We are highly risk exposed to the world’s most widely used pesticide, glyphosate. We as a regulatory entity, an industry and a technology, fail to track glyphosate’s modalities, vectors and its actual EPA Part 180 Maximum Tolerance Limit compliance inside our food supply. This is called malfeasance in the business world, and bonus sive malum inside ethical skepticism. Otherwise known as criminal ignorance and pseudoscience.
Certainly yes, I am a skeptic. One of the first rules of ethical skepticism, after the tenets concerning conducting your own investigation and holding open an ‘allow-for’ disposition regarding multiple strong explanatory approaches, is to be skeptical of your own thoughts, and indeed, work. So yes, I am skeptical of the data I have produced below. But as an ethical skeptic I also have a problem in that I have never seen this data published, despite the critical importance of this issue inside social discourse on the rapid decline in American health and skyrocketing rates of auto-immune, allergy and microbiome related disorders since 1995. So I went and pulled the official sources and did the analysis myself. As a note, this is the reality I face in 90% of the instances regarding tough social issues inside which we find so many social skeptic ‘experts’ and so little actual data/research.
I would also not be maintaining integrity inside my own philosophical base, were I to not raise the warning flag of concern about what I see inside my data regarding glyphosate regulation and monitoring practices and risk vector pathways within the American food supply chain (see my chart below).
Raising a warning flag of plurality is an ethical skeptical action. It does not stand as a claim to final proof, neither is it an accusation of conspiracy, nor is it tantamount to credulousness/bias – nor any other of the red herring and strawman objection protocols employed by fake skeptics. It is simply a call for research, under the context of risk based necessity.
Now set aside the fact that the very foods in vector exposure V below are the very same ones which make me break out, gain weight, get painful intestinal disorders and become very sick. Set all that aside for whatever reason you choose: apophenia, placebo (just mistaking that I get sick), a priori confirmation bias, etc. I assure you that these are not contributors to my observation base in the least. But some of you use these things as methodical cynicism defense mechanisms, so I recognize that and allow for it. Be that as it may, yes let’s set this personal observation aside – and simply address the risk vector pathways incumbent inside the current practices involving application, regulation, tracking, and most importantly – weighted risk exposure, regarding glyphosate employment inside the United States food supply.
Set aside as well, the fact that the top two contribution vectors, Aspirated/Whole Grains and Corn Sweeteners, are the top two soaring allergy/sensitivity growth food commodities since 1995. Don’t let correlation move you to causality, we wouldn’t want that at all. Better to just ignore it instead. ‘Cuz that is being skeptical after all.
Below I have assembled a chart which is drawn from the following three resources on pesticide use, EPA Part 180 MTL tolerances and corresponding food consumption rates by commodity in the United States. I extracted the data on glyphosate and glyphosate bearing foods – and compared that to the rates of US consumption in pounds per capita, in the chart below. This took a good 8 hours of data assimilation and sorting in order to derive a picture which is not available to the American Public.
- US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Pesticide Programs Index to Pesticide Chemical Names, Part 180 Tolerance Information, and Food and Feed Commodities (by Commodity) December 12, 2012¹
- United States Department of Agriculture: Profiling Food Consumption in America, Chapter 2²
- Food and Drug Administration: Pesticide Residues and Industrial Chemicals 2004 – 2005 sorted by Pesticide/Chemical³
Several alarms were raised inside this analysis. Not conclusions mind you – as I am always skeptical of my own work – rather, flags. Flags which not only indicate practice exposures inside the regulation, administration and monitoring of glyphosate in the US, but as well correlate highly with specific foods which are showing to produce health problems in the United States since glyphosate’s introduction to the food supply chain in starting in 1995. So without further ado, let’s outline these exposure pathways which emerge from the analysis in the chart below.
Vectors and Modalities for Glyphosate Entry and Risk Exposure in American Diets ¹ ² ³
I. 
Actual Pesticide Contents Are Not Measured nor MTL Tracked for Any Food
First, the most widely employed pesticide inside the American food supply is neither tracked for actual level compliance to EPA Part 180 MTL’s for ANY food at all, nor in many cases is even specified for Maximum Tolerance Limits on several critical foods which employ large scale use of glyphosate.¹ ³
II. Cheese, Butter & Dairy Contents are Highly Exposed and Neither Regulated nor MTL Tracked
Both the content of glyphosate inside these critical caloric contributors, as well as the fodder and feed contribution (100 – 400 ppm) to such foods is neither monitored for actual EPA Part 180 MTL compliance nor even specified for a Maximum Tolerance Limit.¹ ³
III. Dried Beans Contents are Highly Exposed and Neither Regulated nor MTL Tracked
Both the content of glyphosate inside these critical caloric contributors is neither monitored for actual EPA Part 180 MTL compliance nor even specified for a Maximum Tolerance Limit.¹ ³
IV. Animal Fats are Highly Exposed and Neither Regulated nor MTL Tracked
Both the content of glyphosate inside these critical caloric contributors, as well as the fodder and feed contribution (100 – 400 ppm) to such foods is neither monitored for actual EPA Part 180 MTL compliance nor even specified for a Maximum Tolerance Limit.¹ ³
V. High Risk/Content Exposed/Desiccated Foods Are Not MTL Tracked
The content of glyphosate inside these critical caloric contributors is not monitored for compliance to EPA Part 180 MTL’s at all.³
Set aside the increase in use (potentially attributable to desiccation practices – which has been recently claimed and disputed by several resources). No monitoring has been conducted to observe the prevalence, nor ppm impact of modalities and practices of any kind, including use of the Monsanto desiccation instruction. This is a risk exposure and a warning flag. You cannot make the claim that there is no problem, and attack people who bring up the issue, even if you are Snopes, if you have not conducted any actual research.†
Aspirated Grain Fractions and Whole Grains
Refined Wheat, Barley & Oats
High Fructose Corn Syrup and Other Sweeteners
Safflower, Sunflower, Cottonseed, Canola, Soybean Oils
Soy Products
Cattle, Poultry & Pork Meat Products (including fats, oils & milk derivatives)
Corn/Corn Feed Sourced Products
VI. Feed and Forage Content Contribution is Neither Regulated nor Tracked
Both the content measures for glyphosate inside these critical caloric contributors to our meat supply (feed contribution 100 – 400 ppm) are neither monitored for actual EPA Part 180 MTL compliance nor are they even specified for a Maximum Tolerance Limit by modality contribution to our food.¹ ³
The bio-accumulation, given glyphosate’s persistence in soft tissue, is not modality measured and EPA Part 180 MTL tracked for bio-accumulation sensitive food derivatives such as Cheese, Cream, Butter, Milk, Dairy, Shortening and Animal Fat derivative products.
The Compiled Data From the Three Resources
List is complied from resource 1, matched to commodity measures from resource 2 (consumption lbs per capita indexed against MTL ppm ratios). Then sorted, highest to lowest in terms of contribution to overall amount in weight of glyphosate consumed (theoretical) in the per capita diet. !!! indicators show where risk exposure exists but is not Part 180 defined. Yellow commodity highlights indicate non-animal derived foods, while beige highlights indicate animal derived foods. Green highlights indicate animal feed and fodder commodities. Direct unknown risks rank first, quantified MTL risks second by theoretical per capita quantity of glyphosate exposure (lbs), while indirect (feed and fodder) risk ranks last in priority flagging. Resource 3 shows that none of these food commodity types are tracked for actual parts per million Part 180 MTL compliance and impact on the American diet.¹ ² ³ And here is why we need to be concerned about this:
Abstract (Glyphosate pathways to modern diseases V: Amino acid analogue of glycine in diverse proteins Article (PDF Available)
Glyphosate, a synthetic amino acid and analogue of glycine, is the most widely used biocide on the planet. Its presence in food for human consumption and animal feed is ubiquitous. Epidemiological studies have revealed a strong correlation between the increasing incidence in the United States of a large number of chronic diseases and the increased use of glyphosate herbicide on corn, soy and wheat crops. Glyphosate, acting as a glycine analogue, may be mistakenly incorporated into peptides during protein synthesis. A deep search of the research literature has revealed a number of protein classes that depend on conserved glycine residues for proper function. Glycine, the smallest amino acid, has unique properties that support flexibility and the ability to anchor to the plasma membrane or the cytoskeleton. Glyphosate substitution for conserved glycines can easily explain a link with diabetes, obesity, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary edema, adrenal insufficiency, hypothyroidism, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, prion diseases, lupus, mitochondrial disease, non- Hodgkin’s lymphoma, neural tube defects, infertility, hypertension, glaucoma, osteoporosis, fatty liver disease and kidney failure. The correlation data together with the direct biological evidence make a compelling case for glyphosate action as a glycine analogue to account for much of glyphosate’s toxicity. Glufosinate, an analogue of glutamate, likely exhibits an analogous toxicity mechanism. There is an urgent need to find an effective and economical way to grow crops without the use of glyphosate and glufosinate as herbicides.
epoché vanguards gnosis
¹ (EPA 180 MLI) US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Pesticide Programs Index to Pesticide Chemical Names, Part 180 Tolerance Information, and Food and Feed Commodities (by Commodity) December 12, 2012; https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-01/documents/tolerances-commodity.pdf
² (USDA Chap 2) United States Department of Agriculture: Profiling Food Consumption in America, Chapter 2: http://www.usda.gov/factbook/chapter2.pdf
³ (FDA Pest/Chem) Food and Drug Administration: Pesticide Residues and Industrial Chemicals 2004 – 2005 sorted by Pesticide/Chemical (PDF, 95KB) http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/FoodScienceResearch/TotalDietStudy/UCM291686.pdf
† Snopes: “Grain of Truth? Are U.S. farmers saturating wheat crops with Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide as a desiccant to facilitate a quicker harvest?”; http://www.snopes.com/food/tainted/roundupwheat.asp.
‡ Glyphosate pathways to modern diseases V: Amino acid analogue of glycine in diverse proteins Article (PDF Available)https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305318376_Glyphosate_pathways_to_modern_diseases_V_Amino_acid_analogue_of_glycine_in_diverse_proteins