Monsanto's Glyphosate GMO Weed-killer Is Pervasive, GMO Labels Nonexistent

Reuters reported today that recent tests by private labs have found residues of Monsanto's glyphosate weed-killer, in samples of honey, soy sauce, infant formula and even breast milk.

Evidence like this (and this and this) indicates that glyphosate, which Monsanto developed and marketed beginning in the early 1970s, is more prevalent than previously believed.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may be underestimating glyphosate’s toxicity. Three weeks ago (Mar. 20), leading cancer experts at the World Health Organization categorized glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

The widespread adoption of herbicide-tolerant, genetically engineered crops, also known as GMOs, sparked the explosion of glyphosate use over the past two decades – with 280 million pounds of glyphosate sprayed on farmland in 2012 alone.

But even though more than 90 percent of American consumers want to know when they’re buying GMOs, they have been largely left in the dark.

The federal government’s voluntary labeling system in place since 2001 isn’t working because companies that process food with GMO ingredients haven’t stepped up and labeled. Instead, producers who make food without GMOs have resorted to providing third party certifications of the non-GMO nature of their products. Consumers are left to guess about the vast majority of food out there.

Without a national mandatory GMO labeling law like statutes already on the books in Connecticut, Maine and Vermont, consumers will have a harder time knowing whether they’re buying GMOs.

To learn more about some lawmakers’ attempts to keep you in the dark about the presence of GMOs, read Libby Foley’s Top 5 Reasons To Oppose The DARK Act.

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