​ The Contamination of Honey

Glyphosate, is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. Glyphosate is the most used agricultural chemical in history. The World health Organization (WHO), which is part of the United Nations, recently classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen.

Americans are largely in the dark about just how much glyphosate residue is found on commonly consumed foods. Glyphosate is a key trigger of leaky gut syndrome, which can cause chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is the hallmark of most, if not all chronic diseases, including diabetes and heart disease. Leaky gut syndrome can also lead to auto immune diseases.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quietly began testing a small number of foods for glyphosate earlier this year. So far the results are not reassuring, including glyphospate in foods widely considered to be pure and natural, such as honey. There is no such thing as "organic honey", since you can't restrict honeybees to only visit organic flowers.

Research by an FDA chemist and a colleague from the University of Iowa, revealed glyphosate residues of 653 parts per billion (ppb) in some honey samples. An amount that’s more than 10 times the European Union limit of 50 ppb.

Other samples contained residues ranging from 20 ppb to 123 ppb. In an internal email obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, another FDA researcher complained that no honey, even “organic mountain honey”, appeared to be free of glyphosate. As reported by The Huffington Post: “It is difficult to find blank honey that does not contain residue. I collect about 10 samples of honey in the market and they all contain glyphosate.”

Glyphosate is virtually everywhere in the U.S. Since 1996, its has risen nearly 15-fold, according to a study published in Environmental Sciences Europe. Since glyphosate was introduced in 1974, 1.8 million tons have been applied to U.S. fields, and two-thirds of that volume have been sprayed in the last 10 years.

Bees, as pollinators, travel from plant to plant. With grasslands being increasingly converted into genetically engineered (GE) corn and soybean fields where glyphosate is sprayed in abundance, it’s unavoidable for the honeybees to become contaminated and then transfer that contamination to their honey.

Beyond honey, glyphosate has also been detected in blood, breast milk and urine samples. It has been identified in common breakfast foods, including oatmeal, bagels, coffee creamer, organic bread and even organic, cage-free, antibiotic-free eggs. Glyphosate residues have even been found in organic wine and beer.

If glyphosate is going to be used to the extent that it is today, what will the future look like?

In my opinion, the only ways to stop this is:

1. Buy only organic, which doesn't use glyphosate and has some, but much less glyphosate.

2. Don't buy or use Roundup at home, which contains glyphosate.

3. Urge Congress to pass legislation, banning glyphosate from use.

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