I am naturally a curious person, and when it comes to food that is going into my body? I want to know as much as I can. Thus, in writing these articles, my goal is not be inflammatory or alarmist, but to be as informed as possible. I watched my Dad spend a year and a half dying from cancer, and it wasn’t pretty. So when it comes to any debate on potentially carcinogenic chemicals used on our food (more than 80% of all genetically modified crops grown worldwide have been engineered for herbicide tolerance), why wouldn’t we question what’s in our food?
Headlines About Glyphosate and GMOs
Recent news headlines have been plentiful on this topic—and they are head-scratchers. “$2 Billion Verdict Against Monsanto Is Third to Find Roundup Caused Cancer” and “Bayer Commits $5.6 Billion to Glyphosate Alternatives Amid 13,000 Lawsuits Over the Weedkiller” followed by “The EPA Says that the Glyphosate in Monsanto’s RoundUp is Safe.” How confusing! Is it safe, not safe? What are we supposed to believe?
While I cannot possibly separate out all the details of the science behind glyphosate and GMOs, I can rely on common sense to help guide me.
1. As a mom, if I have a choice between choosing GMOs and non-GMO foods for my kids, I will choose the option closer to nature every time. Nature vs. Bayer/Monsanto? Why is this even a debate?
2. If I learned one thing in business school, it is that the world is all about incentives. And the incentive driving the production of GMOs is money. Ten companies control about 90% of the global agro-chemical market, and they have one driving force. GMOs are not about feeding the world, or making more nutritious crops for our health.
In the 1960s, Africa, a land of vast agricultural potential, was a net food exporter. Today, Africa imports 25% of its food ($35 billion, estimated to rise to $110 billion by 2025) and suffers from recurrent famine and food deprivation. Remind me how these companies are feeding the world with GMOs? And how is insecticide injected into the seeds of my food “healthy?” More on that below.
What are GMOs?
Did you know that 70-80% of the processed food in the supermarket is genetically engineered? Genetically Modified Organisms are plants or animals that have been modified in a laboratory with DNA from bacteria, viruses, or other plants and animals. These combinations of genes do not occur in nature.
Most GMOs used today are made to either: 1) withstand the application of an herbicide, such as Monsanto’s RoundUp Ready® crops, or they 2) produce an insecticide within the crop, such as Monsanto’s Bt corn.
- Bt corn is genetically modified to have a natural bacterial toxin found in the soil inside the corn kernel. This toxin is inside the seed to attack the crop’s biggest predator, the corn rootworm. In the case of Bt corn, the corn itself is registered as an insecticide, and the USDA reports that 80% of the total planted acres of corn is Bt corn (Bt-corn receives its name from the donor organism, Bacillus thuringiensis, while HT-corn is herbicide-tolerant.) 138
Other issues with these types of GMOs are: 1) they make crops even more resistant to herbicides, requiring farmers to spray more chemicals on the plants (good thing Monsanto owns the seeds and the RoundUp), and 2) they create super pests, or super worms. Rootworms immune to Bt corn are on the rise, causing more RoundUp to be sprayed and soil-insecticide revenues at American Vanguard, FMC Corp., and Syngenta to climb sharply, due to “increased grower awareness” about rootworm resistance. Do you see the cycle?
Glyphosate (the key ingredient in Roundup®)
Though the EPA claims it is safe, Monsanto’s glyphosate-containing herbicide, RoundUp, has been making headlines, due to its underestimated toxicity. RoundUp is a common household weed killer and the most widely used herbicide on wheat and soy crops in the United States. Farmers use RoundUp not only to kill weeds but also to speed up the dry down process for wheat (i.e., reaching 20% moisture for harvest.)
Glyphosate has been linked to birth defects and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, in addition to other diseases, and in 2015, the World Health Organization determined that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Don’t you just love the terminology? This stuff in almost all of your food might be bad for you. Levels of glyphosate are now ten times higher versus decades ago, due to GMO, herbicide-resistant crops.32
In 2015, the World Health Organization determined that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
So just how many of our crops are genetically engineered?
- Cotton (cottonseed oil): 96% of total acreage is GE
- Soybeans: 94% of total acreage is GE
- Corn: 93% of total acreage is GE
How do I avoid GMOs?
Since you do have a choice, you can either buy organic foods, or look for the Non-GMO Project to minimize glyphosate and GMOs in your diet.
Pay special attention to:
- Breakfast cereals
- Oatmeal
- Granola bars
- Corn chips/snacks
- Baking mixes and flours
- Corn tortillas
- Infant formula
- Meat substitutes/tofu
- Soy “dairy”
Glyphosate, produced by Bayer-Monsanto, was detected in all 21 oat-based cereal and snack products sampled in a recent round of testing commissioned by the Environmental Working Group. All but four products contained levels of glyphosate higher than what EWG scientists consider protective for children’s health with a sufficient margin of safety. The two highest levels of glyphosate were found in Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch, with 833 parts per billion, or ppb, and Cheerios, with 729 ppb. The EWG children’s health benchmark is 160 ppb.
- Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s tries to source non-GMO products, however some third party products may contain GMOs. The meat, eggs, milk, honey, and seafood may also contain GMOs in the form of animal feed fed to the animals before slaughter or harvest.
- Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods Market claims that GMOs are too pervasive to avoid, however they support Non-GMO Project verified labeling.
- Costco. While Whole Foods is often recognized for its progressive inventory, Costco is actually the largest retailer in organic food sales (where you can find low warehouse prices on name-brand organic products, if you can stomach the quantities.)
Finally, it is nearly impossible to avoid all GMOs, but when shopping for our family, I try to buy non-GMO verified or organic foods and snacks as much as possible.