Can You Eat Vegetables Sprayed With Roundup?
Roundup is a popular weed-killer used in agriculture and household gardening. It contains the active ingredient glyphosate, a non-selective herbicide that kills plants and weeds.
Large quantities of Roundup are applied to commercial crops. Therefore, the question arises: can you eat vegetables sprayed with Roundup?
What is Roundup?
Roundup is a broad-spectrum herbicide used to control a variety of living organisms, including plants and weeds. It is marketed by the US agro-giant Monsanto, and contains the active ingredient glyphosate. This non-selective herbicide kills most plants and weeds by inhibiting the famous “EPSPS” enzyme.
Glyphosate is absorbed through foliage and translocated to the roots, causing death.
Safety Concerns
Glyphosate has become one of the most widely used herbicides in the world. Commercial agriculture makes use of it on genetically modified crops, which have been engineered to resist the herbicide.
The World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans”, which has raised safety concerns about the herbicide.
Despite findings by governmental agencies (including the EPA) that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a significant risk of cancer, the jury is still out on the safety of glyphosate-based herbicides.
The Bottom Line
So, can you eat vegetables sprayed with Roundup? We can’t give a definitive answer, as the safety of consuming glyphosate is still being studied and debated.
However, there are some basic guidelines you can follow to reduce your risk of glyphosate exposure:
- Buy organic produce whenever possible.
- Wash your produce carefully before consuming.
- Grow your own vegetables, if possible.
By following these tips, you can limit your exposure to Roundup, as well as other potentially harmful chemicals.
