Green Light to Monsanto: U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Suspends Testing Foods for Glyphosate Residues
The FDA, the nation’s chief food safety regulator, launched what it calls a “special assignment” earlier this year to analyze certain foods for residues of the weed killer after the agency was criticized by the U.S. Government Accountability Office for failing to include glyphosate in annual testing programs that look for many less-used pesticides. Glyphosate is the most widely usedherbicide in the world and is the key ingredient in Monsanto’s flagship Roundup.
Getting
solid data on glyphosate’s presence in the American food supply is more
important than ever as the EPA finalizes a risk assessment for
glyphosate and tries to determine
if any limits should be put on the future use of the herbicide.
Glyphosate is under particular scrutiny after the World Health
Organization’s cancer experts declared last year that the chemical is a probable human carcinogen.
Several private groups and nonprofits have been doing their own testing
and have been finding glyphosate residues in varying levels in a range
of foods, raising consumer concerns about the pesticide’s presence the
American diet.if any limits should be put on the future use of the herbicide.
Glyphosate in Monsanto’s Roundup Is Linked to Cancer, But Big Ag Wants it in Your Food Anyway http://t.co/zvYbhPrHNQ @pesticideaction— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) 17 September 2015
FDA spokeswoman Megan McSeveney confirmed the testing suspension and said the agency is not sure when it will resume.
“As testing for glyphosate will expand to several locations, we are currently working to ensure that the methods are validated for use in these labs. As soon as the validation is completed, testing for glyphosate will resume,” she said. “We cannot speculate on timing at this point.”
Alongside the testing for glyphosate, the FDA laboratories have also been analyzing foods for 2,4-D residues and other “acid herbicides,” according to documents obtained from the FDA. The FDA’s Office of Compliance explained that the need to start such testing was partly related to the cancer concerns about glyphosate and expectations for a sharp rise in the use of 2,4-D.
The FDA work detail calls for the examination of roughly 1,340 food samples, 82 percent domestic and 18 percent imported. The foods are to be collected from warehouse and retail stores only and are to include a variety of cereal grains, vegetables and non-flavored, whole milk and eggs. Documents obtained from the agency through the Freedom of Information Act show the agency has been testing corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, sugar beets, rice and even samples of yellow popcorn and “organic white popcorn.”
McSeveney said glyphosate residues were only being analyzed for soy, corn, milk, eggs and popcorn, while the other foods are being tested for residues of other herbicides.
Earlier this year, one of the agency’s senior chemists analyzed glyphosate residues in honey and oatmeal and reported his results to the agency. Some honey samples contained residue levels well over the limit allowed in the European Union. The U.S. has no legal tolerance for glyphosate in honey, though the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said recently it may set one because of the FDA findings. However, according to McSeveney, the results for honey and oatmeal are not considered to be a part of the official assignment.
#Glyphosate Found in Iowa #Honey https://t.co/p1PP3rweGI @USRightToKnow @careygillam @OrganicConsumer @bpncamp @nongmoreport @NonGMOProject— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) 2 November 2016
Monsanto said earlier this year that no data has ever indicated residue levels of more than a fraction of allowable levels and it is confident FDA testing will reaffirm the safety of its herbicide.
Though FDA annually tests domestic and imported foods for residues of other pesticides, it never tested for glyphosate before. It has not routinely tested for 2,4-D either, a fact also criticized by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Unlike glyphosate, however, there has been some monitoring of 2,4-D residues in selected food items in the past. That monitoring showed only very low levels of 2,4-D—less than 5 parts per billion in ready-to-eat foods, according to the FDA.
The FDA testing for 2,4-D residues comes as the use of 2,4-D with food crops is expected to start increasing due to the commercialization of new formulated herbicide products that combine glyphosate with 2.4-D. These new herbicide products are designed to be used on new herbicide-tolerant crops. Safety questions have been raised about the combination. But the EPA just gave a green light Nov. 1 to a Dow AgroSciences’ herbicide combination of glyphosate and 2,4-D. The new products are intended to counter widespread weed resistance to glyphosate.
.@EPA Approval of Monsanto’s Dicamba Will ‘Massively Increase Use of Toxic Pesticides’ on GMO Crops https://t.co/AfYsMUFOyH @CenterForBioDiv— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) 10 November 2016
Getting solid data on glyphosate’s presence in the American food supply is more important than ever as the EPA finalizes a risk assessment for glyphosate and tries to determine if any limits should be put on the future use of the herbicide. The FDA work covers only a few foods, but is a long-needed, good first step. Consumers can only hope the testing resumes soon.
The original source of this article is EcoWatch
Copyright © Carey Gillam, EcoWatch, 2016
Comment on Global Research Articles on our Facebook page
Become a Member of Global Research
No comments:
Post a Comment