Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - [permaculture] Weedkiller found in wide range of breakfast foods aimed at children | Environment | The Guardian

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Weedkiller found in wide range of breakfast foods aimed at children | Environment | The Guardian
  • Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2018 10:27:30 -0400

[a little more information on foods containing glyphosate residues and how
much]

Weedkiller found in wide range of breakfast foods aimed at children |
Environment | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/16/weedkiller-cereal-monsanto-roundup-childrens-food

Weedkiller found in wide range of breakfast foods aimed at children

Cancer-linked herbicide, sold as Roundup by Monsanto, present in 45
products including granola, snack bars and Cheerios

Oliver Milman in New York
@olliemilman

Thu 16 Aug 2018 01.00 EDT
Last modified on Thu 16 Aug 2018 09.42 EDT

Farmers spray 200m pounds of weedkiller on crops, including corn, soybeans,
wheat and oats, every year.
Farmers spray 200m pounds of weedkiller on crops, including corn, soybeans,
wheat and oats, every year. Photograph: Benoit Tessier/Reuters

Significant levels of the weedkilling chemical glyphosate have been found
in an array of popular breakfast cereals, oats and snack bars marketed to
US children, a new study has found.

Tests revealed glyphosate, the active ingredient in the popular weedkiller
brand Roundup, present in all but two of the 45 oat-derived products that
were sampled by the Environmental Working Group, a public health
organization.

Nearly three in four of the products exceeded what the EWG classes safe for
children to consume. Products with some of the highest levels of glyphosate
include granola, oats and snack bars made by leading industry names Quaker,
Kellogg’s and General Mills, which makes Cheerios.
Sign up to receive the top US stories every morning

One sample of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats measured at more than 1,000 parts
per billion of glyphosate. The Environmental Protection Agency has a range
of safe levels for glyphosate on crops such as corn, soybeans, grains and
some fruits, spanning 0.1 to 310 parts per million.

“I grew up eating Cheerios and Quaker Oats long before they were tainted
with glyphosate,” said EWG’s president, Ken Cook. “No one wants to eat a
weedkiller for breakfast, and no one should have to do so.” Cook said EWG
will urge the EPA to limit the use of glyphosate on food crops but said
companies should “step up” because of the “lawless” nature of the regulator
under the Trump administration.

“It is very troubling that cereals children like to eat contain
glyphosate,” said Alexis Temkin, an EWG toxicologist and author of the
report. “Parents shouldn’t worry about whether feeding their children
heathy oat foods will also expose them to a chemical linked to cancer. The
government must take steps to protect our most vulnerable populations.”

The findings follow a landmark decision in a San Francisco court last week
to order that Monsanto pay $289m in damages to Dewayne Johnson, a
46-year-old former groundskeeper. A jury deemed that Monsanto’s Roundup
weedkiller caused Johnson’s cancer and that it had failed to warn him about
the health risks of exposure.

Monsanto, which said it will appeal against the verdict, has said
glyphosate has been used safely for decades. In 2015, the EPA said that
glyphosate has a low toxicity for people but could cause problems for some
pets if they consume the chemical.

However, the World Health Organization has called glyphosate a “probable
carcinogen” and authorities in California list it as a chemical “known to
the state to cause cancer”.

In April, internal emails obtained from the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) showed that scientists have found glyphosate on a wide range of
commonly consumed food, to the point that they were finding it difficult to
identify a food without the chemical on it. The FDA has yet to release any
official results from this process.

US farmers spray about 200m pounds of Roundup each year on their crops,
including corn, soybeans, wheat and oats. It can also be used on produce
such as spinach and almonds.

A General Mills spokeswoman said: “Our products are safe and without
question they meet regulatory safety levels. The EPA has researched this
issue and has set rules that we follow, as do farmers who grow crops
including wheat and oats.”

A Kellogg’s spokesman said: “Our food is safe. Providing safe, high-quality
foods is one of the ways we earn the trust of millions of people around the
world. The EPA sets strict standards for safe levels of these agricultural
residues and the ingredients we purchase from suppliers for our foods fall
under these limits.”

Quaker Oats continues to “proudly stand by the safety and quality of our
Quaker products”, a spokesman said.

But Cook said that General Mills and Quaker Oats are “relying on outdated
safety standards”.

“Our view is that the government standards set by the Environmental
Protection Agency pose real health risks to Americans ­– particularly
children, who are more sensitive to the effects of toxic chemicals than
adults,” he said.
Topics

Herbicides

Food (global)
Food (Environment)
US Environmental Protection Agency
news



  • [permaculture] Weedkiller found in wide range of breakfast foods aimed at children | Environment | The Guardian, Lawrence London, 08/16/2018

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page