Day 125: Roundup and Your Food

I seem to see this on Facebook, a warning about the horrors of Monsanto and it weed killer or GMO food stuffs I thought I would do a little research and see if I could separate some of the fact from fiction. 

There is always that glyphosate chemical that we are warned to stay away from, but it’s in herbicides so there is no way to stay away from it and what the heck is it anyway? 

Glyphosate is Roundup, which we have been using since the 1970s.  If this caused all the problems they say it does where are the shyster lawyers, the sick kids, and billion dollar settlement.  We haven’t seen that because all the research done on Roundup has found it to be generally safe.  The only fatalities in humans have been from deliberate overdoses.  In fact over a 13 year period in California none of the 515 hospitalized for pesticide illnesses none were attributed to glyphosate.

While deliberate ingestion of Roundup in quantities ranging from 85 to 200 ml has resulted in death quantities as large as 500 ml have been found to have only mild to moderate symptoms and these are people trying to kill themselves. That is not a miniscule residue left over on a tomato that is drinking roughly 20 ounces of the stuff.

A study in 2000 concluded that there is no potential for Roundup herbicide to pose a health risk to humans.  An additional study by the European Union reached the same conclusion in 2002. 

In the water supply such as stream and creeks where it has been found, according to research done as far back at the 1980s it is “practically nontoxic to slightly toxic” for amphibians and fish.

There was a study done in 1992 where it was found it harmed earthworms.  Actually field studies had a much different result.   Roundup was used at 2 kilograms per hectare to kill weeds and when all was said and done there were no found effects on earthworms or beneficial insects.

The argument that Monsanto, the producer of Roundup, has its employees use biohazard suits when working with large quantities of Roundup is a straw man argument.  There is a big difference between spraying some veggies with the stuff and weeks going by of rain and exposure before harvest repeated washing and finally, hopefully you washing your fruits and vegetables before consumption and taking a bath in the stuff. 

There are many things that occur naturally that we consume in tiny quantities that would kill us if we consumed it in large amounts; Mercury being one.   Mercury is found it such high quantities in Shark and Halibut that it is suggested you only consume them a few times a month and yet I have to listen to people how constantly tell me fish is better than red meat. 

This is just another internet scare where it sounds really bad but it’s just not.

Daily Recap:

Matt: Mow the Lawn 35 minutes

Kelly: TBD