The stories became far too frequent to ignore. Emails from folks with allergic or digestive issues to wheat in the United States experienced no symptoms whatsoever when they tried eating pasta on vacation in Italy.
Confused parents wondering why wheat consumption sometimes triggered autoimmune reactions in their children but not at other times.
In my own home, I’ve long pondered why my husband can eat the wheat I prepare at home, but he experiences negative digestive effects eating even a single roll in a restaurant.
There is clearly something going on with wheat that is not well known by the general public. It goes far and beyond organic versus nonorganic, gluten or hybridization because even conventional wheat triggers no symptoms for some who eat wheat in other parts of the world.
What indeed is going on with wheat?
For quite some time, I secretly harbored the notion that wheat in the United States must, in fact, be genetically modified. GMO wheat secretly invading the North American food supply seemed the only thing that made sense and could account for the varied experiences I was hearing about.
I reasoned that it couldn’t be the gluten or wheat hybridization. Gluten and wheat hybrids have been consumed for thousands of years. It just didn’t make sense that this could be the reason for so many people suddenly having problems with wheat and gluten in general in the past 5-10 years.
Finally, the answer came over dinner a couple of months ago with a friend who was well versed in the wheat production process. I started researching the issue for myself, and was, quite frankly, horrified at what I discovered.
The good news is that the reason wheat has become so toxic in the United States is not that it is secretly GMO as I had feared (thank goodness!).
The bad news is that the problem lies with the manner in which wheat is grown and harvested by conventional wheat farmers.
You’re going to want to sit down for this one. I’ve had some folks burst into tears in horror when I passed along this information before.
Common wheat harvest protocol in the United States is to drench the wheat fields with Roundup several days before the combine harvesters work through the fields as the practice allows for an earlier, easier and bigger harvest.
Pre-harvest application of the herbicide Roundup or other herbicides containing the deadly active ingredient glyphosate to wheat and barley as a desiccant was suggested as early as 1980. It has since become routine over the past 15 years and is used as a drying agent 7-10 days before harvest within the conventional farming community.
According to Dr. Stephanie Seneff of MIT who has studied the issue in-depth and who I recently saw present on the subject at a nutritional conference in Indianapolis, desiccating non-organic wheat crops with glyphosate just before harvest came into vogue late in the 1990s with the result that most of the non-organic wheat in the United States is now contaminated with it. Seneff explains that when you expose wheat to a toxic chemical like glyphosate, it actually releases more seeds resulting in a slightly greater yield: “It ‘goes to seed’ as it dies. At its last gasp, it releases the seed” says Dr. Seneff.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, as of 2012, 99% of durum wheat, 97% of spring wheat, and 61% of winter wheat have been treated with herbicides. This is an increase from 88% for durum wheat, 91% for spring wheat and 47% for winter wheat since 1998. Note that bulgur is commonly made from durum.
Here’s what wheat farmer Keith Lewis has to say about the practice:
I have been a wheat farmer for 50 yrs and one wheat production practice that is very common is applying the herbicide Roundup (glyposate) just prior to harvest. Roundup is licensed for preharvest weed control. Monsanto, the manufacturer of Roundup claims that application to plants at over 30% kernel moisture result in roundup uptake by the plant into the kernels. Farmers like this practice because Roundup kills the wheat plant allowing an earlier harvest.
A wheat field often ripens unevenly, thus applying Roundup preharvest evens up the greener parts of the field with the more mature. The result is on the less mature areas Roundup is translocated into the kernels and eventually harvested as such.
This practice is not licensed. Farmers mistakenly call it “desiccation.” Consumers eating products made from wheat flour are undoubtedly consuming minute amounts of Roundup. An interesting aside, malt barley which is made into beer is not acceptable in the marketplace if it has been sprayed with preharvest Roundup. Lentils and peas are not accepted in the market place if it was sprayed with preharvest roundup….. but wheat is ok.. This farming practice greatly concerns me and it should further concern consumers of wheat products.
Here’s what wheat farmer Seth Woodland of Woodland and Wheat in Idaho had to say about the practice of using herbicides for wheat dry down:
That practice is bad . I have fellow farmers around me that do it and it is sad. Lucky for you not all of us farm that way. Being the farmer and also the president of a business, we are proud to say that we do not use round up on our wheat ever!
This practice is not just widespread in the United States either. The Food Standards Agency in the United Kingdom reports that the use of Roundup as a wheat desiccant results in glyphosate residues regularly showing up in bread samples. Other European countries are waking up to the danger, however. In the Netherlands, the use of Roundup is completely banned with France likely soon to follow.
Using Roundup on wheat crops throughout the entire growing season and even as a desiccant just prior to harvest may save the farmer money and increase profits, but it is devastating to the health of the consumer who ultimately consumes the glyphosate residue laden wheat kernels.
The chart below of skyrocketing applications of glyphosate to US wheat crops since 1990 and the incidence of celiac disease is from a December 2013 study published in the Journal Interdisciplinary Toxicology examining glyphosate pathways to autoimmune disease. Remember that wheat is not currently GMO or “Roundup Ready” meaning it is not resistant to its withering effects like GMO corn or GMO soy, so the application of glyphosate to wheat would actually kill it.
While the herbicide industry maintains that glyphosate is minimally toxic to humans, research published in the Journal Entropy strongly argues otherwise by shedding light on exactly how glyphosate disrupts mammalian physiology.
Authored by Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff of MIT, the paper investigates glyphosate’s inhibition of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes, an overlooked component of lethal toxicity to mammals.
The currently accepted view is that ghyphosate is not harmful to humans or any mammals. This flawed view is so pervasive in the conventional farming community that Roundup salesmen have been known to foolishly drink it during presentations!
However, just because Roundup doesn’t kill you immediately doesn’t make it nontoxic. In fact, the active ingredient in Roundup lethally disrupts the all important shikimate pathway found in beneficial gut microbes which is responsible for the synthesis of critical amino acids.
Friendly gut bacteria, also called probiotics, play a critical role in human health. Gut bacteria aid digestion, prevent permeability of the gastrointestinal tract (which discourages the development of autoimmune disease), synthesize vitamins and provide the foundation for robust immunity. In essence:
Roundup significantly disrupts the functioning of beneficial bacteria in the gut and contributes to permeability of the intestinal wall and consequent expression of autoimmune disease symptoms.
In synergy with disruption of the biosynthesis of important amino acids via the shikimate pathway, glyphosate inhibits the cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes produced by the gut microbiome. CYP enzymes are critical to human biology because they detoxify the multitude of foreign chemical compounds, xenobiotics, that we are exposed to in our modern environment today.
As a result, humans exposed to glyphosate through the use of Roundup in their community or through the ingestion of its residues on industrialized food products become even more vulnerable to the damaging effects of other chemicals and environmental toxins they encounter!
What’s worse is that the negative impact of glyphosate exposure is slow and insidious over months and years as inflammation gradually gains a foothold in the cellular systems of the body.
The consequences of this systemic inflammation are most of the diseases and conditions associated with the Western lifestyle:
- Gastrointestinal disorders
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Heart Disease
- Depression
- Autism
- Infertility
- Cancer
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Alzheimer’s disease
- And the list goes on and on and on …
In a nutshell, Dr. Seneff’s study of Roundup’s ghastly glyphosate, which much of the wheat crop in the United States is doused with annually, uncovers the manner in which this lethal toxin harms the human body by decimating beneficial gut microbes with the tragic end result of disease, degeneration, and widespread suffering.
Got the picture yet?
Even if you think you have no trouble digesting wheat, it is still very wise to avoid conventional wheat as much as possible in your diet!
You Must Avoid Toxic Wheat No Matter What
The bottom line is that avoidance of conventional wheat in the United States is absolutely imperative even if you don’t currently have a gluten allergy or wheat sensitivity. This includes bypassing food products made with it such as the popular meat substitute seitan also called vital wheat gluten. The increase in the amount of glyphosate applied to wheat closely correlates with the rise of celiac disease and gluten intolerance. Dr. Seneff points out that the increases in these diseases are not just genetic in nature, but also have an environmental cause as not all patient symptoms are alleviated by eliminating gluten from the diet.
The effects of deadly glyphosate on your biology are so insidious that lack of symptoms today means literally nothing.
If you don’t have problems with wheat now, you will in the future if you keep eating conventionally produced, toxic wheat!
How to Eat Wheat Safely
Obviously, if you’ve already developed a sensitivity or allergy to wheat, you must avoid it. Period.
But, if you aren’t celiac or gluten sensitive and would like to consume this ancestral food safely, you can do what we do in our home. We source organic, naturally low in gluten, unhybridized Einkorn wheat for breadmaking, pancakes, cookies, etc. Please note that einkorn is not to be confused with the more general term farro, which includes emmer and spelt, which are both hybridized. You can learn more about the scientific research on the “good” gluten in einkorn in this article.
When we eat out or are purchasing food from the store, conventional wheat products are rejected without exception. This despite the fact that we have no gluten allergies whatsoever in our home – yet.
I am firmly convinced that if we did nothing, our entire family at some point would develop sensitivity to wheat or autoimmune disease in some form due to the toxic manner in which it is processed and the glyphosate residues that are contained in conventional wheat products.
What Are You Going to Do About Toxic Wheat?
How did you react to the news that US wheat farmers are using Roundup, not just to kill weeds, but to dry out the wheat plants to allow for an earlier, easier and bigger harvest and that such a practice causes absorption of toxic glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup and other herbicides, right into the wheat kernels themselves?
Did you feel outraged and violated as I did? How will you implement a conventional wheat-avoidance strategy going forward even if you haven’t yet developed a problem with gluten or wheat sensitivity?
What about other crops where Roundup is used as a pre-harvest desiccant such as barley, sugar cane, rice, seeds, dried beans and peas, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, and sugar beets? Will you only be buying these crops in organic form from now on to avoid this modern, man-made scourge?
UPDATE: The Soil Association in July 2015 called for an immediate ban on the use of glyphosate for wheat ripening and desiccation purposes. The nonprofit reports that glyphosate residues are widely found in nonorganic wheat samples and the use of the herbicide on wheat crops has increased 400% in the past two decades.
Dr. Robin Mesnage of the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics at Kings College in London, revealed new data analysis showing Roundup, the most common brand of Glyphosate based herbicides, is 1,000 times more toxic than genotoxic glyphosate alone due to the inclusion of other toxic chemicals in its mix.
Peter Melchett, Soil Association policy director said; “If Glyphosate ends up in bread it’s impossible for people to avoid it unless they are eating organic. On the other hand, farmers could easily choose not to use Glyphosate as a spray on wheat crops – just before they are harvested. This is why the Soil Association is calling for the immediate ending of the use of Glyphosate sprays on wheat destined for use in bread.”
References
Glyphosate now commonly found in human urine
Study: Glyphosate, Celiac and Gluten Intolerance
The Glyphosate, Celiac Disease Connection
Pre-harvest Application of Glyphosate to Wheat
Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases
Yield and quality of wheat seeds as a function of desiccation stages and herbicides
Wheat farmer weighs in on the use of Roundup as a wheat desiccant
More Information
Roundup: Quick Death for Weeds, Slow and Painful Death for You
Hybrid Wheat is Not the Same as GMO Wheat
The Dutch Ban Roundup, France and Brazil to Follow
How to Mix and Use Gluten Free Flour
Can Celiacs Eat Sourdough Bread?
The Dirty Little Secret About Gluten-Free
This has been going on for many years, not only with wheat but others crops as well, especially potatoes. The thing to watch for now in the “new wonders” department are systemic herbicides and pesticides. This stuff you can’t wash off. It enters every cell of the plant.This is mind blowing stuff!!! Also, keep in mind that this is just at harvest. Chemicals are used in filed preparation, growing, as well as storage and transportation. Thanks for a great article…makes me love my garden more.
My husband is a second generation farmer in Canada and we have never heard of anyone spraying Round Up on wheat.
I find this “he said, she said” going on between farmers in the comments section interesting. Some say it is widespread, others deny it ever happens at all. Who’s lying? The glyphosate in the wheat crop tells the truth.
The use of glyphosate for the purpose of dry down is regional. It depends on climate, growing conditions of that season, variety of wheat, the crop itself, and so many other factors. You can’t assume because a few farmers say ‘we do’ that the rest are lying!? Where is the data that permits a blanket statement like this?
Yes, its use varies from season to season as you can see from the chart in the article.
These are exaggerated lies. Roundup must be sprayed then left for a minimum of 10-14 days before harvest. The number of seeds (or grain kernels) are developed 6 weeks before harvest when the plant is plenty green. Spraying grain when it is 98% complete and thinking it will change something that was formed at 15% is just sad. 3 generations of farming and only once had to spray. Spray does nothing for an increase to the grain, the weeds that are green when the wheat is yellow (dead) and ready for harvest is why you spray. To kill the weeds so you can harvest.
The reason why Glyphos (roundup) is so popular is that it leaves no residual behind and dissipates quickly. If it ever touches the ground it is useless. Take a pail of roundup and stir in a teaspoon of soil and voila….. you now have a pail of completely useless chemical that will do nothing.
Glyphosate dissipates quickly? Are you serious? This stuff hangs around for YEARS. A friend of mine with Hashimoto’s recently had her thryoid nodules tested and they tested positive for glyphosate residue. Your definition of “dissipate” must mean into the human body.
I have had hashimotos since 2003 and eat more than a little wheat as I am certainly a carboholic. Never have I tested positive for glyphosate from any samples they have taken…
Roundup does degrade quickly. I had drift from a neighbor who sprayed on a windy day get my fruit trees. I called officials to get that careless sprayer in trouble. One problem, by the time the official got here all evidence of the Roundup was gone, so we could not prove that their Roundup had drifted and there went my claim. I was told if I would have picked some leaves right after the spray drift, the chemical could have been found on the leaves in a lab and I would have had a case. IT DOES NOT STAY AROUND FOR YEARS FOLKS. Anyway, all the branches on the wind side of the trees died that season and I now have two very one sided trees but cannot prove it was Roundup damage although it was–so I will know what I need to do if it happens again. Also, if you spray Roundup on a patch of grass or weeds, you will have new weeds within a week if there is enough moisture for germination. I have done it! Roundup is gone as soon as it hits the dirt–cannot explain why though. Anyway, lets not let our prejudices lead to the spread of false information. As for all this gluten free business, I know of several who all of a sudden have become “allergic to gluten” but they do not have celiac and the only times they show gluten sensitivity is when they know they have eaten gluten. When they do not know they consumed it, they are fine. Most of the people eating gluten free have never had a symptom, but have just decided gluten free is “healthy.” To be gluten free is a fad right now–this too will pass!! That being said, I prefer to not have pesticides sprayed on my food sources. Do pesticides cause lots of harm?? I have not seen it proven, so cannot make any kind of claims but that is not to say that there might be some harm that we are not even aware of, so why take the chance. I cannot afford organic foods but try to raise all I can of what we eat and then I know how it was raised.
It is Monsanto mindsets like this that “roundup degrades quickly” that is killing our children. Wake up!
Trent,
Spray a little round up on the leaf of a plant, and in a couple of days you will see the leaves turn brown, then the plant dies.
As Roudup goes through the leaves to the Roots of the plant, Trees, it Dies etc…
If it does that to one leaf, it goes through the human body like that also, and will kills us.
Roundup does NOT Dissipate..
You need to Wake UP.
Where did you get your information from?
I’m thinking your from Monsanto, Dow, or Dupont?
As someone who has been raised on a grain farm, and as a molecular scientist I have a few things to say on the subject.
1.) GMOs are not this scary technology that everyone hypes it up to be. Humans have been altering the genetics of domestic grains for THOUSANDS of years through selective breeding and hybridization. The process has just become more selective and faster through gene isolation and incorporation. Similar process are used to mass produce insulin for diabetics. The chemicals used are highly controlled and carefully removed. North America is squandering the GMO efforts when GMO is the solution to feed the rapidly expanding world population. You want to reduce the effect of farming and herbicides on the environment? Then GMOs are the way to go.
2.) I agree that more research must be done on the effects of human consumption of Roundup. But this argument is severely lacking in evidence based support and the authors are making ridiculous logical leaps. Roundup may very well have a negative effect by increasing allergies/autoimmune disease in predisposed individuals. However this attempt to explain it scientifically and the bit about gut bacteria and ‘intestine permeability’ is complete shit.
PLEASE PLEASE people. If you are writing an opinion article, or even in the process of forming an opinion, educate yourself on the subject, and support your claims. There are some links here but they only reference similar opinion articles. Even the article about gut microbes is a review paper by an ‘independent scientist’ who does no original research of his own on the subject.
Next time you write an article, please refer to peer reviewed journals for ALL facts that support your claim. Otherwise you are just spinning sensationalist bullshit.
Hybridization and genetic modification are very different puppies. Genetic modification combines genes from completely different species such as a tomato and a fish and only happens in the lab. This is not something that happens in nature. And it’s rather deceptive to suggest that it the same as what farmers have been doing for thousands of years. That is just BS. Also the time we have been using GMO’s is only a relatively short time in the history of humanity. We don’t know what havoc they could cause to the environment let alone to the health and reproductive ability of future generations. They are not developed to feed the world. They are developed to make profits. We throw food away, we currently have plenty to feed the world. There is no will by the agricultural industry to feed the world. The only drive is to make profit and hoodwink people that they’re doing it for altruistic reasons. Let’s see some labeling then if GMO’s are so wonderful.
Denise I am in no way trying to elicit a negative reaction from you but I think you need to read the poster’s comment one more time. She never said genetic modification was an ancient process. Hybridization yes, but not GM.
I’m curious how using GMOs reduces the effects of farming and herbicides on the environment. Please explain
Wow.. check the MIT paper ya dummy. Under the link in references titled: Glyphosate, Celiac and Gluten Intolerance. PLEASE PLEASE, person. If you really wanna save the farm ditch the roundup.
Maybe you should drink a nice tall glass of Round Up and call Big Pharma in the morning. they are waiting for your call. As for me, along with a growing number of people, I will side with the healing power of Mother Nature.
Well seeing as we are throwing around qualifications. I’m also a farmer and I have a PhD in agricultural science 🙂 Now that’s out the way.
About 20 years ago, I was involved in a government study into risks of GM crops. At the time, I concluded that the biggest risk was the sheer amount of hype. The absurd claims being made about what the technology could do, and the continuing decline in crop diversity. Back then nitrogen fixing cereals were “just around the corner”, as they had been in the 1970’s and still are if you believe the hype. So when I recently read:
http://civileats.com/2014/10/10/plant-breeding-vs-gmos-conventional-methods-lead-the-way-in-responding-to-climate-change/
I felt a little bit vindicated. Although after I met Dr. Arpad Pusztai and heard his story (which was very different from the one reported in most of the press), I think I probably underestimated the direct dangers of the technology as well as the power and malevolent influence of corporations like Monsanto
The processes which built up food plant and animal diversity over the last 10,000 years could be best described as “Human influenced evolution”. Some crops like oats and rye (and quite possibly wheat too) evolved from weeds growing in amongst other cereals. They had already evolved considerably to suit farm environments before humans actually consciously domesticated them. Gooseberries were domesticated by amateur gardeners in the north of England a few centuries ago, and quickly diversified into a wide variety of strains. These kind of processes are totally opposite to the kind of hi tech centralised breeding practised since The 1950’s, which has caused a massive decline in crop plant diversity worldwide, increased losses to pests and disease, and no improvement in yield when the effect of increased fertiliser and mechanisation is taken into account. Both processes are very different from genetic engineering.
GM crops are starting to look like an investment bubble. Huge amounts of money invested, consolidation of seed, chemical and genetics companies and not actually much to show for it. The investors are desperate to recoup the money they have invested and so the technology is being forced on farmers and the public.
There are a lot of small time farmers in the world and a small number of extremely large scale agribusinessmen. So “what most farmers do” may not be the same thing as “what is done to most of the food in the supermarket”.
There are errors in the article above, but the fact is that whatever the exact reason (preharvest spraying, herbicide tolerant weeds etc.), roundup levels in real life, commercially sold GM crops are extremely high. According to http://www.independentsciencenews.org/news/how-extreme-levels-of-roundup-in-food-became-the-industry-norm/ The article emphasises that past GM trials did not realistically represent the actual conditions under which GM crops are likely to be grown. That’s putting it politely. The GM trials I witnessed had GM crops being smothered by weeds while the conventional crops they were compared with were sprayed until no weeds remained. The purpose of this farce was to produce “evidence” that biodiversity would thrive around GM crops and that herbicide use would be reduced by GM crops (presumably the “evidence” that GM crops would feed the world came from different studies). The revolving door and strong connections between Washington and Monsanto makes Monsanto scientists and effectively politicians. The history of dodgy science, such as the greenwashing of roundup makes it very hard to believe much they say.
The issue of GM food covers many areas of science. So yes, I would welcome better science in this debate. I would like developments in evolutionary genetics to be considered in plant breeding, because right now the dominant thinking (symbolised by jargon like “crop improvement” and “genetic progress”) seems to pre date Darwin . The issue of “feeding the world” is a matter of politics and economics as well as agronomy, ecology, geology and many other fields of science. It goes way beyond molecular genetics..
Thanks, Ian! Your comment is one of the few that rang of truth for me. Keep the wheat neat.
Where REAL farmers nudge mother nature in a desired direction, Monsatan gives her a brutal shove out of their twisted way. I’m thinking if the folks in Furgeson just have to riot and burn something down soon, let it be Monsanto HQ. 8)
Selectively breeding a naturally occuring, genetically stable organism, for example wheat, corn, sheep, etc, is a totally different subject to chemically splicing in DNA segments from an unrelated organism. DNA forms a matrix: change one part and you change the whole thing. By splicing (which is inherently inaccurate) you introduce substantial random mutations, which can quickly get out of hand, and which can stay in the organism (and anything that eats it) for millenia, until “evolution” phases it out.
I would suggest that a more effective way of feeding the masses is to waste less food (in the US ordering excess food at a meal so that you can discard it, is a part of your culture), and to stop building cities on the best agricultural land.
Since the discovery of synthetic chemicals in the 1940’s our world has become permenantly poluted by far too many toxic chemical compounds that simply will not break down in any human lifetime (or two, or even more). And just because a chemical won’t kill us immediately, doesn’t mean that it won’t kill us at all. After all, this is a closed system, and any toxins introduced into the system get around, be they chemical or genetic. If you want to ensure the survival of our species (that means YOU dear reader) you will do the best you can to minimise the amount of poison you expose yourself and your fellow closed system earth life forms to.
There is no escape from what we do on this world. Ensure your own survival by ensuring the continuation of systems and life forms that are perpetually stable and sustainable.
I read through the comments yesterday morning, and had to stop and do my own research. I found plenty to help me understand how glyphosate is a major part of causing gluten sensitivities and more.
Then I discovered that if you go to the source and look for the materials on how to apply and use the forms of roundup produced, you get to the core truth of how it is applied on wheat along with other food crops that are not GMO.
I am sure there are wheat farmers in the US that are not applying glyphosate on or during the growth or soil of their wheat in any form. But to deny it is a process not used in the US in agri business? I have not found any truth to those refuting this.
How Glyphosate is promoted for use in the EU
Be sure to check out the last page of this pdf has a graph listing the countries and what glyphosate is allowed to be used for. This also backs up how glyphosate is in the water supply and ends up in urine samples as well as breast milk sampled. AND look at the grape vineyards and olive trees. Across all countries glyphosate applications are allowed.
I haven’t found this for applications in the US. But if this is how glyphosate is used and allowed to be used in the countries of the EU. It is for sure used in similar ways here in the US. INCLUDING how thehealthyhomeeconomist article reported here is oullined. She is not bullshitting anyone, nor creating a scare bait article. This issue is a serious global health issue. And that is unnerving. Since even if you eat a clean diet of locally sourced, whole food grown certified Organic and certified lab tested. Glyphosate gets into our bodies and sticks around.
well, this has been very interesting. I have read all the comments so far…..
as far as I see, no one has yet mentioned that 1) the use of Roundup as a dessicant MIGHT perhaps be an occassional thing, not a standard practice, and MIGHT be the sort of thing nly a corporate farm of, say, over 500,000 acres would do — and only if the weather seems to be about to make harvest iffy, or (more likely IMHO) if the market price is high right now but is expected to drop next week… if they can lock in the higher price for themselves, their profit goes up. an increase of profit by .01% won’t make much difference to a small farm-er but is worth it to a huge farm….
2) also, is it possible the Roundup that is in (either bred into, or sprayed onto) the original SEEDS is still in the seeds that plant produces months later ? I may be misunderstanding how the GMO stuff works though. I recall having read that at the electron-microscpic level, certain Bad Things (fungi?) can be found in corn, and it is thought to be the cause of miscarriages in farm animals in South America & possibly even miscarriages in humans…..
I agree the contamination of the nation’s flour stores is a tragedy. 🙁 I wonder if other nations are/will be rejecting US-grown wheat??? I recall when there was a big “mad cow disease” (bovine encephalopathy?) scare in europe some years ago, they were scrambling to get beef/other meats from sources such as Australia… I thought “why don’t they use American beef?” years later I learned about the hormones & antibiotics routinely fed to/given to our feedlot animals (read the book “Modern meat”) — then I understood. The european markets knew what Americans did not know, about American meat. 🙁
Sadly, it appears this does happen in Canada