Breakfast With a Dose of Roundup? Quaker Oats exceeds limit of 400ppb by having 930ppb

[womanofthehills]

https://www.ewg.org/childrenshealth/glyphosateincereal/#.W3S0KX4nYQ9
Popular oat cereals, oatmeal, granola and snack bars come with a hefty dose of the weed-killing poison in Roundup, according to independent laboratory tests commissioned by EWG.

Glyphosate, an herbicide linked to cancer by California state scientists and the World Health Organization, was found in all but two of 45 samples of products made with conventionally grown oats. Almost three-fourths of those samples had glyphosate levels higher than what EWG scientists consider protective of children’s health with an adequate margin of safety. About one-third of 16 samples made with organically grown oats also had glyphosate, all at levels well below EWG’s health benchmark.

Each year, more than 250 million pounds of glyphosate are sprayed on American crops, primarily on “Roundup-ready” corn and soybeans genetically engineered to withstand the herbicide. But when it comes to the food we eat, the highest glyphosate levels are not found in products made with GMO corn.

Increasingly, glyphosate is also sprayed just before harvest on wheat, barley, oats and beans that are not genetically engineered. Glyphosate kills the crop, drying it out so that it can be harvested sooner than if the plant were allowed to die naturally.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/glyphosate-roundup-chemical-found-in-childrens-breakfast-foods/

[htuttle]

1. My stupidly rich uncle pokes fun at me for spending more on food

...in order to get mostly certified organic and local stuff. And I do spend more, probably double what I could otherwise.

But it doesn't have as much weedkiller in it, so I think it's worth it.

[womanofthehills]

5. According to the article, organic is way lower in glyphosate and often zero.

After reading all the stuff on spraying Roundup just before harvest, I make sure I only eat organic grains.

And now I have to spend big bucks to buy my dog organic dog food because of all the grains and oats in dog food. I've been feeding my chickens organically and it's really expensive but.........

[Achilleaze]

42. Yup

@hat small contamination there is in organic is there because of Big Ag, Big Chem & Big GMOs drooling-lip campaigns to profit wildly from GMO crapola nurtured by glyphosate crapola. They spread their corporate crapola all over the freaking place willy nilly. Glyphosate-GMO freaks thus pollute nearby clean fields and crops and waterways. This amounts to the slow, steady poisoning of the American people and landscape to profit a few (republican family values in action). Gag me.

[Ferrets are Cool]

9. I would never make fun of you or anyone for paying more for

organic, however, what about those of us who cannot afford to do so? We are just farked.

[htuttle]

16. Been in that boat, too

I have no car, and the closest grocery store is an organic food coop. So, while I got a much better job about 3 years ago, for the 20 years before that, I struggled to feed my family with things I could afford from there.

The alternative would have been to spend money on transportation to a cheaper grocery store, which would often have been as much as the price difference would have been (unless I paid with my time on the bus instead of money -- it's about 1.5 hours each way).

One option that you may or may not have available is local food buyer clubs (if you're in a farming area). Here in Madison, they're called Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), where groups of people each pay into a fund that buys fairly large quantities of fresh veggies and dairy directly from farmers, then they split it up among themselves.

[womanofthehills]

18. Some organic foods are not that expensive - you can buy oats out of a bin in most of our organic

stores here in NM. Organic lettuce, celery, carrots, beets are very cheap - all under $2.00 a bunch. Organic yogurt in NM starts at $1.00 and up.

Good place to start eating organically is to buy from local farmers markets. I live in a rural area outside of a tiny town of 830 people and we even have a small farmers market. Sometimes only two people set up to sell, but i can get lots of vegetables.

[Ferrets are Cool]

37. Thanks for the suggestions.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. But eating oats lowers your cholesterol. Maybe that's what the Roundup

does.

[womanofthehills]

4. Good point. Maybe drinking Roundup will get the numbers even lower.

[womanofthehills]

3. Expert Witness from Monsanto trial offers 5 fixes for food relgulations

Problem #1 Excessive confidence in current federal regulation

Problem #2 Ignoring "inert" ingredients

Problem #3 Lack of real-world monitoring

Problem #4 Focusing on one pesticide at a time

Problem #5 Lack of tools for struggling farmers

The FDA does not conduct an independent safety determination, nor does it do any testing of a newly proposed GE crop, but rather accepts the company's assertion of its safety. It is a shallow and flawed process, that has been "under review" for two decades, but persists because of the lack of consensus on a better way forward.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) focus in the regulatory review process is driven by an old federal statute, the Plant Pest Act. The USDA must determine whether the technology might trigger a new, or worsen an existing "plant pest" (i.e., a weed, insect, or fungal pathogen that attacks or competes with plants). If there is no evidence of such "plant pest" risk, the USDA deregulates the new GE-crop trait, and companies are then free to move the new trait into various crop cultivars.

Each agency's role and authority is seriously limited because Congress has been unable to pass new legislation to give the agencies the tools and mandates needed to conduct thorough reviews of the risks, benefits, costs, and uncertainties associated with novel GE-crop technologies. As a result, pre-approval risk assessments are typically a mile wide but just inches deep. Some of the most worrisome risks are largely ignored.

https://www.ehn.org/fixing-gmo-food-regulations-2595527510.html

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. And now that trump/putin owns the FDA......

Actually, Big Agriculture, and other big food biz. companies have always claimed their food is ok because it does not exceed FDA rules for safety.

BUT FDA has, for years,allowed the food/pest producers to dictate the safety limits!
And they are the unpublicized sources of many of the studies that are used by the FDA.

Super bummer by Quaker Oats, tho. I imagine the company will draft some soothing response to this.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

27. Killing America from the inside out. Either way,

it's what putin loves. Sick Americans.

[pazzyanne]

30. ...and tRump is dismantaling regulations at a breakneck pace.

We are being sacrificed to the almighty dollar.

[BeckyDem]

6. What exactly has Monsanto not poisoned? Disgusting and criminal.

[flotsam]

7. Careful Pardner

your heading for the first Roundup!

[cutroot]

8. Out they go

I will never buy quaker oats again.

[womanofthehills]

11. It's sad - people think they are eating a food that is good for them

not one with pesticide levels almost double the allowable limit. And why should there be an allowable limit?

[cutroot]

20. My limit would be anything more than zero

According to the website, that may not be possible to achieve.
They have weaponized our food sources, simply by focusing on yield and profit over quality and health.

[milestogo]

28. I eat this every single morning.

Not tomorrow.

[shanti]

39. it looks like

from the chart in the first link, that organic oats are ok. they may be pricier, but it's worth the extra cost!

[Frustratedlady]

10. How could any person or any company defend the use of Roundup to speed up the process

to harvest and market. Monsanto knows they have a problem, even if they don't want to admit it. The recent court case settlement surely got their attention unless they have so much money the nearly $300M didn't make a dent.


These aren't borderline readings. Are family farmers doing this or corporate?

[lunasun]

13. Greed is doing it whether yields or cash

[womanofthehills]

14. What is so sick is that Louisiana is spraying Roundup on their sugar cane right before harvest too -

it's called a "ripener". Glyphosate is the only sugarcane "ripener" currently registered in the US. Some sites say it is used in Florida too and I read it could be contributing to the chemical soup of the Red Tide in Florida.

Herbicides as Ripeners for Sugarcane
Chemical ripening of sugarcane is an important component to profitable sugar production in the United States as well as other sugarcane industries throughout the world. Harvesting of sugarcane often begins before the sugarcane reaches the desirable maturity level. This is especially true in the Louisiana sugarcane industry where the window for harvesting is limited because of the risk of freezing temperatures encountered in a temperate climate. Research on the application of chemicals, mostly of herbicide origin, to enhance sucrose accumulation (ripening) or limit flowering to conserve stored sucrose has been conducted for more than 60 yr. The only sugarcane ripener currently registered for use in the United States is glyphosate applied before harvest. The herbicide fluazifop is used as the primary ripener of sugarcane in South Africa. The herbicides glyphosate, fluazifop, and sulfometuron-methyl and the growth regulators ethephon and trinexapac-ethyl are registered for use in Brazil. There is a continuing need to evaluate sugarcane ripeners to increase the utility of currently registered ripeners and to find additional ripeners for use by sugarcane industries. The need for alternatives to glyphosate is especially critical before a glyphosate-tolerant sugarcane can be utilized to improve control of problematic weeds.

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1614/WS-D-09-00001.1

[Frustratedlady]

17. Oh, nice! What is there that we can eat without danger?

I'm sure there are many things in our food that are affecting our bodies every single day.

I sent the Quaker Oats article to my daughter whose husband swears by oatmeal and must have it every morning. She was in the process of baking granola...with an oatmeal base. I wonder if she has any sugar in it. Don't think so. There may be honey.

It's a crapshoot.

[womanofthehills]

19. Honey is contaminated too - with double the amt. of glyphosate than is allowed in the Europen Union

HERBICIDE IN HONEY

In addition to oats, the FDA also earlier this year tested samples of U.S. honey for glyphosate residues and found all of the samples contained glyphosate residues, including some with residue levels double the limit allowed in the European Union, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The EPA has not set a tolerance level for glyphosate in honey, so any amount is problematic legally.

Despite internal discussions about a need to pursue action after the honey findings in January, the FDA did not notify the honey companies involved that their products were found to be contaminated with glyphosate residues, nor did it notify the public.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/carey-gillam/fda-tests-confirm-oatmeal_b_12252824.html

[Frustratedlady]

23. Great! Are we even testing anything anymore? Didn't they stop a lot of the testing of meat?

Trump is repealing so many programs, I can't keep up with it. I seem to recall something with meat...chickens, perhaps? So long as he gets his cheeseburger, he's happy.

Of course, with sugar also included in the contaminated products along with honey, imagine how far and wide those are spread throughout the food groups.

Shoot, we can't even switch to dog food...they poison that, as well.

[womanofthehills]

25. The government was not testing for Roundup traces because Monsanto told them it was so safe

Then they started testing for a few months under Obama, and then stopped. At one point, the FDA said the equipment needed for testing for Roundup was too expensive. Now I read they have resumed some testing but are not revealing the results. Some groups like Mom's Against Monsanto are doing some testing.

[Frustratedlady]

33. Disgusting!

[pazzyanne]

31. They are areal spraying soybeans right now with glyphosate, so soy products are also contaminate.

https://www.ecowatch.com/why-is-glyphosate-sprayed-on-crops-right-before-harvest-1882187755.html

[babylonsister]

12. How about breast milk?

http://www.glyphosate.news/2016-03-09-glyphosate-found-at-high-levels-in-mothers-breast-milk.html

Glyphosate found at high levels in mothers’ breast milk

[janx]

15. Beware of astroturfing, especially when it comes to food.

https://badsciencedebunked.com/2016/08/23/the-thrive-marketenvironmental-working-group-connection/

[GoCubsGo]

21. I hope Bob's Red Mill's suppliers don't use that stuff.

I love their extra-thick cut oats, and eat them several times per week. They aren't organic, so I don't know if they've had Roundup used on them. I sue hope not.

[womanofthehills]

24. If you open the first link and scroll down to the bottom you will see a chart

Bob's Steel Cut oats had one sample with none and one sample with 300ppm glyphosate. Their Old Fashioned Oats had 4 samples with none detected in one, 10 in another and 20 in the other two.

So if you like Bob's Red Mill, I would go with their Old Fashioned Oats (pretty low numbers) and stay away from their Steel Cut Oats. However, who knows, numbers could change. I would call the company and ask what they plan to do about it. There are places in the USA that grow oats without using Roundup to dry the crop. Actually, Texas is one. It's the northern states with shorter growing seasons that use it the most.

[not fooled]

34. There's a Bobs Extra Thick Organic

Only $1 more per 2 lb bag than non-organic at my local store.

[GoCubsGo]

35. It's not available in my area.

Only regular rolled oats and steel cut. I suppose I could mail order them.

[pansypoo53219]

26. well, organic oats for my cookies it is.

[dhol82]

29. I'm hoping that my Scottish steel cut oats are still safe

They make the BEST oatmeal in the world!

[sl8]

32. Note that US (EPA/FDA) limit is 30,000 ppb; EU limit is 20,000 ppb

From the article referenced in the OP, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) is using 160 ppb as their "Health Benchmark"'. I'm not sure what the significance of the 400 ppb figure is.

US:
https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=2c85909360c7c5aff63ddd1447545d6a&mc=true&node=se40.24.180_1364&rgn=div8

EU:
http://ec.europa.eu/food/plant/pesticides/eu-pesticides-database/public/?event=pesticide.residue.CurrentMRL&language=EN

[IronLionZion]

36. There are some organic brands on that list

[SidDithers]

38. Zen Honeycutt. Moms Across America...

is an anti-vax, anti-science loon organization.

She also promotes MMS, which are bleach enemas, as a cure for autism.

Strange that none of that is mentioned in the CBS article, which only describes Moms Across as "a group formed to raise awareness about toxic exposures."



Sid

[womanofthehills]

40. The article above, "Breakfast with a dose of Roundup" was written by a toxicologist, Alexis Temkin -

Also, another women who has been writing most of the articles about farming and Monsanto is Carey Gilliam of Right to Know. Her new book is called "Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science." Carey is a great person to follow on Twitter for all the updates on the Monsanto trials.



and Zen Honeycutt - a mom with 3 boys with severe allergies & autism symptoms started Moms Across America.

[wishstar]

41. At least the organic cereals had little or no detectable amounts

I'm glad I have been buying the Bob's organic rolled oats, but we alternate between that and plain cheerios, so I will have to look for an organic cheerio type cereal without sugar.