FDA deliberately tried to avoid testing glyphosate, only announced effort after being reamed by GAO for failures

Tuesday, March 01, 2016 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: glyphosate testing, USDA, FDA

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(NaturalNews) It is, by far, the most widely used crop herbicide in the world. But glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup formula, is not on the list of agriculture chemicals that either the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the Department of Agriculture (USDA) tests for on food products consumed by humans.

Ever since it was first approved for commercial use back in 1974, glyphosate has never been given proper regulatory attention from a human health perspective. Both the FDA and the USDA have long regarded glyphosate as being completely safe, insisting that testing for its presence on food would be expensive and unnecessary. But the Government Accountability Office (GAO) feels differently.

This watchdog agency issued a memorandum back in 2014 chastising the FDA for failing to evaluate just how pervasive glyphosate is throughout the food supply. Not only does the FDA not test for glyphosate, but it also hasn't publicly indicated this fact, despite glyphosate being categorized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a high-risk chemical.

"... FDA does not disclose in its annual monitoring reports that it does not test for several commonly used pesticides with an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established tolerance (the maximum amount of a pesticide residue that is allowed to remain on or in a food)—including glyphosate, the most used agricultural pesticide," the GAO memo explains.

"Also, FDA does not use statistically valid methods consistent with OMB [Office of Management and Budget] standards to collect national information on the incidence and level of pesticide residues."

After 40 years of negligence, FDA to adopt glyphosate testing protocol – but what about the USDA?

The unrelenting pressure of its gross negligence being publicly exposed for the umpteenth time has finally prompted the FDA to take action and start testing for glyphosate. The agency is planning to install the appropriate testing equipment at six of its laboratories to the tune of $5 million, and new "streamlined methods" of detecting the weedkiller in food products are soon to be in use.

"The agency is now considering assignments for Fiscal Year 2016 to measure glyphosate in soybeans, corn, milk, and eggs, among other potential foods," FDA spokeswoman Lauren Sucher told Civil Eats about the new protocol.

"Soybeans and corn are common ingredients in an array of food products and genetically engineered (or GMO) varieties are commonly sprayed with glyphosate."

But the USDA has yet to take the glyphosate situation seriously. This agency is responsible for testing pesticide and herbicide levels in meat, poultry and processed egg products, while the FDA is tasked with evaluating fruits, vegetables and other foods. Unless the USDA adopts a similar testing program for glyphosate, roughly half of the food supply is still at risk.

"That's an excellent first step ... but it should be part of the pesticide data program (at the USDA)," says Michael Hansen, senior staff scientist at Consumers Union. "The United Kingdom has been doing this for years. Given the vast expansion in use we should be seeing more exposure. They should have been doing it a lot earlier."

The use of glyphosate on food crops worldwide has increased exponentially since the herbicide was first introduced. U.S. farmers used about 12.5 million pounds in 1995, but that number skyrocketed 2,000 percent in 2014, to 250 million pounds. Similar increases were seen around the world, with global glyphosate use jumping from 112.6 million pounds in 1995, to an astounding 1.65 billion pounds in 2014.

"Test the animal fat and dairy," wrote one Civil Eats commenter. "The fat molecule is double bonded carbon. It picks up organo phosphates and halogens from pesticides like a magnet. This molecule in animal fat goes right to your endocrine system, hence the people over 45 years old who waddle instead of walk and resemble penguins ... (these people) are victims of pesticide laden animal fat ingestion."

Sources for this article include:

CivilEats.com

GAO.gov

Science.NaturalNews.com

TruthWiki.org