Widespread use of Monsanto’s Roundup has had wide-reaching
effects over our entire food system
BY KELLY BROGAN
“Eat your veggies” is
no longer synonymous with health thanks to the increasingly documented
deleterious health effects of chemical pesticides and herbicides.
In the approximately 80 years of human chemical herbicide
use, countless health problems have been linked back to exposure. There was the
Vietnam War’s Agent Orange. There was DDT and associated obfuscation efforts.
And since the 1990s, we have been increasingly exposed to glyphosate-based
herbicides found in processed foods, on GMO crops like corn and soy, and as a
post-harvest desiccant on others like wheat and potatoes.
In a precedent-setting case in 2018, Monsanto’s Roundup, a
glyphosate-based herbicide and the world’s bestselling weedkiller, was found to
cause cancer, awarding a school groundskeeper 289 million dollars in damages,
and leading to a deluge of more than 8,000 similar cases being brought to
court.
The chemical glyphosate is one of the most heavily used
herbicides, as a critical component of more than 750 products. It has also been
demonstrated that adjuvants in Roundup were 10,000 times more toxic than
glyphosate alone, which has amply been demonstrated as toxic itself, and that
toxicity effects amplify up to five times in 72 hours.
Glyphosate is used in the production of soy, canola, and
corn, and as a result, the chemical is now present in our air, water, soil, and
even breast milk. Scientists and agriculturalists are so reliant on
glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) that they genetically manipulate produce like
corn, soy, and canola to be GBH-resistant.
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