Glyphosate is the best-selling herbicide on the planet. There are dozens of manufacturers around the world and it is sold under many names. The most popular is Roundup.
It is so popular and so widely used that it exists in or on most of our food products, in the bodies of almost all the animals on earth (including us), in much of our surface water on the planet. It is now being found in rainwater and in the air. It is also found in: honey, marine life, cereals like oats and Cheerios, crackers like Cheez-Its, Ritz, Goldfish, Oreos, Lay’s, Doritos, Nature Valley products, KIND, orange juices like Tropicana, Minute Maid, Signature Farms, Kirkland, just to name a few. It also has been found in Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, in non-organic cotton products like tampons, and in the air. It is now being found in human urine.
For more information about the extensive use of glyphosate and its potential health hazards, see this NBC News research article published in 2022.
But for home gardeners, glyphosate poses significant damage to soil and to the future growth of plants, particularly food plants.
Glyphosate chelates (attaches itself to) major and minor nutrients and prevents plants and microbes from taking them up. These include phosphorus and potassium, two of the major plant nutrients. It also ties up iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, copper, and other nutrients. This in turn slows or stops any microbial activity in the soil.
Glyphosate also increases the growth of soil diseases. According to Dr. Don Huber,Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology at Purdue University, glyphosate stimulates over 40 plant pathogens.
Additional side effects of glyphosate on soil
- The decline of microbes in the soil causes soil structure to decline.
- Destruction of soil structure causes less air and water to penetrate into the soil.
- It kills the bacteria that control human pathogens in the soil (like salmonella).
- Plant growth hormones die off.
- The destruction spreads to areas that have not received glyphosate, causing the same problems in neighboring vegetation and soil.
Because of the soil degradation and the extinction of microbes in the soil, glyphosate causes serious plant problems. They include:
- Leaf chlorosis.
- Slow growth and stunted plants.
- Dead spots on plant leaves.
- Wrinkling of leaves and other plant distortions.
- Abortion of bud and fruit.
- Lower yields.
- More likely to succumb to infectious diseases.
- Insect damage.
- More susceptible to drought and sun scald.
- Stunted roots.
- Bark cracking.
Fish and wildlife
Glyphosate is highly toxic to fish, birds, and other wildlife. It can kill beneficial insects and soil organisms that maintain the ecological balance in the garden. It’s also suspected of causing genetic damage. It can stay in the soil for over a year.
France, Netherlands, Belgium, Vietnam, Denmark, all the major cities in Spain, Luxemburg, Sri Lanka, and Portugal have either banned it completely, or placed it under strict controls. ‘Even Germany, the home of Bayer, the largest manufacturer of glyphosate since buying out Monsanto, has forbidden it from being used publicly.
A statement from the Health Freedom Alliance estimates that one billion pounds of glyphosate is sprayed on our food crops yearly, and this is only in the United States.
There is also significant evidence now that glyphosate is present in rainwater, in our rivers and streams, and in the bodies of almost every animal on the planet, including that most highly regarded mammal – Homo sapiens.
For more information on glyphosate, please see: