Roundup is not intentionally sprayed on bees. But when bees visit plants that have been sprayed with glyphosate, they carry it back to their hives and spread it to workers who make contaminated honey.
In January, the FDA collected about 10 samples of honey from grocery stores in Florida, Ohio, and Louisiana. All of them tested positive for glyphosate, even those marketed as “100% pure, 100% all-natural” or “organic mountain honey.”
One sample had twice the legal limit of 50 parts per billion (ppb) set in the European Union. The chemist also said he had trouble finding an uncontaminated sample of honey to use as a control.
Test results were published by U.S. Right to Know, a consumer advocacy group that filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FDA, EPA, and USDA.
There is no legal limit of glyphosate in food from the United States. Any amount in honey is technically illegal, but the FDA said residues are “not a safety threat” because the EPA believes glyphosate is “almost non-toxic” to humans and animals.
Not everyone agrees. A dramatic decline in honeybee populations over the last 15 years has coincided with significant increases in the use of glyphosate in agriculture.
Last year, the World Health Organization’s cancer-research agency classified glyphosate as a “probable human carcinogen,” citing several studies linking it to non-Hodgkin lymphoma among farmworkers in the U.S., Canada, and Sweden.
Yet it was not until February of this year that the FDA said it would start testing foods for glyphosate, and only after being criticized for inaction by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Independent researchers have found glyphosate residues in organic eggs, oatmeal, bagels, potatoes, and non-GMO coffee creamer. It was also found in British bread, German beer, and organic panty liners sold in France.
The use of glyphosate on farmland skyrocketed in the mid-1990s with the advent of “Roundup Ready” crops that were genetically engineered to resist the weed-killer. Today, it is sprayed on most acres of corn, soybeans, cotton, and alfalfa grown in the U.S.
Source: Huffington Post
Ooops the “linked to cancer” meme just evaporated with the EPA announcement that glyphosate is “not likely a carcinogen”. Time to find a new boogieman.