Reader's View: Beware of the poisons in our food system

Very few people are aware of the potential risks to human health associated with our food system.
Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, the most frequently used agricultural weed killer in the world, was determined in 2015 by the World Health Organization to probably be carcinogenic to humans.
Scientists don’t use humans to test the safety of chemicals. They use laboratory animals as test subjects. Laboratory test animals fed Roundup developed cancers. This led scientists to believe humans who eat food containing Roundup also will develop cancers.
Farmers and homeowners use Roundup to kill weeds. Grain farmers also spray Roundup on their cereal grain crops, like wheat and oats, as a desiccant, or drying agent. Roundup is sprayed on grain fields to kill the plants. When the plant dies, the seeds, or grain, also dry out and die. The desiccated grain looks like ripened, dried grain, but it contains glyphosate-filled Roundup, the poison used to kill it.
At the grocery store, Roundup may be present in most of the foods not labeled organic. That includes all of the bakery products, such as flour, bread, cereals and pastries, and all animal products, such as meat, dairy and eggs from animals fed grains sprayed with Roundup. Only foods labeled with the green and white USDA Organic seal are not contaminated with chemical weed killers, chemical fertilizers, chemical insect killers, steroids, antibiotics or GMOs. Any food product not labeled USDA Organic probably contains one or more chemical poisons.
Jim Postance
Meadowlands