If tomorrow morning you’re planning on starting your day with some oatmeal or a bowl of Cheerios, maybe rethink things. In a report released Wednesday by the advocacy non-profit Environmental Working Group, 31 of 45 samples of breakfast foods made from herbicide-sprayed oat fields had elevated levels of glyphosate (often called “the Roundup chemical”) in them. That includes General Mills favorites like Cheerios and Quaker Oats.
On July 7th, 2017, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment in California added glyphosate to its list of known chemicals to cause cancer — so this stuff is serious. However, the EPA contends that glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans, and Monsanto, makers of the herbicide Roundup for which glyphosate is a key ingredient, claim that glyphosate isn’t a risk to humans, wildlife, or the environment. This comes days after Monsanto was ordered to pay $289 million in damages to a groundskeeper after they were found liable for causing him cancer with their weedkiller Roundup, according to the New York Times. Monsanto never warned the defendant of the possible cancer risks of handling their chemicals. Still, there is much debate on whether glyphosate is actually dangerous, with some findings suggesting that it is only harmful to humans in high doses.
If you like living on the wild side don’t throw out your Quaker Oats just yet, a spokesperson for General Mills in a statement to Fox Business said, “Our products are safe and without questions, they meet regulatory safety levels.” So if you have full confidence in the EPA go ahead and Cheerios it up, but we’ll be cool over here with a nice Monsanto grown grapefruit for breakfast.
