Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, is the most used agricultural chemical in history.

In 2014, farmers sprayed enough glyphosate to apply 0.8 pounds of the chemical to every acre of cultivated cropland in the U.S. and nearly 0.5 a pound of glyphosate to all cropland worldwide.¹

Yet, mysteriously, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Residue Program, which is tasked with monitoring pesticide residues in the U.S. food supply, does not test for glyphosate residues.

As more health risks emerge — in March 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) determined glyphosate is a “probable carcinogen” — more people are starting to wonder just how much glyphosate is in our food.

The signs so far are not reassuring. Glyphosate has been detected in blood, breastmilk and urine samples.

Further, U.S. women had maximum glyphosate levels that were more than eight times higher than levels found in urine of Europeans, according to laboratory testing commissioned by the organizations Moms Across America and Sustainable Pulse.²

The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) recently conducted its own research to determine if glyphosate is found in commonly consumed breakfast foods and their tests revealed the worst — that “our food system has been saturated with glyphosate, reaching even into some organic products.”³

Glyphosate Found in Common Breakfast Foods

Ten out of 24 breakfast foods tested in ANH’s analysis had detectable levels of glyphosate. This included oatmeal, bagels, coffee creamer, organic bread and even organic, cage-free, antibiotic-free eggs.

The majority of the glyphosate was found at levels below the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed allowable daily intake (ADI), but this is a dubious measure of safety. As ANH noted, the EPA’s ADI for glyphosate is nearly six times higher than the EU’s and fails to take into account:

•    Recent evidence of carcinogenicity
•    Toxicity of adjuvants in glyphosate formulations
•    The very wide distribution of glyphosate in food and water

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in February 2016 that it would begin testing foods, such as corn and soybeans, for glyphosate, which may help to quantify just how much glyphosate Americans are consuming.

But keep in mind that current allowable limits may be set far too high to protect your health, so unless that’s revised as well, you may be lulled into a false sense of security if the tests come back “within allowable limits.”