2023-09-21 at 10:34 AM UTC
Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto‘s Roundup herbicide, is recognized as the world’s most widely used weed killer. What is not so well known is that farmers also use glyphosate on crops such as wheat, oats, edible beans and other crops right before harvest, raising concerns that the herbicide could get into food products.
Escalating Use of Probable Carcinogen
Glyphosate has come under increased scrutiny in the past year. Last year the World Health Organization’s cancer group, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, classified it as a probable carcinogen. The state of California has also moved to classify the herbicide as a probable carcinogen. A growing body of research is documenting health concerns of glyphosate as an endocrine disruptor and that it kills beneficial gut bacteria, damages the DNA in human embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells and is linked to birth defects and reproductive problems in laboratory animals.
What is not so well known is that farmers also use glyphosate on crops such as wheat, oats, edible beans and other crops right before harvest.
A recently published paper describes the escalating use of glyphosate: 18.9 billion pounds have been used globally since its introduction in 1974, making it the most widely and heavily applied weed-killer in the history of chemical agriculture. Significantly, 74 percent of all glyphosate sprayed on crops since the mid-1970s was applied in just the last 10 years, as cultivation of GMO corn and soybeans expanded in the U.S. and globally.
Glyphosate Used to Speed Up Wheat Harvest
Charles Benbrook, Ph.D., who published the paper on the mounting use of glyphosate, says the practice of spraying glyphosate on wheat prior to harvest, known as desiccating, began in Scotland in the 1980s.
“Farmers there often had trouble getting wheat and barley to dry evenly so they can start harvesting. So they came up with the idea to kill the crop (with glyphosate) one to two weeks before harvest to accelerate the drying down of the grain,” he said.
The pre-harvest use of glyphosate allows farmers to harvest crops as much as two weeks earlier than they normally would, an advantage in northern, colder regions.
The practice spread to wheat-growing areas of North America such as the upper Midwestern U.S. and Canadian provinces such as Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
“Desiccation is done primarily in years where conditions are wet and the crop is slow to dry down,” Joel Ransom, an agronomist at North Dakota State University, said.
Ransom says desiccating wheat with glyphosate has been a useful tool for farmers.
“It does help hasten dry down and controls grain weeds and other material that slows down the threshing practice,” he said. “It has an important role in areas where it’s wet.”
Ransom says the practice has increased in North Dakota, which is the leading wheat-producing state in the U.S., over the past 15 years due to wetter weather.
While more common in Upper Midwestern states where there is more moisture, desiccation is less likely to be done in drier wheat growing areas of Kansas, Oklahoma, Washington and Oregon.
All Conventional Farmers in Saskatchewan Desiccate Wheat
According to a wheat farmer in Saskatchewan, desiccating wheat with glyphosate is commonplace in his region. “I think every non-organic farmer in Saskatchewan uses glyphosate on most of their wheat acres every year,” the farmer speaking on condition of anonymity said.
He has concerns about the practice. “I think farmers need to realize that all of the chemicals we use are ‘bad’ to some extent,” he said. “Monsanto has done such an effective job marketing glyphosate as ‘safe’ and ‘biodegradable’ that farmers here still believe this even though such claims are false.”
The vast majority of farmers in Manitoba, Canada’s third largest wheat producing province, also use glyphosate on wheat, said Gerald Wiebe, a farmer and agricultural consultant. “I would estimate that 90 to 95 percent of wheat acres in Manitoba are sprayed pre-harvest with glyphosate; the exception would be in dry areas of the province where moisture levels at harvest time are not an issue,” he said.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Policy
According to Tom Ehrhardt, co-owner of Minnesota-based Albert Lea Seeds, sourcing grains not desiccated with glyphosate prior to harvest is a challenge.
“I have talked with millers of conventionally produced grain and they all agree it’s very difficult to source oats, wheat, flax and triticale, which have not been sprayed with glyphosate prior to harvest,” he said. “It’s a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell policy’ in the industry.”
https://www.ecowatch.com/roundup-cancer-1882187755.htmlRoundup can be used pre-harvest of winter and spring cereals, (wheat, including Durum, barley and oats), oilseed rape, mustard, peas, field beans and linseed. Cereal crops for feed, milling and malt for brewing are included, but always consult the grain merchant before treating crops grown on contract and barley intended for malt or distilling.
https://cropscience.bayer.co.uk/roundup-hub/roundup-use-pre-harvest/
The following users say it would be alright if the author of this
post didn't die in a fire!
2023-09-21 at 12:09 PM UTC
A total of 45 foods out of 86 products contained levels of glyphosate, ranging from 12 ppb in one type of sprouted wholegrain bread to as high as 889 ppb in store-brand chickpeas. One whole- wheat sandwich bread contained 1,040 ppb of glyphosate—and the highest level recorded (1,150 ppb) in another whole wheat bread brand.
https://www.foodengineeringmag.com/articles/100406-glyphosate-poses-new-worries-as-off-label-usage-causes-food-contamination
The following users say it would be alright if the author of this
post didn't die in a fire!
2023-09-21 at 12:12 PM UTC
aldra
JIDF Controlled Opposition
IIRC glyphosate toxicity is overstated because it was found to be carcinogenic in rat studies, but only in extremely high doses.
if they're dumping enough of it on crops to kill them though, that's an incredibly high amount being absorbed
2023-09-21 at 12:19 PM UTC
All the times I've been like "I won't walk over there, I sprayed roundup there last week", and these fuckers are dumping it on my food.
2023-09-21 at 12:49 PM UTC
Forget that it’s a carcinogen, it’s also a massive endocrine disruptor. It’s no wonder every man these days is an effeminate faggot, and every woman is an aggressive banshee, and fertility rates are plummeting. We live in a toxic soup from the cradle to the grave
2023-09-21 at 1:07 PM UTC
Always thought it was strange this farm I visited (friends worked there and we'd get stoned and drink in the barn, like while they worked I brought weed and talked with them) and they had more pesticide and herbicide than they did fertilizer and soil ammendments.
You also gotta remember you're not a weevil or a potato, you have a more complex system so while it' as a systemic poison for minor life forms, you won't get cancer until your 50s if at all. The body of a human is much stronger than a locust (unless you're Hmong, which are the weakest humans)
2023-09-21 at 3:09 PM UTC
muh plurals lengthy members ravishing my anus OW!
2023-09-21 at 3:21 PM UTC
totse2118
Space Nigga
[my ci light-haired pongee]
fuck yes i love glyphosate
