When people see unwelcome weeds start to make appearances in their gardens, driveways, and yards, many will make a trip to the local home improvement or big box store to grab a bottle of weed killer. It’s something that, thanks to extraordinary marketing efforts, has been reduced to the seriousness of picking up a gallon of milk.
However, this act comes with a whole host of possible negative consequences and there are some who do everything they can to limit their exposure to these chemicals. Opting instead for natural solutions or the back-breaking task of crawling on their hands and knees to manually remove the invading flora, they have made a conscious decision to avoid bringing a toxic substance into their living space. It may be for their children. It may be for their own health. It may just be that they don’t agree with the use of such substances. But it’s their choice regardless.
What so many fail to realize, however, is that in many cases this choice has already been made for them. OrganicLife has a thought-provoking write-up on the myriad ways that Roundup and its primary ingredient glyphosate have infiltrated our lives whether we want them there or not, and in most cases it starts with the grocery store, not the hardware store.
As the primary herbicide used in most of America’s agricultural establishment, Roundup has become so prevalent that it’s showing up in, and not on, the food we eat. It’s no longer a matter of thoroughly washing your fruits and vegetables before consuming them. The compound is, in many cases, a part of the food itself. These volumes have become so great that glyphosate is now actually showing up in air and rain samples taken from agricultural areas.
All of this wouldn’t be so concerning if glyphosate was a tenth as safe as Roundup’s manufacturer is trying so hard to get you to believe it is. Marketed as a harmless and even biodegradable way of dealing with the invasion of weeds, the truth is vastly more complicated and many Roundup-related lawsuits have been filed as a result.
The World Health Organization, as well as the state of California, have designated glyphosate as a probable carcinogen and determined that the chemical damages human DNA. In many cases, damaged DNA is a trigger for various types of cancers. Many involved in the agriculture industry like farmers, farm workers, and landscapers have developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and believe that it was their repeated exposure to glyphosate and Roundup that led to their illness.
The claims put agriculture and GMO giant – as well as Roundup manufacturer – Monsanto in the middle of yet another controversy about the effect that it and its products are having on our nation’s food supply. The company has come under fire for marketing claims it has made about Roundup as well as its attempts to positively shape scientific conversations and research about its products.
In the meantime, people who have worked incredibly hard to limit their exposure to toxic chemicals in their homes and recreational spaces must now come to grips with the fact that those chemicals have found a way in anyway. In fact, they’re likely in their refrigerators as they read this.
