Weedkiller found in granola and crackers, internal FDA emails show

...US government scientists have detected a weedkiller linked to cancer in an array of commonly consumed foods, emails obtained through a freedom of information request show.
...The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been testing food samples for residues of glyphosate, the active ingredient in hundreds of widely used herbicide products, for two years, but has not yet released any official results.
...But the internal documents obtained by the Guardian show the FDA has had trouble finding any food that does not carry traces of the pesticide.

Weedkiller found in granola and crackers, internal FDA emails show

This is appalling and this information should be known by the general public. I'm betting you won't see any major news organizations report on this either.

Not a single mainstream media outlet has covered this appalling new report that shows millions of people being poisoned by a chemical that does not belong in our food. This chemical is ending up in processed foods like Cheerios, Ritz Crackers, and Oreos and being consumed by humans across the world.

foodbabe.com...





Is the FDA dropping the ball here? If taxpayer money is being used by our government to protect and promote public health, why wouldn't the FDA disclose this information? Glyphosate has been around for almost 40 years. Many consumer groups are wondering why the FDA waited so long to test for this pesticide in our food supply. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen back in 2015. Now it appears on just about every crop grown in the US.

“I have brought wheat crackers, granola cereal and corn meal from home and there’s a fair amount in all of them,” FDA chemist Richard Thompson wrote to colleagues in an email last year regarding glyphosate.

Separately, FDA chemist Narong Chamkasem found “over-the-tolerance” levels of glyphosate in corn, detected at 6.5 parts per million, an FDA email states. The legal limit is 5.0 ppm. An illegal level would normally be reported to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but an FDA supervisor wrote to an EPA official that the corn was not considered an “official sample”.

www.theguardian.com...

Yeah right..."not an official sample." Why do I sense a cover up starting to rear it's ugly head? Maybe it has everything to do with Monsanto being a very powerful and wealthy biotech bully, with deep pockets for lobbyists.

From September 2016:

Over the next few weeks or months, government officials will investigate the Bayer-Monsanto deal to determine whether it would breach antitrust regulations or negatively impact food safety and supply. As that process plays out, it's important to remember that corporations like Bayer and Monsanto spend quite a bit of money to ensure that the government sides with them in moments like this

Interestingly enough, these two companies in particular are known for their political spending. According to OpenSecrets , a non-partisan research firm dedicated to government accountability, Monsanto has spent nearly $2.5 million on lobbying efforts this year, making it the biggest spender in the agricultural industry. Bayer is the eighth-highest spender in the pharmaceuticals industry and has spent over $3.6 million on lobbying so far this year.

And it's not like both companies decided to start lobbying the government in anticipation of this big merger. In fact, both companies have a long history of political spending; over the past decade, Bayer and Monsanto have spent a combined $120 million on lobbying.

www.nasdaq.com...

What's the real reason behind the FDA suspending testing from a lab that found glyphosate in other food products? Sounds fishy to me.

Other findings detailed in the FDA documents show that in 2016 Chamkasem found glyphosate in numerous samples of honey. Chamkasem also found glyphosate in oatmeal products. The FDA temporarily suspended testing after those findings, and Chamkasem’s lab was “reassigned to other programs”, the FDA documents show. The FDA has said those tests were not part of its official glyphosate residue assignment.

www.theguardian.com...

I think the most important question we need to ask is...do we trust the Monsanto Company's claims that their products are safe for the environment and public health? With Monsanto's long history of lobbying government agencies and the fact that it once manufactured some controversial substances ( DDT, PCBs, Agent Orange and The Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone), I think we should be extremely cautious. But hey, we got the FDA, EPA and US Department of Agriculture watching our backs..or do we?

Regulators, Monsanto and agrochemical industry interests say pesticide residues in food are not harmful if they are under legal limits. But many scientists dispute that, saying prolonged dietary exposure to combinations of pesticides can be harmful.

Toxicologist Linda Birnbaum, who is director of the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), said that current regulatory analysis of pesticide dangers does not account for low levels of dietary exposures.

The US Department of Agriculture was to start its own testing of foods for glyphosate residues in 2017 but dropped the plan.

The lack of government residue data comes as Monsanto attempts to bar evidence about glyphosate food residues from being introduced in court where the company is fighting off allegations its Roundup products cause cancer.

www.theguardian.com...

a reply to: shawmanfromny

What else is it found in?
If I buy a bag of potatoes... is it in them too?

I guess I have to buy expensive organic food to avoid it?

a reply to: butcherguy

The usda enforces organic regulations.
How much are you going to trust them?

Out west, North Dakota and Montana that i know of, they spray the fields with roundup right before harvesting the crops.

a reply to: Dogwooddoors

Why would they spray roundup at harvest time?
That crap kills pretty much everything including whatever you're trying to harvest.

a reply to: shawmanfromny

Nothing like a slow painful death from a lifetime of accumulating toxins such as Roundup, Fluoride, and vaccines. The fun part is we pay our life savings near our death to pay for the health care they imposed upon us...everything is connected in this sick racket we call life.

Man this # ticks me off.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: butcherguy

The usda enforces organic regulations.
How much are you going to trust them?

Good point.
Grow your own and make sure that it isn't GMO.

Chart is in Parts per Billion while safe levels are given in Parts per Million.
Move that period over 3 places to the left when reading the chart.
Everything shown is under the FDA limit.

That said, I hate roundup and would never want to eat it or use it in my yard.
Government agencies should get paid by corporations instead of taxpayers at the rate they're going.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Dogwooddoors

Why would they spray roundup at harvest time?
That crap kills pretty much everything including whatever you're trying to harvest.

So everything's ready to harvest at the same time. As I understand it, the crops have to dry a bit before harvest and not everytings ready at the same time so it gets sprayed. I have talked to a few very large farmers and this has been standard practice for a long time.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Dogwooddoors

Why would they spray roundup at harvest time?
That crap kills pretty much everything including whatever you're trying to harvest.

web.mit.edu...

The first Roundup Ready crops were developed in 1996, with the introduction of genetically modified soybeans that are resistant to Roundup. These crops were developed to help farmers control weeds. Because the new crops are resistant to Roundup, the herbicide can be used in the fields to eliminate unwanted foliage. Current Roundup Ready crops include soy, corn, canola, alfalfa, cotton, and sorghum, with wheat under development.

Roundup Ready crop seeds have notoriously been referred to as "terminator seeds." This is because the crops produced from Roundup Ready seeds are sterile. Each year, farmers must purchase the most recent strain of seed from Monsanto. This means that farmers cannot reuse their best seed. Read more about terminator seeds.

Monsanto is truly evil. It's all over North America

a reply to: Dogwooddoors

Never heard of that one.
Crops need to run a full cycle.
Guess out west it's different.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Dogwooddoors

Never heard of that one.
Crops need to run a full cycle.
Guess out west it's different.

Yes, I was very surprised when I learned it. Many farms out there are many sq miles in size and the roundup makes it do able all at the same time. Some farms use crews that travel with the equipment to harvest and move through the west, farm by farm. the crop has to be ready to harvest when they are there to do the harvesting

a reply to: shawmanfromny

Friend of my family owns a hops farm.
Because it goes into a boiling process for 'organic' beer to some micro brewers they can't use certain chemicals to kill weeds and pests.
But guess what, just from the rain alone in their area certain chemicals are found on their crops because of nearby corn fields.
That stuff evaporates and falls right back down again.

a reply to: butcherguy
I hate to spoil your idea of organic farms, but there are no such things.ie. a farmer sprays his crops with pesticide, the aerosol gets picked up by the wind, which can carry it hundreds of miles, and it dumps on your organic farm.
That term organic only relates to what the organic farmer does, not what the weather drops on his fields.
We have evidence of this in the Uk where the favoured crop at the minute is Rape. A farmer sows his Rape fields yet the seeds get blown some distance off his fields and you get Rape growing on grass verges along side roads.
If the wind can carry seeds it can carry lighter aerosol spray.

originally posted by: butcherguy
a reply to: shawmanfromny

What else is it found in?
If I buy a bag of potatoes... is it in them too?

I guess I have to buy expensive organic food to avoid it?

From the looks of it, organic products aren't immune. I see in the graphic something called 365 Organic Golden Round Crackers. That comes with a footnote too.

Yeah, it's pretty standard. They spray it to speed up the drying process, so the crops don't mold in storage.

originally posted by: LogicalGraphitti
I see in the graphic something called 365 Organic Golden Round Crackers.

That's Whole Foods private brand.

originally posted by: Asktheanimals
Chart is in Parts per Billion while safe levels are given in Parts per Million.
Move that period over 3 places to the left when reading the chart.
Everything shown is under the FDA limit.

That said, I hate roundup and would never want to eat it or use it in my yard.
Government agencies should get paid by corporations instead of taxpayers at the rate they're going.

Recent study.

The second study found that glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, can cause a serious liver disease at doses thousands of times lower than that allowed by law.

non-gmoreport.com...

What are key takeaways of the study? Dr. Antoniou: First, the rats consumed a glyphosate-equivalent level of Roundup that is 75,000 times lower than what is permitted in Europe and 437,500 times lower than that allowed in the U.S. Our study results suggest that the permitted safety intake level of glyphosate-based herbicides needs to be revisited as they may have been set way too high. The second point that this is a new risk factor for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and needs to be taken into account by the medical establishment.

On the positive side, it has been found that after a lifetime of intake of GMO foods no weed grow on your grave.

a reply to: shawmanfromny

While the Guardian is a sensationalized site, you would do well to NOT utilize any articles by "foodbabe." She's notorious for recommending "diets" for babies that actually cause health problems (if you followed them) and for claims that the airlines dilute cabin air with 50% nitrogen , and is unaware that our atmosphere is actually 80% nitrogen.

There's better sites to use.

That said, you can expect to see more issues like this coming to the forefront in the next several years. EPA chairman Scott Pruitt was essentially hired to undo all the regulations that had been put in place by previous administrations and the department is currently understaffed.

So there will be little followup to this.

This "report" was brought up last year.
www.abovetopsecret.com...


Very concerning. But the patent on Glyphosate expired 17 years ago so blaming Monsanto doesn't really make much sense. Monsanto is not the only manufacturer but it is true its use is widespread. Farmers like it and buy a lot of it. I use it in my yard once in a while.


Here is the actual lab report.
s3.amazonaws.com...
I see that many of the samples carry this disclaimer

*These samples exhibit very low recovery and/or response. The above amounts found are rough estimates at best and may not represent an accurate representation of the sample.

It seems the samples were all "Received from client." Since the client seems to be somewhat biased and alarmist, I would like to see verification of the chain of custody for the samples as well as confirmation of the results. I'm highly skeptical about them.