GMO, Glyphosate Residue in Grass Fed Beef, and You

Glyphosate.

Try this new condiment! Oh wait–you already have.

I was checking into a hotel with Caryl the other night after dropping off our weekly shipment of beef at the UPS warehouse in Idaho Falls. We normally go to Salmon, Idaho, with our beef, but I found some building materials I needed in Idaho Falls for me to pick up the next morning, so we made a night out of it! And meanwhile…the kids were back on the ranch. A honeymoon!

I made my way to the desk where a nice young woman named Brenda helped me out. Trip Advisor gave the hotel 5 stars; quite a surprise for our lower budget and this particular hotel chain.

I soon found out one reason for the high rating. Cheerfully, Brenda not only told me about the wonderful hot breakfast that they offered, but then proceeded to tell me that they just put away their complimentary supper. She said that they would be happy to get it back out for us, even though we were an hour late.

I declined and said: “Thank you. Unfortunately my wife and I are on a special diet, and probably wouldn’t be able to enjoy your offering.”

Brenda: “Are you by any chance gluten-free?”

“My wife and I both are.”

“Why? It seems many folks nowadays are gluten-free. Even many of my friends are going that way.”

“We just felt better on a gluten-free diet, and have been eating this way for almost a decade. In fact, we have refined it further so that now, we pretty much avoid any grains, and just eat fruit, vegetables, and meat.”

Brenda then went on to say that she has been feeling off lately as well, and was hoping that maybe being gluten-free would help her feel better.

FAD OR REAL?

Many folks perceive gluten-free as a fad, or some kind of belief-based diet switch like vegans who stopped eating meat for the philosophical reason of not wanting to eat or be cruel to animals. Is there a belief that makes people gluten-free?

I can only come up with one very important one: they believe they feel better eating gluten-free. That’s why we did it. We felt better. More energy, better sleep, and a sharp reduction in gut pains or dysfunction like bloating or nausea. Fact is, I thought I was dying from Crohn’s or something akin to it before I got off gluten. I had been to lots of doctors, and not a single one of them suggested I try changing my diet.

The other thing that Brenda observed was that this gluten-free concept is a very recent phenomenon. She noted that people started on this gluten-free diet kick no more than 10 years or ago. She wondered why folks got so sensitive to gluten only very recently.

Was it all in their heads?

Pretty unlikely, since as I noted above, people actually perceived that they felt better. I would attest to that! I am feeling like IBS and Crohn’s disease is no longer an imminent danger.

Could it be that our food changed dramatically in this recent time period? Or perhaps what we ingested with our food changed.
I’m not talking about ketchup here.

Some people are starting to connect the dots between our food production methods and the effects of those foods are our health.

IS IT GMOs?

Genetically modified (GM) foods started appearing on American scene around 1994. It took about 10 years for GM crops such as corn to be predominantly GM. In other words, by 2004, the majority of corn and soybeans planted in the US were GM. Now, 10 years later, many more crops have been added to the GM list; most of them are commodity grain crops, but forage crops are affected now as well, as even grass fed beef are eating GMO alfalfa and grain/corn stubble.

This August 2014 issue of Good Housekeeping features an article on GMOs (GMOrganisms), gently advising the reader to consider not purchasing such foods for their families. There was no clear presentation of data about why. Information on government websites is vague and inconclusive. But there is an underlying uneasiness.

So…are GMOs indeed bad to eat? Maybe it is more complicated than that GMOs are bad in and of themselves.

The plot thickens because of the widespread chemical use that accompanies GMO crops. Indeed, to conventional agriculture, glyphosate is today’s knight in shining armor that comes riding on the GMO steed.

Glyphosate, aka Monsanto’s Roundup, happens to be the single most commonly used herbicide (weed killer) in the world today. In as early as 2007, Over 200 million pounds were dispensed in just the US. This number is increasing dramatically due to “Roundup Ready” crops genetically engineered by Monsanto and their affiliates. These crops have been genetically modified to withstand any level of Roundup use. The convenience for a farmer was and is enormous. Now farmers could plant their crops and spray them multiple times with glyphosate and entirely eliminate weed competition, thereby greatly improving crop performance and yields.

Now, many food crops have greatly elevated levels of glyphosate residue because of these multiple applications. To make matters worse, glyphosate is getting cheaper as time goes by, and, and in 2013 the EPA increased allowable glyphosate content in foods by as much as 25 times the concentration previously allowed.

How does this relate to grassfed beef? Most GMOs are grains, and grass fed beef isn’t fed grain, right?  There’s no glyphosate residue in grass fed beef, right?

There are no regulations about glyphosate use in non-organic grass fed beef production. With the approval of Roundup Ready alfalfa in late 2011, one of the main forage species for grassfed production is now GMO. Grass fed beef and dairy producers can spray their new alfalfa stands with Roundup and eliminate weed competition thereby increasing longevity and productivity in their fields. Another source of glyphosate in grass fed beef is common in the Midwest, where beef labeled as grassfed may have grazed on GMO corn stubble and beans in Roundup treated fields.

What this means is that not only may vegetable and grains contain glyphosate, but it can also be found at significant levels in meat (even grass fed) and milk.
It is a perfect storm for the human gut. Here’s why.

It turns out that our life sustaining gut bacteria have the same metabolic pathway that glyphosate disturbs in plants. And gut bacteria doesn’t just mean those bacteria you can buy in Dannon yogurt. There are hundreds of species, and over a hundred million individuals in your gut.

In fact, it is bacteria that do most of the digesting in our guts. They are the pathway by which so many nutrients actually become available to our bodies. We may indeed by starving ourselves from adequate nutrition by ingesting glyphosate. Science is just beginning to uncover the relationship between unhealthy (or absent) gut flora and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and leaky gut.

In addition, the chelating or “caging” effect by which glyphosate works is also believed to keep gluten in a form that is more allergenic which is why some researchers are beginning to connect glyphosate with the dramatic and recent rise in gluten sensitivity.

Several weeks ago, I came across a study that showed over 95% of Americans have glyphosate in their blood. And now with the prevalence of glyphosate dependent GMO commodity crops, the use of the chemical has been multiplied at least 3 times from 15 years ago.

It comes with the food, folks. It’s the new condiment.

Organic regulations do not permit Roundup use, or any GMOs. Growing your own or buying certified organic food is the ONLY way to keep the glyphosate condiment off of your table.

Happy eating!

Read more:

EPA Raises Levels of Glyphosate

GMO Crops