “weeds” in my garden if I want to kill them on my paths I use a solution of vinegar & salt with a drop of washing up liquid as a surficant. It works a treat. Our local council goes around spraying glyphosate on the footways and of course it gets into our gardens. Keep up the good work.
Thanks so much for sharing the post Patricia, it’s much appreciated!
You’re right, vinegar works really well, as does boiling water, I’ll add some salt from now on, good idea! Yes, councils and gardening services love glyphosate, it’s so “easy”. Sigh. And councils are a lot more difficult to tackle / change than a gardening service, sigh. It’s horrible stuff, hopefully we can spread awareness of just how widespread the problem is.
Clare, as a scientist that has studied this topic for decades, I’d like to point out a few things. First, the little girl with the apple makes no sense. If there was glyphosate used on apples they’d die.
Most of all, what did the CDC numbers say? It’s a little hard to say because they didn’t tell us about quantities, they only showed “detected”. Detected does not mean risk, it depends on the levels detected, and they didn’t measure that. They did note the highest was 1.4 parts per billion (one second in about 45 years) with the limit of detection at 200 parts per trillion (about 3 minutes in 32 years). What is says is that we have remarkable chemistry that can detect so little, and these amounts pose zero risk.
Next, there is no evidence that says it causes cancer. There are court cases, juries, emotions, and lawyers looking to cash big checks. The regulatory and independent science for 45 years has shown no good evidence linking to cancer, either mechanistically (cellular experiments) or epidemiology (studying populations). The associations are extremely tenuous, and over 20 international regualtory bodies, including the EU, and health Canada, do not see cancer evidence.
The other stuff mentioned about kidneys, livers, reproduction– all one off papers that never panned out, sometimes by suspect groups and low numbers of animals in the studies.
So at the end of the day we need to follow what the science tells us, not what websites and activist groups think. We should celebrate the safest food supply in human history, not conjure fears and sense of risk where little/none exist. Be well. Kevin
Thank you Kevin for your comment. I’d like to respond as follows.
Regarding the photo – you’re reading way too much into it. It’s simply a stock photo which shows surprise while eating, which ties in with the headline of the blog. Nothing more.
I don’t agree with you that “detected does not mean risk”. It’s rather like saying “well, yes, I did put arsenic in her tea, but it was only a tiny amount so it poses zero risk”.
Glyphosate is used in conjunction with other ingredients in products such as Roundup. (It has to be, because its original use resulted in the evolution of glyphosate-resistant weeds, which is a whole other problem with important environmental ramifications). And the problem with mixing it with other ingredients, is that the full composition of the formulation is not disclosed by the manufacturers, therefore, it’s impossible for researchers to apply mixture toxicity methods and attribute toxicity to specific ingredients.
In other words, the research isn’t 100% reliable, because the scientists don’t know what ingredients they’re working with.
I find it quite callous to dismiss court cases as people looking for money – you disregard the human suffering that is caused by pesticides. Individuals simply cannot take on the might of large corporations – the only way to fight is to make it a big court case.
I don’t agree there is “no evidence” of cancer causation. But I DO agree that there are conflicting studies. What is in no doubt is that after the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) identified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen in 2015, science, politics and economic interests all became entangled.
It led to unprecedented lobbying by Monsanto.
Here’s the rub. Glyphosate typifies the problems associated with pesticides –
• serious difficulties in the conduct of human research;
• important gaps in post-market research into exposure and risk assessment (particularly in low- and middle-income countries);
• lack of information on environmental effects;
• extensive industry involvement in evaluation and regulatory processes;
• and the major legal implications of these evaluations.
THAT’S what the science tells us. Scientific research on pesticides is seriously flawed.
Not only in terms of toxicity to humans, but also in the environmental impacts – for example, the impact of pesticides on bees that pollinate our food, and the pollutant impacts.
I certainly do NOT agree with you that we have “the safest food supply in human history”. Junk food and heavily-processed food, full of saturated fats and sucrose, is more readily available, and often cheaper, than fresh fruit and vegetables. We have huge health problems such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease, all caused to a large extent extent by processed food. It is anything but safe.
You may believe that “science” shows glyphosate is safe. I am reminded of the whole “cigarettes don’t cause cancer” debate. The climate crisis is all too real, but it’s still being denied by powerful vested interests.
Everything in Nature is inter-related. We interfere with Nature at our peril, and the planet is now at a tipping point for major climate disaster – caused by our pollution from fossil fuels, from mass agriculture (yes, including pesticides) and more.
You exhort us to follow the science. It would be good advice – if the science weren’t flawed.
Hi Claire, let’s keep the conversation going.
Monsanto is not a company anymore, now for 4.5 years. And if I was them I’d lobby too, as a safe product that farmers want is being castigated by false claims of carcinogenicity.
Kevin, you said that glyphosate is safe in your previous long comment. I have no idea why you would take a great deal of time to put together a new list of quotes, studies etc. You are absolutely entitled to believe that I am wrong, and I would defend your right to think so! However, we each have opposing points of view that will not change. There is therefore no point in me wasting time on this ‘conversation’. Please move on, as I have done.
[…] Like all foods, non-organic foods may be high in herbicides and pesticides including glyphosate. […]