Glyphosate, the primary ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, has increasingly been subjected to scrutiny after the World Health Organization concluded last spring that it is “probably carcinogenic.”
Researchers and health food advocates’ fears have been confirmed as studies continue to uncover the impacts of glyphosate accumulation in the environment, our food supply, and humans.
As a result, nations around the globe are revisiting regulations on genetically modified crop cultivation. Utilizing an opt-out clause last fall, Germany moved to ban the growing of GM crops entirely, but the opportunity for member countries to opt-out of GM cultivation was rejected by European lawmakers in October.
33 percent of Germans are poisoned with excessive glyphosate levels
But that hasn’t stopped researchers in Germany from examining more closely the impacts of glyphosate, the nation’s most widely used herbicide.
The most recent analysis by German researchers revealed some alarming results: nearly 100 percent of Germans have glyphosate residue in their bodies, and it’s stemming from a somewhat unexpected source.
Meat eaters had higher levels of glyphosate in their bodies than vegetarians or vegans; a finding researchers said is due to livestock diets, which mainly consist of GM corn and soy. People who followed an organic diet, on the other hand, were less likely to be contaminated with the toxin.
Scientists with the Heinrich Böll Foundation tested the urine of roughly 2,000 Germans and found that 75 percent of them had exceedingly high levels of the widely used herbicide – measuring up to five times the allowable limit in drinking water, according to a report by LifeGate.
One-third of the study’s participants had 10 to 42 times the recommended limit for glyphosate in their urine. Less than 0.5 percent of those tested were glyphosate-free, and as many GMO skeptics have predicted, children are being affected the most.
Glyphosate levels were the highest in infants and children up to 9-years-old, teenagers aged 10 to 19, and farmers.
The study’s results confirm earlier predictions about glyphosate accumulation in humans, but they also spark new fears about the scale in which people are being harmed by this herbicide. The scientific community agrees so far that glyphosate causes numerous types of cancer, including non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, melanoma, and lung and colorectal cancer.
Roundup is a proven endocrine disruptor, meaning it can interfere with reproductive development, fertility, thyroid function, and hormone production – causing all sorts of serious health problems.
Endocrine disruptors pose the highest risk to women who are expecting, infants, and young children, according to The National Institute of Health.
Glyphosate’s endocrine disrupting properties can also cause birth defects and miscarriages, as well as contribute to diseases such as attention deficit and hyperactive disorder (ADHD), Alzheimer’s, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and dementia.
Glyphosate in beverages
Glyphosate contamination is not only occurring in the food supply, but is entering beverages as well. In February, the Munich Environmental Institute detected high levels of glyphosate in 14 popular German beers.
One of the beers tested positive for glyphosate levels that exceeded the allowable limit set for drinking water by 300 times, according to researchers, who said their readings ranged from about 0.50 to 30 micrograms per liter.
The results illustrate Germany’s flawed purity law, which says that beer should only contain four ingredients: hops, malt, yeast, and water.
The German Farmer’s Association denied responsibility, arguing that glyphosate application on barely is prohibited, according to DW.com. But they did acknowledge the chemical could have made its way onto the product via field spraying.
Anheuser-Busch’s German division disputed the findings, claiming they weren’t “plausible.” They pointed to a bill of health enacted by Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment which says that glyphosate in beer is harmless. But, as illustrated previously, the research shows otherwise.
For information on food safety, visit FoodForensics.com.
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