Organic Matters

A few posts back I shared some information about pesticides being linked to the uptick in colon cancer among younger people, and how there is a particularly useful ‘dirty dozen‘ list of fruits and vegetables that are the most contaminated. Today I’d like to share more reasons to buy organic foods, and expand the list of foods to always, diligently, buy organic, especially here in America. That reason is: glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, Roundup. 

Where is it used? 

Unfortunately, it is ubiquitous all over the world. Countries which use the largest amounts of glyphosate are Brazil, the USA, Japan, Argentina, and China. If you do not see your country in that last, don’t get too comfortable because unless you live in Sri Lanka, Togo, or Vietnam, your country uses it too. There are partial bans in many parts of the world, such as in the EU, but those are only partial restrictions, with some countries having stricter bans than others, even within the EU. The crops it is most widely used on are soybeans, corn, wheat, barley, oats, tree nuts, sugar beets, cotton, and fruits.  

Why is it bad? 

Glyphosate has been associated with cancer risk, hormone disruption, neurological concerns, acute poisoning (when being sprayed), and physical irritation. It has long been suspected of being the reason so many people now have a problem digesting wheat (gluten), especially in the U.S. This is likely because glyphosate is antimicrobial, meaning that it kills the good microbes in the gut, just like a round of antibiotics kills the good little critters in the gut. Those microbes in our gut are essential to not only our digestive systems, but also form the backbone of our immune systems, and affect our moods and mental/emotional health, and more. Even Hippocrates has been attributed to the famous line, “All disease begins in the colon,” and whether or not he said that it’s true that traditional healing systems mostly operated under that principal. This MindbodyGreen article explains the antimicrobial news a bit more, and it is a great read, but I don’t think it goes quite far enough to connect all the dots.  

Common Food Allergens (connecting the dots) 

When we look at the crops that are most widely sprayed with glyphosate, we see that many of the most common food allergy/intolerance foods can be found on the list. The 9 most common food allergens are: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, fish, wheat, soy, and sesame. Take a closer look, and notice that glyphosate can also contaminate dairy products and eggs because they often share farms with crops that are sprayed. Similarly, glyphosate can contaminate fish and shellfish due to the runoff in waterways, and it can also contaminate peanuts, and sesame seeds due to the soil absorption from the spray on nearby crops or on them directly. That covers the complete list of allergens! When discussing foods that people tend to have intolerances to, meaning the foods irritate them but there isn’t a full allergic reaction, they are often the same foods as the top allergens, but corn is also a big one on that list, which is widely sprayed with glyphosate.  

What to do? 

The best way to avoid ingesting glyphosate residue is to buy organic foods, including all bread products, oatmeal, granola, oils, packaged foods, rice, eggs, and, well, just everything you eat. Support organic farmers by joining CSAs, going to farmers’ markets, and making sure everything you buy at grocery stores has at least an organic seal. (Summer is a wonderful time to visit local farms which often host community events.) There is a glyphosate free label that you can look for, but it is not used widely yet: 

Full Circle

One thing that the Slow Foods Movement emphasizes is that there shouldn’t be a separation between the agricultural industry and the food industry. We think of agricultural ‘crops’ and ‘products’ and governments pass laws and regulations concerning growth and profits. The food industry tends to be thought of in terms of grocery stores and restaurants with regulations around cleanliness and shelf life. The fact that those ‘crops’ and ‘products’ are actually the very same foods that we buy at stores and in restaurants somehow seems to get lost, not to even mention the fact that our health is intricately based, fundamentally, on that same food. We are what we eat, after all. While what we eat, foundationally, comes from farms.

It’s important to note that what is good for us as people is also good for the environment. Clearly spraying toxins on earth is polluting the soil, water, air, as well as the foods we eat. It’s creating food that is less alive and nutritious, and causing disruptions in long time ecosystems.

Other Resources

Another way to protect yourself is to buy a water filter, which is something I still need to research a bit more myself before deciding on which one to buy. In fact, I really need to do a lot more research on glyphosate in general! I just got a book from the library about it, but I wanted to share some info here before I get sucked into my summer quarter schedule since I rarely find time to write when I’m teaching a lot of hours. If you are interested in taking a deep dive into glyphosate (in a safe way!), these articles by EWG are a great place to start. This article also has some really interesting information, and calls out some specific brands/products to avoid. Food Tank is also full of amazing articles and they have a podcast too.

Stay Healthy and Curious🌿and have a Happy Summer☀️