Glyphosate is ubiquitous throughout the food supply in many countries. It is used on crops that have been genetically modified to be resistant to the effects of glyphosate, as well as a tool to dry out grains, sugar, and beans just before harvest.

Glyphosate is never used alone - glyphosate is a key ingredient in a formulated product called a glyphosate-based herbicide (GBH), commonly referred to as “Roundup”. The other chemicals in the formulated product are also harmful, particularly in the US formulation that includes Polyethoxylated tallow amine (POEA). POEA is banned in Europe due to its toxicity.

The highly toxic glyphosate and POEA combination has no place in our food supply. As explored elsewhere in the Health section of Glyphosate Facts, independent, peer-reviewed research on the health damage from GBH exposure is abundant.

Many will argue that dietary exposure is well below regulatory limits and therefore harmless. However, those limits are set arbitrarily, and in fact have crept up over time at the request of farming groups trying to manage superweeds and desiccate grains. Endocrine disruption, in particular, is created through low dose, repeated glyphosate exposure.

If you are eating in the United States or Canada, you are likely exposed to glyphosate. In the following study from the CDC, glyphosate was detected in 81% of urine samples.

Fortunately, consumers do have some control in decreasing dietary glyphosate exposure by eating organically. A recent study showed that an organic diet significantly reduced urinary glyphosate levels in the United States. Certified organic food is not supposed to contain glyphosate, although some studies have shown that processing or drift can lead to glyphosate contamination.

Most non-organic, non-regenerative farms use glyphosate as a farming tool, and it greatly impacts the composition of the soil. Healthy soil is rich in micronutrients that are bioavailable to the crops that we eat. In soil sprayed with glyphosate, glyphosate binds to those key minerals, making them biounavailable to the crop. The result? Our food is less nutritious, and our bodies are minerally depleted just like the soil. It is no wonder why we need to support our bodies through supplementation of magnesium, zinc and more - key minerals that we need to biologically function that are no longer present in our food.

Several organizations have run studies on the glyphosate content in select foods. Here are links to those informative studies.