A new report conducted by Environmental Working Group found, on average, lower levels of the pesticide glyphosate in cereal and other oat-based products lining the shelves of grocery stores. The American non profit organization has been working to end the pre-harvest use of glyphosate on oats.
While the pesticide is still being detected in some brands of cereals and oat-based products, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) believes this is the “result of pressure on farmers by grain traders to grow their crops without glyphosate, including other pesticides of concern.”
“There has been a major shift in the right direction by some of the largest agricultural companies in Canada when it comes to pre-harvest spraying of glyphosate [‘desiccation’],” Henry Rowlands, director of The Detox Project, said. “The shift started with Richardson International, Canada’s largest agribusiness, refusing to accept oat crops that had been desiccated in 2021. This decision has now started to spread industry wide.”
EWG tested 24 samples of 14 non-organic oat-based products from popular brands, like Quaker and General Mills and glyphosate was detected on all non-organic, or conventional, samples, but the average amounts were much lower than the tests conducted in 2018 and 2019.
The report said the lower levels of glyphosate in oats bought in the U.S. are because of enforced farmer abstinence in Canada. Supply farmers for Canada-based leading agricultural processing and distribution company, Adroit, are being asked to sign the Declaration of eligibility for delivery of grain, which promises not to use certain agrochemicals including glyphosate.
“However, we are still seeing high levels of glyphosate in oat crops from the northern states of the US, where the major agricultural companies have not made the same positive moves,” Rowlands said. “It is also true that many other types of crops from wheat to potatoes seem to have similar or higher levels of glyphosate than they did five years ago, due to similar off-label pre-harvest spraying practices.”
According to research, glyphosate-based herbicides have been linked to cancer, reproductive harm and other health threats.
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