By Jayme Lozano
Food manufacturer Kellogg’s made a commitment to stop using wheat and oat products with glyphosate by 2025, though some in the Texas wheat industry are ensuring its safety.
Glyphosate is an herbicide used to control unwanted plants and is used by farmers as a drying agent, according to Kellogg’s. Glyphosate is also the active ingredient in Roundup, the most used herbicide in the U.S. and made by Bayer-Monsanto.
“Although this practice is not widespread in our wheat and oat supply chains, we are working with our suppliers to phase out using glyphosate as pre-harvest drying agent in our wheat and oat supply chain in our major markets, including the US, by the end of 2025,” the company said in a statement.
The statement also said the practice is done only in certain circumstances, such as needing to harvest quickly because of weather challenges.
Texas A&M AgriLife states the safety regulations that have been put in place when it comes to glyphosate causing cancer – particularly how regulatory agencies such as the World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the Environmental Protection Agency all released assessments in 2018 concluding that it was unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans.
“Once the EPA determines the No Observabale Effect level on the most sensitive test subjects, they will reduce that by ten fold to account for that species,” explained Scott Nolte, assistant professor and state extension weed specialist for Texas A&M AgriLife. “Then they reduce that dose by another ten fold to account for the most sensitive humans.”
That dose is what is used to determine the acceptable daily intake. When it comes to RoundUp, Nolte said someone can consume 1.75 milligrams of glyphosate per kilogram of their body weight every day for the rest of their lives and not have damaging levels of impacts.
Darby Campsey, director of communications and producer relations for Texas Wheat, said Texas wheat farmers follow the science that shows glyphosate is non-toxic.
“As both stewards of the land and consumers, farmers make decisions on their operations that allow them to produce the highest quality crop in the world that will become the foods they buy at the grocery store,” said Campsey. “We support access to safe, effective tools for preventing crop loss and will continue to provide producers with education to ensure proper use.”
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