New Study Shows Glyphosate Does Cause Tumors and Birth Defects, and More
Exposure to relatively small amounts of a glyphosate-based herbicide has been found to impair fertility in rats and cause birth defects including retardation and malformation in second generation offspring, according to a new study from Argentina.
Argentinian researchers added glyphosate to the rat’s food. They administered the herbicide in two doses. The lower dose was 2 mg per kg of body weight daily, which is supposed to be safe to ingest on a daily basis over a lifetime.
A reference dose (RfD), or estimate of daily exposure that would not cause adverse effects throughout a lifetime, of 2 mg/kg/day has been proposed for glyphosate, based on the developmental toxicity studies described above.” – EPA
The higher dose of glyphosate was 200 mg per kg of body weight daily. Industry reports claim that up to 100mg per kg daily have no adverse effects. At the studied dosages, the rats in either category should not have come under any harm. But as GM Watch reports,
Exposure to environmentally relevant doses of a glyphosate-based herbicide during pregnancy has been found not only to impair female fertility in rats…Argentinian researchers tested the glyphosate-based herbicide – one commonly used in Argentina – in pregnant female rats at two doses, which were added to their food. The rats were mated and dosed from the 9th day after conception until their pups were weaned. This first generation of offspring and their offspring in turn (second generation) were followed and monitored for reproductive effects.”
Glyphosate-based herbicides did seem to damage the embryo or cause abnormal maternal or nursing behaviors. It did not alter weight gain for the first generation offspring. All glyphosate-exposed first generation female rats were impregnated, but they had fewer “implantation sites of fertilized eggs,” compared with the non-glyphosate-fed control rats. The subsequent generation of offspring from both the low-dose and the higher-dose glyphosate exposed groups had delayed growth and abnormally small fetuses.
But that’s not all.
Malformations occurred within the higher-dose population in the second generation of offspring, including conjoined fetuses and abnormally developed limbs.
F2 offspring from both GBH groups showed delayed growth, evidenced by lower fetal weight and length, associated with a higher incidence of small for gestational age fetuses. In addition, higher placental weight and placental index were found in F2 offspring from GBH-HD dams. Surprisingly, structural congenital anomalies (conjoined fetuses and abnormally developed limbs) were detected in the F2 offspring from GBH-HD group. In conclusion, perinatal exposure to low doses of a GBH impaired female reproductive performance and induced fetal growth retardation and structural congenital anomalies in F2 offspring.” – Study: Perinatal exposure to a glyphosate-based herbicide impairs female reproductive outcomes and induces second-generation adverse effects in Wistar rats
FDA Commissioner to Issue New Non-Dairy Milk Guidelines
For those of us who have been confused as to whether or not almond milk contains actual milk, the Food and Drug Administration under Trump’s leadership is here to help. According to the FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, the agency is planning on announcing a new guidance on the proper use of the term milk. In his own words,
If you look at our standard of identity—there is a reference somewhere in the standard of identity to a lactating animal…And, you know, an almond doesn’t lactate, I will confess.”
If only all confessions were obtained so easily!
Standard of Identity
So what is standard of identity? These are regulations set by the FDA that dictate what a food is, may be called, and the ingredients that must be used, may be used, or must be listed on the label. Standards of identity don’t actually have anything to do with the quality of a product, though they do help protect against fraudulent versions of a product.
A great example of the standard of identity laws at work is Kraft Singles. These marvels of engineering are legally not allowed to be called cheese, as they are not made with at least 51 percent real cheese. Until 2002, Kraft Foods labeled them as Kraft Singles Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Food until that name also ran afoul of the FDA standard of identity for cheese food due to the inclusion of milk protein isolates. They are now sold under the name Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product.
There is a benefit to being able to set standards for what a product is. No one wants to bring home a package labeled cheese and open it to find Kraft Singles (cheap shot…sorry). But the way we eat has evolved rapidly, and what seemed ridiculous twenty years ago is now a worldwide phenomenon followed by more than a million people in the United States. When the FDA set into place the standards of identity, they did not forsee veganism.
The most notable disruption of these standards as of writing this occurred in 2014. Scrappy startup Hampton Creek, makers of popular vegan mayo Just Mayo, was reprimanded by the FDA for violating the mayonnaise standard of identity. Those circumstances are markedly different than these, as the FDA has not singled out a single specific company (likely because large businesses like Unilever haven’t complained this time).
There is still an important parallel between the two cases. Both of these products, vegan mayonnaise and non-dairy milk, threaten animal product industries struggling to cope with modern societies desire for plant-based foods and the fallout from their own unsustainable practices. In 2014, Just Mayo inadvertently capitalized on an egg industry reeling from an avian flu season that claimed nearly 40 million chickens. Meanwhile, a dairy industry in decline has been complaining about the use of the word milk since 2017, going so far as to recruit thirty-two members of Congress to advocate for them. In both of these cases, it appears that business is asking the government to step in and deal with this disruption for them.
Well Established Relationships
Based on the folksy, vaguely patronizing soundbite from the commissioner, it seems likely the FDA will come down on the side of the dairy industry. This is to be expected, though. The Trump Administration has proven itself to be extremely friendly to big business.
Gottlieb has been publically approving of big business friendly moves in the past. When the USDA moved its branch of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a collaboration of more than 180 countries responsible for international food safety standards, he was among those to publically congratulate USDA head Sonny Perdue. While it might sound like a great idea to have the U.S. Codex Office housed at the USDA, that move leaves the national positions on food safety open to manipulation by big food producers. Internationally, this causes the rest of the world to become increasingly mistrustful of our science and safety regulations as well as our ractopamine-laced pigs and chlorine-washed chickens.
But international food governing bodies are in agreement with the dairy farmers here. In fact, the EU ruled that items labeled milk, butter, cheese, cream, and yogurt must contain animal milk. A label clarifying the products plant-based origins will no longer suffice. Except for coconut milk…and almond milk…and cream filled sweets. There is also room for exceptions to the rules.
It feels almost like a punishment for soy and vegetable products clearly labeled tofu butter and veggie cheese. Will the person purchasing these products be disappointed there is no milk or butter? They clearly don’t mind the tofu or veggie part.
At the same time, not everyone is informed when it comes to non-dairy alternatives. Soy milk and vegetable cheese are also fundamentally different from dairy milk and cheese, and that separation could have unintended benefits for vegan and non-dairy products. The EU no longer accepts certain animal products from the U.S. due to our lax animal welfare standards. Perhaps the FDA, in their desire to appease the dairy board and catch up with other worldwide legislation, are doing vegan companies an early favor.
Who Is Confused Here?
Vegan alternatives are everywhere. Removing the word milk from non-dairy alternatives won’t change the growing demand for them.
Here’s the biggest question. How are these products supposed to be labeled, and should their non-vegan counterparts be anywhere near that decision?
Gluten Intolerance, Wheat Allergies, and Celiac Disease – It’s More Complicated Than You Think
Is “gluten free” a fad? No, it’s going to be a thing for as long as we are producing wheat and bread the way we’re doing it. A lot has changed in the bread industry – it’s not just one thing.
People often comment about how bread didn’t cause problems with our health before GMOs and Roundup were prevalent in our food supply. Our farming practices have changed, and fairly recently, wheat has started being sprayed with Roundup. The newest speculation is that wheat is not the problem – that the problem is glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. People also often suspect that wheat has been genetically modified. And, of course, there are those who believe the whole gluten-elimination thing is ridiculous and that most people are jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon because it’s trendy.
In my experience, if one suffers from a chronic illness of any kind, they must remove gluten from their diet in order to get well. I have yet to see an exception. So what’s the problem? Is it the glyphosate or the wheat or something else? The truth is it’s not just one thing. Everyone would already know this if most humans weren’t so bad at thinking in terms of systems. We tend to think linearly and look for singular cause and effects, but rarely if ever are complex problems solved by such simplistic thinking. There are multiple reasons one gets sick, with a cold or a chronic disease, just like there are multiple reasons why our planet’s ecosystem is changing. This is why you can’t blame the rise of autism on just glyphosate, or GMOs, or increased vaccinations, or diminishing food quality, or environmental degradation – they all correlate, it’s all of the above.
There is a very complex system that is causing the decline of American health, and it’s not just the bread. And yes, our health is in decline. If you doubt that…here, google it and take your pick. Our lifespan is actually decreasing.
What’s the difference between Gluten Intolerance, Wheat Allergies, and Celiac Disease
Conventional medicine states that celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity have a lot of symptoms in common but identifies a key difference. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is not a genetic disease and does not cause an autoimmune reaction, and celiac disease is a genetic autoimmune disease. A wheat allergy is an allergic reaction to any of the hundreds of proteins in wheat. Gluten intolerance used to be a catch-all phrase for any problem with eating gluten, but now it’s being relegated to mean Non-celiac gluten sensitivity.
Non-celiac Gluten Sensitivity
Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is believed to be the most prevalent of the gluten-related disorders, but it’s not as well defined as the other two. It’s not an autoimmune reaction nor is it an allergic reaction. There are no tests or biomarkers to identify this disorder. Other components of gluten-grains may be causing symptoms. In order for non-celiac gluten sensitivity to be diagnosed, a doctor will rule out celiac disease and wheat allergies or other possible causes of the symptoms first.
Common Symptoms for Non-celiac Gluten Sensitivity
Fatigue
Mental fatigue, aka “brain fog”
Headaches
Migraines
Bone or joint pain
Gastrointestinal distress
Gas
Bloating
Cramping
Indigestion
Abdominal pain
Diarrhea
Constipation
It’s said that individuals with gluten sensitivity do not experience damage to the small intestine or develop tissue transglutaminase antibodies like they do with celiac disease. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity has been linked to a variety of health problems including, diabetes, allergies, autism spectrum disorders, and much more.
Gastroenterologists looking for celiac disease typically test for a few specific antibodies, and if found, they do an intestinal biopsy to determine if tissue damage is present. Chris Kresser addresses the issue with this kind of testing in 3 Reasons Gluten Intolerance May Be More Serious Than Celiac Disease, which I highly recommend reading. He states:
According to some estimates, for every diagnosed case of celiac disease (CD), there are 6.4 undiagnosed cases that remain undiagnosed—the majority of which are atypical or “silent” forms with no damage to the gut. (1) This silent form of CD is far from harmless; it is associated with a nearly fourfold increase in the risk of death. (2)
I believe that patients with NCGS are even more likely than patients with CD to go undiagnosed. Most gastroenterologists today know how to screen for celiac disease. They will typically test for antibodies to antibodies to alpha gliadin, transglutaminase-2, deamidated gliadin, and endomysium, and if positive do a biopsy to determine if tissue damage is present.
However, we now know that people can (and do) react to several other components of wheat above and beyond alpha gliadin, the component that is implicated in CD. These include other epitopes of gliadin (beta, gamma, omega), glutenin, wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), gluteomorphin, and deamidated gliadin. What’s more, people can react to other types of tissue transglutaminase, including type 3—primarily found in the skin—and type 6—primarily found in the brain. (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
Celiac Disease
Celiac disease is considered a genetic, autoimmune disorder. Ninety-eight percent of people with celiac disease carry one or both of two very specific genes, HLA DQ2 and DQ8. On the other hand, so does up to 25-30% of the general population. Carrying one or both of these genes does not mean you have celiac disease nor does it mean you will develop it. Doctors often use gene testing to rule out celiac disease, but there are some cases where people who do not have either of the genes still tested out to have celiac disease.
Though celiac disease is said to be genetic, genes cause predispositions and our diet and environment adjust our genes. Environment can alter gene activity without changing the DNA sequence. This is called gene expression. I also believe that the environment and diet can actually alter the DNA sequence, but from what I’m seeing, current science doesn’t agree with me on this. Regardless, how your genes affect you is altered by our diet and our environment, and those traits can be passed down to our offspring as well. In other words, a predisposition to celiac disease may be hereditary, but whether or not we have celiac disease could depend on our genetic health, which depends on our overall health, which depends on our lifestyle. And this can all be traced to gut health – you cannot have a healthy gut without a healthy lifestyle, and our gut health is something most of us have complete control over.
Doctors believe that in order to develop the disease, a person needs to have the genetic predisposition while they are consuming gluten and to subsequently have the disease activated. Activation triggers are said to potentially be stress, trauma, and viral infections. I contend that vaccines and antibiotics are the two most common triggers for the disease. Damaging the gut is what leads to problems with wheat, but we’ll get more into that below.
Wheat Allergies
Celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity have many symptoms in common, but wheat allergies are often much more distinctive. Symptoms include itching, hives, or anaphylaxis which is a life-threatening reaction. A wheat allergy is an immune reaction to any of the hundreds of proteins in wheat. It is possible for a person to be allergic to wheat and to have non-celiac gluten sensitivity or celiac disease at the same time.
What About Roundup?
Monsanto introduced glyphosate under the trade name Roundup in 1974 shortly after DDT was banned. It wasn’t used very much until the late 1990s when Monsanto genetically engineered seeds to withstand high doses of Roundup, and the product took off. Eager to sell more of its flagship herbicide, Monsanto has encouraged farmers to use their glyphosate as a desiccant. Wheat can be harvested quicker and easier if you dry it all out ahead of time with Roundup. It’s also used in this way on wheat, barley, oats, canola, flax, peas, lentils, soybeans, dry beans, and sugar cane.
Studies have concluded that chronically ill people have higher levels of glyphosate in their bodies. Glyphosate has been attributed to an increased prevalence of most of our common chronic conditions including, but not limited to ADHD, Alzheimer’s, birth defects, autism, cancer, kidney disorder, irritable bowel syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, depression, diabetes, heart disease, thyroid disorders, liver disorders, multiple sclerosis, reproductive issues, adrenal failure, obesity, asthma, and of course, celiac disease.
It’s not hard to understand why. Glyphosate is poison and so are the other ingredients in Roundup. People have to wear protective gear to apply the product. It is designed to kill. It kills plants by preventing them from making certain proteins. Just imagine what that does to one’s gut ecology.
How Wheat Has Changed
The wheat we have now is very different from what our ancestors consumed. Modern dwarf wheat is hybridized. That isn’t a GMO, but the genes of our wheat plant have certainly been modified to grow faster, and to be more resilient. We used to eat wheat called einkorn, which was actually one of the very first grains we humans cultivated more than 10,000 years ago. When you read in the Bible about how we should eat bread, this is the wheat it refers to.
There is a lot more gluten in modern wheat than there is in einkorn, and the gluten that einkorn wheat does contain is different. Einkorn also has 15 percent less starch and 30 percent more protein. Modern wheat has a lower nutrient content and a different protein structure. In fact, many with celiac and gluten intolerance report being able to eat einkorn without issue.
Also, that blood sugar spike experienced after eating bread does not happen with einkorn.
So I conducted a simple experiment on myself. On an empty stomach, I ate 4 oz of einkorn bread. On another occasion I ate 4 oz of bread that dietitian, Margaret Pfeiffer, made with whole wheat flour bought at the grocery store. Both flours were finely ground and nothing was added beyond water, yeast, olive oil, and a touch of salt.” – Einkorn and blood sugar
“Ancient wheat diets caused a downregulation of key regulatory genes involved in glucose and fat metabolism, equivalent to a prevention or delay of diabetes development. Spelt and rye induced a low acute glycemic response compared to wheat.” – NCBI
How Bread Making Has Changed
Most commercial bread contains bromides, added starches, refined sugars, added gluten (vital wheat gluten), preservatives, artificial flavorings, leveling agents, and stabilizers. Potassium bromate is an additive used in commercial bread and baked goods that make the products lighter and fluffier. Bromines are part of the halide family, a group of elements that includes fluorine, chlorine, and iodine, which are all endocrine disruptors that cause digestive issues and a host of other health problems.
Baking Soda, baking powder, and cream of tartar are often used in place of yeast or in addition to rapid rise yeast to make the bread rise quickly and more uniformly. Modern bread rises for a couple of hours or less, whereas homemade bread traditionally takes at least 12 hours to rise. I got curious about the difference between baking soda and baking powder, and I thought you might be as well, hence the video below.
Traditional bread recipes typically utilized a few common ingredients including flour, yeast, salt, water, a sweetener, and some spices or herbs.
Refined flours started to be widely used around 1880 which caused worldwide epidemics of pellagra and beriberi. Refining the flours removes bran and germ which increases shelf life. It also removed the B vitamins. Previous iterations of bread did use bolted or sifted flour which did refine the wheat somewhat, but it didn’t remove all of the bran, germ, and endosperm, and that flour was never bleached.
Bread with Whole Grains that are gently stone ground just before mixing the dough and then allowed to ferment slowly and naturally, in other words — authentic sourdough. That’s how the Egyptians made it 6,000 years ago.”
Bread was fundamentally redesigned. Refined flours, large quantities of commercial yeast, and a combination of additives and intense energy created the modern industrial bread. Fast mixing, fast rise, fast baking. Industrial bread is made far too fast.” – Mario Repetto
How Our Gut Biology Has Changed
We keep eating more and more sugar. In the early 1700s, the average sugar consumption was about 4 pounds a year. By 1800 we were at 18 pounds a year. By 1900 we were up to 60 pounds of sugar a year. Today the average American consumes between 130 and 150 pounds of sugar every year.
Sugar feeds pathogens. Our healthiest gut bacteria like the healthiest foods: vegetables and herbs. Nature wouldn’t work any other way; how could it? You’re probably thinking, “What about fruit?” We don’t eat the fruit we used to eat. Like wheat, our fruit has been radically altered through hybridization. But that’s another article (I’m working on it). For now, just Google “wild banana” or “what watermelon used to look like“.
We get way more sugar than our ancestors got even if we cut out refined foods. This causes an abundance of Candida. I believe Candida is prevalent in every single person with chronic illness. Everyone has yeast but when yeast is left unchecked they turn into pathogenic fungi. Tests for Candida aren’t accurate. Candida, when in it’s in the virulent fungal form, will make the gut more permeable. When this happens food proteins are absorbed into the body before they are digested. This causes allergies. This is one of the main causes of allergies, but there are others at play as well. In my experience, every single person who has cut refined sugar out of their lives and decreased their body’s Candida was able to rid themselves of seasonal, environmental, and food allergies. Every single time!
In addition to that, a study published in The Lancet showed that the candida protein HWP-1 is similar in structure to gluten.
A candida infection in the gut can cause an immune system reaction to HWP-1, which then stimulates an allergic reaction to the gluten in wheat and other grains and may trigger celiac disease in genetically susceptible people.” – Leyla Muedin, RD
Wheat proteins can also cause an immune response against the thyroid.
An obvious explanation is that the initial attack on the thyroid by anti-tTG autoantibodies of celiac leads to thyroid inflammation and presentation of TPO, with a second round of autoantibodies produced to TPO resulting in Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.” – Dr. Art Ayers
Celiac disease and hypothyroidism beget more chronic autoimmune issues. Allergies lead to autoimmune disease. Allergies lead to chronic health issues. Medical science has established this. Medical science is just starting to understand the fact that a permeable gut causes allergies. Science also has established that an abundance of Candida causes a permeable gut. What they haven’t figured out yet is just how prevalent the permeable gut issue really is. But the bottom line is that our poor diet leads to allergies and almost all that commonly ails us.
Suggestions
If you have a healthy gut, make your own sourdough bread using heirloom wheat and the old-school practices. If you have any chronic illness, then you do not have a healthy gut. Here’s how you fix it. If you’re not well, wait until you get well before consuming any kind of bread. And don’t think of old-fashioned bread as healthy. Vegetables are healthy. Bread is at its best a neutral food with some health benefits and easy calories that can help sustain life like brown rice and millet. Vegetables and herbs heal the body.
Obviously, stay the heck away from poisons! Glyphosate is a cocktail of poisons. Science has firmly established this. And avoid GMOs as well. They weren’t designed with our health in mind, they were designed for profit, and in most cases, to sell more Roundup.
The hard truth is that letting companies cook your food for you leads to poor health. People often ask me, “If you can cure cancer why aren’t you rich?” If I could cure cancer and figure out how to do it while still eating refined, prepackaged, and processed foods that we humans have grown accustomed to, I would be rich. But people would rather die for convenience food than give it up. Obviously. We see this everywhere.
Being well long-term means preparing all your own food yourself the right way, or being rich and hiring someone else to do it. There is no shortcut. Certainly not with bread.
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in RoundUp. It’s been deemed a “probable carcinogen” by the World Health Organization (WHO), but the EPA decided the product can be used on our food at “safe levels.” The EPA banned glyphosate 30 years ago but then reversed its decision based on studies conducted by the chemical industry. Scientists wanted to determine if these “safe” levels of glyphosate are, in fact, actually safe. The Global Glyphosate Study found that glyphosate poses health risks even at very low levels.
Conducted by Italy’s Ramazzini Institute in partnership with the University of Bologna, the Genoa Hospital San Martino, the Italian National Institue of Health, Mount Sinai in New York, and George Washington University, the study is scheduled for publication in the scientific journal Environmental Health.
The study shows that children are at significantly greater risk of damage by these pesticides, which are heavily sprayed at school playgrounds, public parks, people’s laws, and other places where children often play.
Researchers have concluded that the supposedly “safe” levels of glyphosate cause microbiome imbalances and damage DNA (genotoxicity). Every animal on the planet has a unique microbiome. A healthy and diverse microbiome is essential for good health. Damage to this ecosystem occurred very quickly with pesticide consumption.
The Ramazzini Institute in Italy announced they’re launching a crowdfunding campaign for the first-ever comprehensive global study on glyphosate-based herbicides.
This is our chance to take scientific control away from the chemical industry – we can, at last, make a real difference – Please Donate to the Study Here.” – Sustainable Pulse
How prevalent is glyphosate in food? The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) tested 3188 foods and determine that glyphosate was found in nearly one-third of all foods tested. Some foods contain alarmingly high levels of the chemical.
Majority Of Meat Contain Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
The majority of bacteria found on supermarket meat is antibiotic resistant, according to the Environmental Working Group. The EWG follows the Food and Drug Administration’s yearly bacterial contamination and resistance tests, and the analysis of the most recently released year, 2015, shows that almost 80% of bacteria discovered on supermarket meats is resistant to antibiotics. The bacteria detected, including salmonella and Enterococcus faecalis, demonstrated resistance to crucial antibiotics like amoxicillin and tetracyclines. To listen to the FDA, antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the meat aisle at the grocery store is not an issue, but Dawn Undurraga, EWG’s nutritionist and author of the report, sees things differently.
Consumers need to know about potential contamination of the meat they eat, so they can be vigilant about food safety, especially when cooking for children, pregnant women, older adults or the immune-compromised…By choosing organic meat and meat raised without antibiotics, consumers can help reduce the amount of antibiotics used in farm animals and slow the spread of drug resistance…”
Different types of meat registered at different levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and the winner of the title most resistant goes to ground turkey. Seventy-nine percent of ground turkey tested positive for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This continues a trend, as 73% of salmonella detected on turkey in 2014 was resistant to at least one antibiotic. Other types of meat tested also displayed antibiotic-resistant, though not on the same level, with pork chops at 71%, ground beef at 62%, and chicken breasts, leg, wings, and thighs at 36%.
Tetracyclines were another major point of concern. These are the most used class of antibiotics in food animals, and it shows in the percentage of bacteria that are resistant to that specific class. The bacteria responsible for an estimated 80 percent of human infections, Enterococcus faecalis, had significant resistance to tetracyclines across the different meats tested. Enterococcus faecalis on pork had the highest numbers, with 84 percent of bacteria present demonstrating tetracycline resistance. Chicken showed 71 percent resistance, and 26 percent of the bacteria found on beef registered resistance.
The meat industry in the U.S. is deeply flawed. E.coli has developed resistance to all 14 of the antibiotics the FDA tested in 2014. Salmonella was not far behind, developing resistance to 13 of the tested antibiotics. Several countries have limited or banned meat imports from the U.S., either due to chemicals that are given to animals during their life (pork treated with ractopamine is rejected by China) or the final treatment of meat for sale (chlorine-washed chicken in the European Union). The recent report released from the FDA suggests that those things are unlikely to change in a timely fashion.
So how do you protect yourself? With how quickly antibiotic resistance is evolving, the only meat you can eat that’s guaranteed to be free of resistant bacteria is no meat. If that’s not an option you’re ok with, make sure you’re buying responsibly raised meat, not treated with antibiotics and free range. Find your local farmer and talk to him about his animal treatment practices. Know where your food is coming from.
GMO Rice Approved While Other GMO Grasses Cannot Be Contained
On May 24, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) became the third major regulatory agency this year to approve Golden Rice for consumption – the same rice that the FDA just said offers no nutritional benefits:
The FDA has determined that no health claims can be made for Golden Rice, the genetically engineered (GE) rice meant to contain beta-carotene. The amount of the nutrient it contains is so low that it fails to qualify for a nutrient claim – and it rapidly degrades in storage. Most GE crops currently on the market are engineered to withstand herbicide exposure, but Golden Rice has been the poster-child for the biotech industry, engineered to provide improved nutrition. Wild plants at the side of the field, now largely gone due to increased pesticide use, traditionally provided beta-carotene in developing countries.” – Cornucopia
The company says the most important approvals, the Philippines and Bangladesh, are yet to come. These countries are where the rice is said to have the greatest potential for positive impact.
Golden Rice has been genetically modified to help prevent blindness in undernourished children. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has been working since 2006 to develop a strain of rice that produces beta-carotene, an orange or red plant pigment found in carrots, sweet potatoes, and cantaloupe. The human body converts beta-carotene into vitamin A. One serving of Golden Rice is said to supply half the recommended daily intake of vitamin A. The company hopes to release the genetically modified rice for production in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia where hundreds of millions of people are poverty-stricken and suffering from malnutrition with vitamin-A deficiencies. A lack of vitamin A can cause blindness and early death.
Golden Rice has been the source of much controversy, stemming from its status as a genetically modified (GM) crop.
Golden Rice has been around for a long time. It’s different from other types of rice because its DNA has been altered so that the plant produces Vitamin A, as opposed to the many other GMOs that are being produced in an effort to sell more RoundUp.
Now that the U.S. has become the fourth nation to approve golden rice, others may follow. The U.S. is part of an international body that forms recommendations about food safety that other countries can adopt if they lack their own version of the FDA. Though three other nations have approved golden rice, they might have a tough time winning over the 186 other countries that have a say in international food standards — all of which have been silent on the crop.
A variety of creeping bentgrass sold by Scotts (owned by Bayer, formerly Monsanto) and engineered to tolerate the herbicide Roundup, has been found in Idaho. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which vets most new genetically engineered products, had not approved the plant’s release. But in 2010, landowners discovered it growing in great mats throughout the irrigation system that stretches like a spider web across Malheur County.
Creeping bentgrass thrives in canals and ditches, where it collects sediment and impedes water flow, and it has proved difficult to control. No one believes the bentgrass can be fully eradicated. Many fear it could contaminate non-GMO crops and invade natural areas. Scotts has tried to rein in its escapee, with some recent success. But in a series of decisions over the last several years, the USDA has relieved Scotts of future responsibility in return for the company’s promise not to market the grass.
Genetically modified RoundUp-ready wheat was discovered last summer in Alberta, Canada, near a rural road after it was sprayed with herbicide and did not die. GMO wheat has not been approved anywhere for commercial production. Wheat is big money to Canada, and the country is one of the world’s largest wheat exporters. Canadian government officials said they did a lot of testing and said the genetically modified wheat is not present in the grain or seed supply.
The government is going to provide information to allow our trading partners to make informed, science-based decisions to continue trading in Canadian wheat.” – Kathleen Donohue, executive director of market access at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
Even though officials say the wheat wasn’t in a farmer’s field or the food chain, Japan promptly closed its markets to all Canadian wheat right after they heard the news. South Korea followed suit. South Korea is a much smaller market, but it’s considered an important emerging one.
Last year, Japan bought $203 million worth of wheat from Alberta. Japan was the second-most lucrative market for Alberta wheat in the last two years, and in 2016, Japan was actually their biggest customer, buying even more wheat than the Americans.
Personally, I just see it as an overreaction because there is no health risk even it was in the commercial system. There’s no safety risk whatsoever.” – Kevin Bender, Alberta Wheat Commission chair
Japan imports about 1.5 million tonnes of wheat a year and is known to buy some of the highest-quality grain at premium prices, according to Cereals Canada president Cam Dahl. He also stated:
I am confident that we have the answers that Korea is looking for just as I’m very confident that we have the answers that Japan is looking for.”
But even if Canada were somehow able to reign in all traces of wheat and completely get a handle on the outbreak and assure Japan that there is nothing to fear, it’s still not likely to be able to hop right back into the market. It took 10 years to get trade barriers lifted after the Japanese banned Canadian beef when cows in Alberta were discovered with mad cow disease.
Chlorine Wash Doesn’t Remove Salmonella on Chicken
The majority of chicken for purchase in the United States has been subjected to a chlorine cleaning, a simple yet problematic procedure currently banned by the European Union. Farming practices in the U.S. like overcrowding and lax welfare standards have prompted companies to wash poultry with chlorinated water to meet health and safety standards. The E.U. does not accept treated poultry, but American poultry producers hoping to sell their wares in a post-Brexit Britain may be stymied by a new study that found bacteria like salmonella and listeria remained active after the controversial chlorine wash.
False Positives
Microbiologists from the University of Southhampton discovered that the American chicken cleaning process does more to camouflage the bacteria than it does to neutralize it. The chlorine washing makes it impossible to culture the chicken in a lab, making poultry treated like this appear less likely to spread food poisoning. Professor William Keevil led the university team behind the study from Southhampton.
We therefore tested the strains of listeria and salmonella that we had chlorine-washed on nematodes [roundworms], which have a relatively complex digestive system…All of them died. Many companies and scientists have built their reputations promoting anti-microbial products. This research questions everything they’ve done.”
Faulty food safety tests and American factory farming are a dangerous combination.
The majority of the British population is against introducing American poultry that’s been treated with chlorine. Poultry farmers in the U.K. concentrate their food safety efforts on the birds while they’re still alive, relying on smaller flock densities to avoid rampant infections. The conditions in U.S. poultry facilities allow bacteria to thrive. Instances of food poisoning may be ten times higher in the U.S. than in Europe. The U.S. has a much bigger system, but farmers choose sustainability for short-term gain.
If the U.K. accepts American chicken that has been treated with the chlorine wash at the end of its production cycle, the impact on public health could be serious. Kath Dalmeny, the chief executive of British food and farming pressure group Sustain, described the Southampton research as a wake-up call:
Those dead nematodes are telling us something. This research suggests US chlorine washing may give a false impression of food safety. Proper food safety relies on clean production methods with high animal welfare, resilience to disease, and full traceability and labeling – not just end-of-pipe chemical washes.”
Doubling Down
The U.S. has long been able to rely on its status as a world leader to find markets for our products. There is a distinct possibility that period is over, and that isn’t a bad thing. Factory farmed chicken might be cheaper from a money standpoint, but the world has only seen a portion of the actual bill in terms of our health, the environment, and human rights. In that respect, the chlorine wash is an apt metaphor. The chicken has the appearance of clean chicken, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find it’s all on the surface.