What is the effect on the digestive tract of consuming foods sprayed with glyphosate

Expert response from Community Manager

Moderator for GMOAnswers.com

Tuesday, 07/07/2015 09:34

Glyphosate is a commonly used agricultural herbicide that, as Dr. Kevin Folta explains, “…is amazingly non-toxic to humans or any other animals.”  He goes on to explain that glyphosate interacts with plants much differently than with humans, and points out that “the flora of the gut are hardly plant-like – they are microbes, the vast majority bacteria.” You can read more about this in Dr. Folta’s comments in this response, 

You might be interested to learn that glyphosate is not applied when ears of corn or other harvestable foods are present on the crop. When used on non-GM crops that are not glyphosate resistant, glyphosate is not directly applied to the crop. When used on GM glyphosate resistant crops, glyphosate can be applied to the crop but only at certain stages of growth. Lawson Mozley, a sixth generation farmer, explains more about how glyphosate is applied to crops in this post. 

It’s important to note that, as Lawson explains in the post linked above, all herbicides have labels that must be followed that include maximum application rates that tell the applicator how much of a chemical can be used and during what stages of plant growth. Additionally, the use of every herbicide on food crops in the United States is evaluated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) against a standard of reasonable certainly that the use would cause no harm to human health and the environment.

There is an acceptable daily intake (ADI) set for every herbicide, and as Dr. David Saltmiras, science fellow at toxicology manager at Monsanto Company, explains, “Just to be on the safe side, the EPA sets the acceptable daily intake (ADI) a minimum of 100-times lower than any does level that showed any kind of toxicity in any study conducted.” Find more information on how the EPA determines the safety of herbicides, like glyphosate, used on food crops in this response.

You might also be interested in this document [PDF], which covers frequently asked questions about glyphosate.

If you have any additional questions, please ask.

Expert response from Community Manager

Moderator for GMOAnswers.com

Tuesday, 07/07/2015 09:34

Glyphosate is a commonly used agricultural herbicide that, as Dr. Kevin Folta explains, “…is amazingly non-toxic to humans or any other animals.”  He goes on to explain that glyphosate interacts with plants much differently than with humans, and points out that “the flora of the gut are hardly plant-like – they are microbes, the vast majority bacteria.” You can read more about this in Dr. Folta’s comments in this response, 

You might be interested to learn that glyphosate is not applied when ears of corn or other harvestable foods are present on the crop. When used on non-GM crops that are not glyphosate resistant, glyphosate is not directly applied to the crop. When used on GM glyphosate resistant crops, glyphosate can be applied to the crop but only at certain stages of growth. Lawson Mozley, a sixth generation farmer, explains more about how glyphosate is applied to crops in this post. 

It’s important to note that, as Lawson explains in the post linked above, all herbicides have labels that must be followed that include maximum application rates that tell the applicator how much of a chemical can be used and during what stages of plant growth. Additionally, the use of every herbicide on food crops in the United States is evaluated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) against a standard of reasonable certainly that the use would cause no harm to human health and the environment.

There is an acceptable daily intake (ADI) set for every herbicide, and as Dr. David Saltmiras, science fellow at toxicology manager at Monsanto Company, explains, “Just to be on the safe side, the EPA sets the acceptable daily intake (ADI) a minimum of 100-times lower than any does level that showed any kind of toxicity in any study conducted.” Find more information on how the EPA determines the safety of herbicides, like glyphosate, used on food crops in this response.

You might also be interested in this document [PDF], which covers frequently asked questions about glyphosate.

If you have any additional questions, please ask.