In case you haven’t already heard…
The California Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has posted notice of its intent to list glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup® and other related herbicides, as “known to the state to cause cancer.”
As stated by the OEHHA: “[California] law requires that certain substances identified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) be listed as known to cause cancer under Proposition 65 [AKA California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986]….OEHHA [has determined that] Tetrachlorvinphos, parathion, malathion, and glyphosate each meet the requirements for listing as known to the state to cause cancer for purposes of Proposition 65.”
The use of glyphosate, and the acreage to which it is applied, has increased dramatically since the first crops genetically engineered (GE) to be resistant to this herbicide were first commercialized in 1996. And new glyphosate-resistant crops continue to be commercialized. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently deregulated new GE corn and GE soybean crops that can survive being sprayed with both glyphosate and another pesticide, 2,4-D, pesticides that would kill their non-engineered relatives…and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the herbicide cocktail, Enlist Duo™, comprised of those two pesticides that can be sprayed on those GE crops with impunity. (For more information, see this previous post of mine.)
So a chemical (soon to be) “known to the state [of California] to cause cancer” is being sprayed on vast acreages of farmland, not only in California, but throughout the United States and in many other parts of the world.
Hopefully, U.S. EPA will similarly take the recent IARC publications into account and take another long, hard look at the widespread use of glyphosate in the United States.
Biotech Salon 
Last year my wife was sick with a gut problem and went to our doctor. He prescribed a very powerful anti-biotic that almost killed her. She says she can no long eat wheat. She is slowly recovering. I also have not been that well this last year. I finally called the well known bread company whose bread I was eating and asked if there was glyphosate in their wheat. I was referred to the manager that read a statement: “all the wheat we buy conforms to all Federal Requirement”. No other comment was allowed. I am now of the opinion that most of the wheat and rye grown in the United States is, at the end of the growing season, killed [like a weed] with RoundUp to speed up the harvest.
Some people are allergic to peanuts. We seem to be allergic to RoundUp. The use of RoundUp to kill non-GMO crops is increasing. Finding bread I can safely eat is a real challenge. I am hoping Organic Bread is glyphosate free. Since last November, my wife has only eaten bread that is gluten [and glyphosate] free. [i.e. non-wheat] I am going to see if she can eat Organic Bread that is only glyphosate free. I am also going to eat only the glyphosate free bread to see if it is what caused my increase in weight, blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol during the last 10 months.
In the last 15 years, Monsanto has been engineering more and more genetically modified foods. Because of the reputation of corn, soy, cottonseed and canola, there is no announcement of the new GM crops. Lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, rice and potatoes are among the more than a dozen new GM crops. Only Monsanto knows the entire list.
Glyphosate is toxic. Fluorosalicic acid [in most drinking water in the United States] is also toxic. But the combination of these carcinogens is far more toxic then either of its components. Fluorosalicic acid removed essential iodine from our bodies. Glyphosate locks up the metals needed to carry replacement iodine. Almost everyone who has cancer is iodine deficient. Glyphosate also locks up the chromium needed to activate insulin, [i.e. insulin resistance / type 2 diabetes], the cobalt needed to make Vitamin B-12 [needed for cell division and growth / infertility, miscarriage, anemia, etc.], and the magnesium, manganese, zinc, and other nutrients needed for a healthy immune system.
I believe that had foods and drinks containing glyphosate been labeled, we could have saved us a lot of sickness and avoided the death of my oldest son.
Just a couple of comments…
1) My understanding is that glyphosate/”Roundup is labeled for pre-harvest applications” of wheat and that at least some wheat farmers use glyphosate as a “desiccant to evenly ripen a field of wheat for harvest” [].
2) You can get a pretty good idea of the GE crops that have been commercialized–or at least those that have gone through the regulatory processes at USDA and FD–by checking the websites of those agencies; however, because of loopholes at USDA and the voluntary nature of “regulatory” at FDA, those lists may be incomplete. So…even Monsanto may not know the entire list of GE crops/foods that have been commercialized.
(I’m also very sorry for your family’s suffering.)