Roundup™ Free Foods Appear on Shelves
While over 11,000 Roundup™ cancer lawsuits are being filed against Monsanto, we thought we’d take this opportunity to explore Roundup™ free foods and look at the amount consumed every day in food and drinks. Recent reports citing the presence of Roundup in breakfast cereals, beer and wine attest to the reality that, for most of us, Roundup™ is an ever-present factor in our diets. Consumers are faced with a difficult decision when shopping since most packaged products from Cheerios to beer contain a fair amount of Roundup™. Large lawsuits such as the DeWayne Johnson case, which ended in an award of $289 million for the groundskeeper in California who developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after using Roundup™ are a testament to the need for consumers to trust their own intuition.
Roundup™ in Beer and Wine
Roundup is showing up in beers and wines. It is not limited to domestic products and can also be found in imported ones. Even wines that are labeled organic can show small amounts when tested. For instance, one winery, which makes an Argentinian wine that is biodynamically certified, said that although it stopped using glyphosate in 2012, the chemical remains in the soil. It has been shown that Roundup™ can persist in the soil for up to 20 years, causing problems for farmers who wish to eliminate it from contact with crops of any kind. In 2016, German beers were tested for glyphosate, and all samples were positive for the chemical. Brewers in Germany sought to drastically lower the amount of Roundup™ used in making the beer. In 2017, the German beer makers who followed the new, reduced glyphosate protocol saw a significant reduction in the amount of the chemical in their beer. This proves that with effort it is possible to produce Roundup™ free foods and beverages. One organic craft beer, Peak, brewed in Maine, showed no glyphosate when tested. The highest amount was found in wines under the Sutter Home label.
How Much Roundup™ is Too Much?
Consumers believe that the foods they eat and the beverages they drink are safe. Government agencies are constantly watching over the food industry to keep foods safe. A big part of this statement revolves around the meaning of safety. The government sets limits on the amount of substances that are not appreciated in the food supply such as feces and rat hairs that are kept at a minimum. This goes for chemicals such as glyphosate. Aside from organic producers, who strive to produce Roundup™ free foods, the limit for glyphosate in food consumption is set at 2.0 mg per kg of body weight, so for a 70 kg man (154 pounds), it would be 140 mg. This is approximately 127 times the amount thought to be safe in California. Scientists have found that even one part per billion exposure to glyphosate can trigger breast cancer in mammals.
How Roundup™ Gets Into Our Food
High levels of Roundup™ weedkiller are said to be found in children’s and heart-healthy adult cereals such as Cheerios and other oat-based foods such as oatmeal. Parents are justifiably concerned, and pesticide companies are saying the concern is unfounded. Some of the bigger companies such as Quaker Oats and General Mills responded that their foods are within the EPA’s guidelines. However, simply because the guidelines are adhered to does not prove the amount of glyphosate is safe, particularly for growing bodies. Today, the legal limit is 30 parts-per-million on foodstuffs for glyphosate. In 1989, the safe, legal limit was 0.1 parts-per-million, a vast difference. The increase corresponded to the higher use of Roundup™ by farmers in this country, particularly when it began to be used as a desiccant. Overall, the application of Roundup™ by farmers and others, including homeowners, is linked to a 41 percent increase in the development of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Use of Roundup™ as a Desiccant
Glyphosate is used to kill weeds. However, it has other uses. With oats and other grains, it is used as a desiccant prior to harvesting the crop. This is done to extract the water from the crop. According to farmer’s groups, not every oat farmer needs to use Roundup™ as a desiccant. By spraying Roundup™ on crops prior to harvesting, the amount of glyphosate in the oats increases.
Are There Roundup™ Free Foods?
There are Roundup™ free foods. Most are organically grown, using older, safer methods of killing weeds such as crop rotation. One such oat-based cereal product, Cascadian Farms Organic Purely O’s, when tested, showed non-detectable levels of glyphosate. While no one is implying that consumers throw away their Cheerios, it is important to know that there are alternatives. Since 93 percent of the products on a supermarket shelf are found to contain glyphosate, this is a good move. Some products are now labeled as Roundup™ free foods, and more may follow suit.
Roundup™ Cancer Lawyer
I’m Ed Smith, a Roundup™ cancer lawyer. If someone in your family has developed cancer secondary to using Roundup™, you need the legal insight provided by an injury lawyer. The cost of treatment is astronomical, and you should not have to assume the burden of this yourself. Call me at (800) 404-5400 nationwide or at (916) 921-6400 in the Northern California area for free and friendly advice. You can also contact me online.
I’ve helped numerous clients in the past 37 years to obtain the compensation they deserve in wrongful death cases and all types of traumatic injuries.
I have membership in the Million Dollar Forum, a nationwide group of lawyers who have won more than $1 million for a client. The National Association of Distinguished Counsel has also honored me by including me in the top one percent of lawyers it feels provides legal excellence in their practice.
Go to the following pages if you would like to learn about my practice, the way I resolved prior cases and how my clients and peers feel about me:
Photo Attribution: https://pixabay.com/photos/supermarket-shelves-shopping-507295/
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