Desiccated Foods May be Tainted With Highly Toxic Pesticides
Perception: Foods labeled Non-GMO contain little to no pesticide residues.
Reality: Hundreds of foods that are not genetically modified to withstand Roundup contain multiple highly toxic residues due to a process called DESICCATION.
Key points:
*"Pre-harvest application of herbicides as a (toxic) drying agent on wheat is an established practice on many conventional farms."
*"Most non-organic wheat in North America is now contaminated with glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup and similar herbicides."
*"Glyphosate is applied directly to dozens of nonGMO food crops, in many cases, right before they are harvested. This is the worst possible time to apply a herbicide because it causes the glyphosate to be absorbed into the food crop directly. In other words, the glyphosate can't be washed off later as it has become part of the food."
*"Seventy crops are on the current EPA list which runs from 2004-2013."
*"Glyphosate use by farmers averages 70% or more for some crops. These include almonds, walnuts, figs, plums, prunes, grapes, kiwi, lemons, grapefruit, pistachios, and pomegranates."
Read Full Article:
Source:
Pope, Sarah MGA. Dozens of Food Crops Treated with Pre-Harvest Roundup (it’s not just wheat!). https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/pre-harvest-roundup-crops-not-just-wheat/
Key Points:
*"Lentils are the main crop that will get hit with Reglone (diquat) and I will touch on them first."
*"The MRL of glyphosate did get increased to 10ppm (same as peas) this year (2012), so you are able to use glyphosate if you wish."
*"Doubling up on the surfactant can be very effective to ensure chemical penetration into the plant."
*"Reglone is a contact product that reacts off UV light so spraying in the evening and allowing the chemical to get into the plant is a very effective route to go."
*"This means it is fully soaked into the plant for the next morning/day."
Read Full Article:
Source:
Tips for Pre-harvest Glyphosate and Desiccation. (2012, August 8). Retrieved from https://www.realagriculture.com/2012/08/tips-for-pre-harvest-glyphosate-and-desiccation/
Key points:
*Active Ingredient: Diquat dibromide [6,7 -dihydrodipyrido (1,2-a:2',1' -c) pyrazinediium dibromide]
*"KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN"
"Harmful if swallowed."
*"Reglone Desiccant is a nonvolatile herbicide for use as a preharvest aid to desiccate certain crops in order to facilitate harvesting."
*" Reglone Desiccant is rapidly absorbed by green plant tissue and interacts with the photosynthetic process to produce compounds whish destroy plant cells."
*"Because Reglone Desiccant is rapidly absorbed by green plant tissue, rain occurring 30 minutes after application will have no effect on the activity of Reglone Desiccant."
*Used on: alfalfa, canola, clover, potato, tree, vine, small fruit, vegetable, acerola, almonds, apple, apricots, artichokes, asparagus, avocados, bananas, blackberry, boysenberry, cherries, coffee, conifers, crabapple, cranberry, dates, dewberry, elderberry, figs, filberts, ginseng, grapes, grapefruit, guava, huckleberry, jojoba, kiwi, lemons, limes, loganberry, macadamia, mango, nectarines, olives, oranges, papayas, passion fruit, peaches, pears, pecans, persimmons, pistachios, plantains, plums, pomegranates, prunes, raspberry, tangelos, tangerines, walnuts
Read Full Article:
Source:
United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, Subject: Label Amendment – Add Minor Label Changes Product Name: Reglone Desiccant, EPA Registration Number: 100-1061 Application Date: April 15, 2015 Decision Number: 503615. (2015, April 28). Retrieved from https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/ppls/000100-01061-20150428.pdf
Key Points:
*”Currently, few statistics exist regarding the acreage subject to glyphosate desiccation or the overall quantity of glyphosate use for drying, but there’s little doubt that the practice is expanding across a variety of crops including corn, peas, soybeans, flax, rye, lentils, triticale, buckwheat, canola, millet, potatoes, sugar beets, soybeans and other edible legumes.”
*”“Pre-harvest desiccation may account for only a small percentage of overall glyphosate use,” says Charles Benbrook, a visiting scholar at the Bloomberg School of Public Health who has spent more than a decade studying the use of glyphosate and associated health risks. “But it accounts for over 50 percent of dietary exposure.””
*”The accepted regulatory stance is that glyphosate is relatively benign; indeed, in 2015 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency increased threshold levels in both oats and wheat; in the case of oats, the allowable threshold for final processed grain was raised from 0.1 parts per million (ppm) to 30 ppm.”
*”Stephanie Seneff, a senior research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suspects there is a link between increased uses of glyphosate — largely via the process of pre-harvest desiccation — and celiac disease, which has increased dramatically in recent years, particularly among adolescents. “Wheat-based products are showing up with a lot of glyphosate on them, and glyphosate interferes with protein digestion,” says Seneff (celiac disease is triggered by gluten, a protein).”
Read Full Article:
Source:
Hewitt, Ben. (2017, December 19). WHY FARMERS ARE USING GLYPHOSATE TO KILL THEIR CROPS — AND WHAT IT MIGHT MEAN FOR YOU. Retrieved from https://ensia.com/features/glyphosate-drying/
Key points:
*”Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, is recognized as the world's most widely used weed killer.”
*”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.”
*”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.”
*”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.”
*”According to Tom Ehrhardt, co-owner of Minnesota-based Albert Lea Seeds, sourcing grains not desiccated with glyphosate prior to harvest is a challenge.”
*”“It's a 'don't ask, don't tell policy' in the industry."”
*”“Consumers don't realize when they buy wheat products like flour, cookies and bread they are getting glyphosate residues in those products," he said. “It's barbaric to put glyphosate in food a few days before you harvest it."”
*”Wiebe believes the use of glyphosate on wheat may be connected to the rise in celiac disease. “We've seen an explosion of gluten intolerance," he said. “What's really going on?"”
*”“Can you imagine the public's response if they knew that glyphosate is being sprayed on the oats in their Cheerios only weeks before it is manufactured?" Ehrhardt asked.”
*”Last year, Ransom reported to the U.S. Wheat Quality Council that tests on flour samples from the U.S. and Canada found that all had traces of glyphosate.”
*”Along with wheat and oats, glyphosate is used to desiccate a wide range of other crops including lentils, peas, non-GMO soybeans, corn, flax, rye, triticale, buckwheat, millet, canola, sugar beets and potatoes. Sunflowers may also be treated pre-harvest with glyphosate, according to the National Sunflower Association.”
*”There are no statistics kept on the number of acres of wheat or other crops that are desiccated with glyphosate, according to Ransom.”
*”“It may be two percent of agriculture use, but well over 50 percent of dietary exposure," he said.”
*”“The most tragic thing is that industry is encouraging the use of glyphosate on wheat, farmers are using it, consumers are unaware of it and it's having a powerful effect on the food system," he said.”
Read Full Article:
Source:
Roseboro, Ken. (2016, March 5). Why Is Glyphosate Sprayed on Crops Right Before Harvest? Retrieved from https://www.ecowatch.com/roundup-cancer-1882187755.html
Key Points:
*”A recent set of EWG-commissioned independent laboratory tests of oat-based products found glyphosate present in 95 percent of samples made with conventionally grown oats and 31 percent of samples made with organic oats. Conventional products had much higher glyphosate levels than their organic counterparts.”
*”It is common practice for conventional oats to be sprayed with glyphosate prior to harvest, as a desiccant that kills all crops uniformly.”
*”EWG’s position is that chemicals linked to cancer do not belong in children’s food.”
*”Adults and children alike eat oat-based cereals, snack bars and oatmeal on a daily basis, and over time, those exposures add up.”
Read Full Article;
Source:
Coleman, Robert. How Does EWG Set a 'Health Benchmark' for Glyphosate Exposure? Retrieved fromhttps://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2018/08/how-does-ewg-set-health-benchmark-glyphosate-exposure
Key Points:
*"Tests found glyphosate on 63 percent of corn samples and 67 percent of soybean samples."
*"But FDA did not test any oats and wheat, the two main crops where glyphosate is used as a pre-harvest drying agent, resulting in glyphosate contamination of foods such as Cheerios and some brands of granola."
Read Full Article:
Source:
Formuzis, Alex. (2018, October2). FDA Glyphosate Testing Conspicuously Skips Oats, Wheat Products. Retrieved from https://www.ewg.org/release/fda-glyphosate-testing-conspicuously-skips-oats-wheat-products