4 ms·

Seems like the lede was buried... the "acceptable" levels of RoundUp in U.S. food has been increasing from 100 percent to 2,000 percent. "According to the EPA,

Seems like the lede was buried... the "acceptable" levels of RoundUp in U.S. food has been increasing from 100 percent to 2,000 percent. "According to the EPA, between 1993 and 2015, glyphosate MRLs increased by 100 percent to 1,000 percent in the U.S., depending on the crop." "Current MRLs for glyphosate range from 0.2 ppm to more than 300 ppm, depending on the crop. Between 1993 and 2015, the U.S. EPA glyphosate tolerance levels have increased by a factor of 50 for corn, and 2,000 for alfalfa." So even without desiccation, we're still "allowed" to ingest several orders of magnitude more probably-carcinogen-related herbicides which screw with our cells and gut microbiome.

nicky0 8y ago
100 percent to 2000 percent of what?
- donatzsky 8y ago
  The 1992 levels, presumably.
  - nicky0 8y ago
    OK so just a tortured way of saying "a twentyfold increase".
saalweachter 8y ago
Firstly, if you're ingesting alfalfa, you deserve whatever happens to you. Secondly, you realize that regulatory agencies raise and lower the acceptable limits of chemicals as the evidence accumulates that they are or aren't particularly harmful, right? Some go down, because we find out they were way worse than we thought they were, some go up, because it turns out we were too conservative initially and they are safer at way higher levels that we previously thought. Science! Thirdly, that article is confounding crops for human consumption with crops for animal consumption. We are way, way less worried about whether a pig is going to develop cancer later in life, for reasons that should hopefully be obvious, and we also conduct a brief autopsy on nearly every pig ever born, which as a side effect gives us pretty good data on how healthy the average pig is over time.
- peterwwillis 8y ago
  "A 2015 study by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency found glyphosate in 30 percent of 3,200 food products. Similar studies have found glyphosate exceeding maximum residue limits (or MRLs) in Cheerios, beer, and wine." It has also been found in honey, soy sauce, oatmeal, bagels, organic eggs, potatoes, non-GMO soy coffee creamer, tampons, infant formula, and even breast milk (that's the stuff coming out of a human). Not only is it in animal feeds, it's in processed foods. It's being passed through animals and plants. Even if you believe the claims that ingesting it won't give you cancer, it will probably screw with your gut microbiota. The US MRLs are much higher than countries such as Japan, the EU, Canada, Australia, and Taiwan. Are our scientists just way better at sciencing, and know something these other countries' scientists don't? Or is it more probable that Monsanto has significant influence with the US's 992-billion agro industry, government, and FDA? It's also possible that some countries have artificially low MRLs, in order to gain a competitive advantage with countries that have stricter limits on imports. But lowering MRLs means using less herbicide/pesticide, which wouldn't produce as high or reliable a yield. In order to maximize product, more herbicide/pesticide must be used more frequently (such as with desiccation), and that means you can't lower the MRLs - you can only raise them, to avoid regulatory issues from affecting your crop yields, and subsequently the profits of agro business. At the least, we know the FDA can't keep up with import testing (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3297498/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3297498/) Finally, from a scientific standpoint, all of this is based on animal testing. No human testing is done, so we really don't know what long-term exposure will do to humans.
  - saalweachter 8y ago
    Re-read "A 2015 study by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency found glyphosate in 30 percent of 3,200 food products. Similar studies have found glyphosate exceeding maximum residue limits (or MRLs) in Cheerios, beer, and wine." The first sentence is saying a DETECTABLE amount of glyphosate is found in 30% of a huge number of food products. The second sentence is saying excessive amounts have been found in some of these three specific food products. Put together, it sounds like 30% of products have excessive glyphosate in them, but if you go back to the source [0], you'll find that: "The overall compliance rate for these surveys, based on Canadian Maximum Residue Limits (MRL), was 98.7 %. No samples of fruits and vegetables, soy products, or infant foods were found to contain residues exceeding Canadian limits." So 30% contain detectable residue, 1.3% contain residue above the Canadian MRL. (Which, hey, room for improvement in compliance, but it's deceptive to act like 30% of food is above the MRL.) [0] http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/chemical-residues-microbiology/food-safety-testing-bulletins/2017-04-13/executive-summary/glyphosate-testing/eng/1491846907641/1491846907985 http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/chemical-residues-microbiol...

nicky0 8y ago

100 percent to 2000 percent of what?

donatzsky 8y ago
The 1992 levels, presumably.
- nicky0 8y ago
  OK so just a tortured way of saying "a twentyfold increase".

saalweachter 8y ago

Firstly, if you're ingesting alfalfa, you deserve whatever happens to you. Secondly, you realize that regulatory agencies raise and lower the acceptable limits of chemicals as the evidence accumulates that they are or aren't particularly harmful, right? Some go down, because we find out they were way worse than we thought they were, some go up, because it turns out we were too conservative initially and they are safer at way higher levels that we previously thought. Science! Thirdly, that article is confounding crops for human consumption with crops for animal consumption. We are way, way less worried about whether a pig is going to develop cancer later in life, for reasons that should hopefully be obvious, and we also conduct a brief autopsy on nearly every pig ever born, which as a side effect gives us pretty good data on how healthy the average pig is over time.

peterwwillis 8y ago
"A 2015 study by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency found glyphosate in 30 percent of 3,200 food products. Similar studies have found glyphosate exceeding maximum residue limits (or MRLs) in Cheerios, beer, and wine." It has also been found in honey, soy sauce, oatmeal, bagels, organic eggs, potatoes, non-GMO soy coffee creamer, tampons, infant formula, and even breast milk (that's the stuff coming out of a human). Not only is it in animal feeds, it's in processed foods. It's being passed through animals and plants. Even if you believe the claims that ingesting it won't give you cancer, it will probably screw with your gut microbiota. The US MRLs are much higher than countries such as Japan, the EU, Canada, Australia, and Taiwan. Are our scientists just way better at sciencing, and know something these other countries' scientists don't? Or is it more probable that Monsanto has significant influence with the US's 992-billion agro industry, government, and FDA? It's also possible that some countries have artificially low MRLs, in order to gain a competitive advantage with countries that have stricter limits on imports. But lowering MRLs means using less herbicide/pesticide, which wouldn't produce as high or reliable a yield. In order to maximize product, more herbicide/pesticide must be used more frequently (such as with desiccation), and that means you can't lower the MRLs - you can only raise them, to avoid regulatory issues from affecting your crop yields, and subsequently the profits of agro business. At the least, we know the FDA can't keep up with import testing (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3297498/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3297498/) Finally, from a scientific standpoint, all of this is based on animal testing. No human testing is done, so we really don't know what long-term exposure will do to humans.
- saalweachter 8y ago
  Re-read "A 2015 study by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency found glyphosate in 30 percent of 3,200 food products. Similar studies have found glyphosate exceeding maximum residue limits (or MRLs) in Cheerios, beer, and wine." The first sentence is saying a DETECTABLE amount of glyphosate is found in 30% of a huge number of food products. The second sentence is saying excessive amounts have been found in some of these three specific food products. Put together, it sounds like 30% of products have excessive glyphosate in them, but if you go back to the source [0], you'll find that: "The overall compliance rate for these surveys, based on Canadian Maximum Residue Limits (MRL), was 98.7 %. No samples of fruits and vegetables, soy products, or infant foods were found to contain residues exceeding Canadian limits." So 30% contain detectable residue, 1.3% contain residue above the Canadian MRL. (Which, hey, room for improvement in compliance, but it's deceptive to act like 30% of food is above the MRL.) [0] http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/chemical-residues-microbiology/food-safety-testing-bulletins/2017-04-13/executive-summary/glyphosate-testing/eng/1491846907641/1491846907985 http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/chemical-residues-microbiol...