The Need to Stay Away from Herbicides and Pesticides
Eating organic gets easier as the grocery aisles are full of options. We know it’s important to eat healthy and eating organic is part of a healthy lifestyle. We also know it’s more expensive but we are investing in our health. Other than herbicides and pesticides being harmful chemicals that are sprayed on crops most people don’t know more than that. Let me explain the real dangers of not eating organic.
Starting in the 1990s America’s farms started using glyphosate (the active ingredient in the heavily-used herbicide, Roundup) on grains just before maturity in order to facilitate an easier harvest. The reason is simple: when dried (or "desiccated") with glyphosate, the grains become uniformly ready for harvest at the same time. Further, drying delivers more control and a picture-perfect harvest. Glyphosate is used as a desiccant on wheat, beans, peanuts, coconut, soy, and sugarcane. And while using glyphosate as a drying agent is incredibly enticing operationally and economically, it comes at an unjustifiable cost.
The cost includes depleting our soils of nutrients that we need and causing so much damage to the body I don’t even know where to begin. I guess let's start with the gut. Glyphosate, which Monsanto patented as an antimicrobial in 2010, has been shown to damage our beneficial gut bacteria more than our pathogenic bacteria leading to a whole host of imbalances in our microbiome. Dysbiosis is the name given to an imbalance in our in the gut flora also known as microbiome. Dysbiosis is a precursor to countless chronic issues, many of which go far beyond digestion. And it doesn't stop with the microbes for glyphosate can cause leaky gut. Leaky gut is a condition in which the tight junctions (cellular seals) in our gut lining become damaged, allowing toxins and other foreign particles to seep into the bloodstream, which in turn can ignite a cascade of chronic inflammation. Glyphosate has been shown to damage the gut lining.
But that's just the start. Glyphosate has been flagged by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a "probable carcinogen" with other research indicating that Roundup is a carcinogen, as well as a cause of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. Further, studies also show that glyphosate consumption can damage sperm , cross the placenta to a fetus , and lead to preterm birth.
These studies are even more alarming when paired with recent laboratory findings of high levels of glyphosate in a wide range of foods including cereal like Cheerios, breads, and hummus. Unfortunately I promise you that toxic glyphosate food is sitting in your kitchen right now. To figure out exactly what foods contain glyphosate go to this website: https://detoxproject.org/the-poison-in-our-daily-bread-glyphosate-contamination-widespread-in-essential-foods/.
So, why spray our food with such a harmful chemical?
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is tasked with reviewing toxicological research and determining safe levels of chemical exposure. While other government agencies (including the USDA, FDA, and state regulators) do play a part in helping to enforce and monitor safe levels of pesticide use, Americans depend on the EPA at the front end to keep the population safe from harmful chemicals.
However, the EPA is under immense pressure from agricultural chemical companies to approve their products, regardless of what scientific analyses unveil. In the case of many potentially harmful herbicides and pesticides, the EPA has repeatedly approved them despite worrisome evidence of harm to human, animal or pollinator health. Often, their evaluations are based on research provided by the manufacturers, who stand to financially benefit from regulatory approval. When evaluating the carcinogenicity of glyphosate, the EPA even relied upon purportedly independent studies that were ghostwritten by Monsanto scientists . Despite the substantial evidence of large-scale, multi-system harm to the body from glyphosate, the EPA concluded in 2020 that glyphosate poses no risk to human health.
What can we do?
While many suffering from chronic inflammatory, digestive, and neurological symptoms find relief through eating a gluten-free diet, research has shown us repeatedly that glyphosate and other toxic chemicals cannot be ignored as agents of chronic health problems. We are here to help you detox. Detox foot baths, the right supplements and ozone saunas can all play a part on helping your body detox glyphosate poison.
The other good news is that consumer pressure is an enormous motivator for change. Due to increased awareness of glyphosate over the last few years, some grain buyers, including General Mills, are providing contracts to farmers for glyphosate-free grains. Kellogg's also notably announced their intention to phase out the use of glyphosate as a desiccant by 2025. Furthermore, as recently as last month, both the US Supreme Court and the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dealt significant blows to the future of glyphosate. SCOTUS rejected Bayer's appeal to dismiss the legal claims of thousands who assert that exposure to glyphosate caused their cancer. And less than a week prior, the Court of Appeals ordered the EPA to redo their human health and endangered species risk assessments, finding their previous assessments insufficient.
We can continue to vote with our dollar by supporting USDA certified organic and/or glyphosate-residue free products, local organic farms, and organizations like Farmer's Footprint working hard to bring soils (and the food grown in it) back to a place of health. We can also sign this petition to help ban the use of glyphosate for pre-harvest desiccation of crops, a move which would dramatically reduce our dietary exposure to this damaging chemical.
Sign Petition https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/sign-the-petition-regulate-monsanto-pesticides-they-are-literally-killing-us