Like me, you’re concerned about what’s in and on your food.

We’re doing our best to select healthy, well-raised foods.

We don’t want to be feeding our families foods sprayed with toxic chemicals.

But most likely we are.

In the late 1990s, industry discovered they could put a bacterial gene into plants to give them a superman behavior and protect the plant.  They could spray the plant broadly with glyphosate without killing it.

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, the most commonly used weedkiller in the world. Nearly 300 million pounds of glyphosate-based herbicide are sprayed on farms—and food—every year.[1]

These gene-altered plants are what we call GMO crops (or GMO roundup ready crops).

The core GMO crops are corn, soy, canola, sugar beets, alfalfa, cotton, and tobacco.[2]

As could be expected, these crops started becoming Roundup resistant, with lots of weeds showing up. So, farmers started using more glyphosate each year to kill the increasing weeds.[3]

When the weeds became so resistant that glyphosate wasn’t sufficient to kill them, companies started introducing dual products containing glyphosate and a component of Agent Orange.[4]

Obviously, we need to avoid GMO crops because of both the gene alteration and the heavy chemical spraying just described. 

But what we don’t know is that many non-GMO crops are heavily sprayed with Roundup RIGHT BEFORE harvest.

It’s used as a desiccant/ripener.

The major crop on which this is practiced is non-organic wheat. 

Applying Roundup 7-10 days before harvest enables the wheat to ripen evenly.  It is also helps initiate an earlier harvest when weather conditions threaten plant life.

Furthermore, faster ripening means earlier replanting and the reduction of green material in the field, which puts less strain on farm machinery during harvest.

It can also result in slightly greater yields by triggering plants to release more seeds.[6]

Other non-GMO crops which are heavily sprayed include oats, barley, rye, sugar cane, beans, lentils, chickpeas, peas, flax, sunflowers, and other seed oil crops.[7]

The fact that they are sprayed right before harvest means they can have an even higher concentration of glyphosate than GMO foods because the glyphosate is absorbed directly into the food. 

Some of the highest glyphosate contamination is in non-GMO foods.

The glyphosate cannot be washed off later because it’s part of the food.  Consumers like us unknowingly ingest this toxin directly as a “whole food” or via processed foods that contain it as an ingredient.[8]

And when it comes to wheat, whole wheat bread (which we think of as being more nutritious) has an even higher contamination that white bread because the glyphosate goes into the germ.

If you have any doubt why ingesting a weed killer could be harmful to human health, keep reading.  I address this at the end of the article.

Before that, let’s discuss how to avoid consuming this toxic chemical.

Go organic. Either look for the Certified Organic label or know your farmers and ask about their practices.  (For help with this, see my blog “How is Your Food Raised…”)

No more arguing that organic is more expensive.  We can pay now at the market or we can pay later trying to treat our chronic health issues – IBS, kidney failure, metabolic syndrome, obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, cancer,…

We cannot avoid glyphosate completely as it’s ubiquitous in the environment.  It’s in the rain, it’s everywhere.

But by choosing organic, we’re taking measures to avoid it as much as possible.

What’s more, when we choose to buy organic, we’re voting for what we want with our food dollar.

Other countries in the world have banned the use of Roundup.

Let’s say, “no,” here in the USA too. 

Before you throw your hands up in overwhelm, pick just one food to start buying organic…

one food that you don’t already buy organic.

I will talk about other strategies to protect ourselves from this harmful chemical in a future blog.

For, now, let’s keep it simple.

Just so you know, “The Dirty Dozen” does not address this issue.

*     *    *    *    *    *    *

And if you need help learning how to source and properly prepare organic foods, I can help.

Click here now to book your free 30-minute Strategy Session to get started. 

We’ll look at how what you eat and your environmental factors are impacting your health and how to start making changes.

*     *    *    *    *    *    *

Agrichemical companies claim that glyphosate is safe for humans, animals, and the environment.

But how can a product that will kill every plant not destroy our insides!

According to MIT scientist Stephanie Seneff (author of Toxic Legacy: How the Weed Killer Glyphosate is Destroying our Health and the Environment), glyphosate:

• Kills beneficial gut bacteria and allows pathogens to overgrow (Gut dysbiosis is increasingly recognized as a major driver behind multiple chronic diseases.)
• Interferes with function of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes in the liver (These enzymes serve many important roles, including making bile acids, activating vitamin D, detoxifying many toxic chemicals and breaking down prescription drugs.)
• Chelates (binds tightly to) important minerals like cobalt, manganese and zinc, making them unavailable to the cells
• Interferes with the synthesis of tyrosine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, and methionine
• Disrupts sulfate synthesis and sulfate transport (which messes up the body’s entire electrical system)
• Is an endocrine disrupter

Glyphosate is known as a slow killer.  It accumulates in the body and takes time for symptoms to appear.

Thanks to Dr. Seneff’s and other scientists’ work, we have studies showing strong correlations between the increase in the use of Roundup and the increase in numerous health issues.

I understand that correlation does not prove causation and that there are other factors (within our food, environment and medical practices) that can play a role.  But these are worth noting[9]:

• IBS
• Autoimmune arthritis
• Obesity
• Metabolic Syndrome
• Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
• Increased risk to inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, and Celiac
• Autism/ADHD/Schizophrenia/Anxiety/Sleep Disorder
• Cancer (April 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) identified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen[10]
• Infertility
• increased risk to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (Three trials involving cases where glyphosate was claimed to cause non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma resulted in a successful lawsuit.)
• Newborn Genitourinary Disorders
• Congenital heart conditions (newborns)
• Breast cancer (At parts per trillion, glyphosate triggers estrogen-sensitive breast cancer cells to proliferate.)
• Testicular Cancer
• Decrease in sperm count

*     *    *    *    *    *    *

As I said earlier, I will provide more strategies on how we can protect ourselves from this deadly poison in an upcoming blog.

For now, keep it simple.

Pick just one food to start buying organic…

one food that you don’t already buy organic.

Enjoy and be well!

Peace and grace,
Karen

“I spent my early career working for agribusiness giants International Harvester, J.I. Case, and the FMC Corporation.  I made a paradigm shift to organic agriculture in the early 1980s after suffering a debilitating illness. My adherence to an exclusively organic diet has been instrumental in restoring and maintaining good health.”   Mark Kastel, Executive Director, Organic Eye

[1] https://stephanieseneff.net/book/

[2] Toxic Legacy: How the Weedkiller Glyphosate is Destroying Our Health and the Environment.
Understanding Ag Webinar. June 10, 2021.

[3] https://www.learntruehealth.com/glyphosate/

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid

[6] https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/pre-harvest-roundup-crops-not-just-wheat/

[7] Wise Traditions, Volume 22, Number 2, p. 27

[8] https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/pre-harvest-roundup-crops-not-just-wheat/

[9] Toxic Legacy: How the Weedkiller Glyphosate is Destroying Our Health and the Environment.
Understanding Ag Webinar. June 10, 2021.

[10] Ibid