It seems Monsanto’s toxic chemical glyphosate has now found its way into wine. It isn’t surprising, however, seeing as how grapes are pesticide and herbicide-laden.
Glyphosate has been showing up in foods both directly sprayed, and even foods that haven’t been sprayed, such as organic produce. It is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, and has been used since 1974.
Recent research has suggested that glyphosate will “likely remain the most widely applied [herbicide] worldwide for years to come, and interest will grow in quantifying ecological and human health impacts.” The study showed that in 2014, farmers sprayed enough glyphosate to apply 0.8 pounds of the chemical to every acre of cultivated cropland in the U.S.
100 Percent of Wine Tested Contained Glyphosate
A supporter of Moms Across America went ahead and sent 10 different wine samples, from large and small vineyards, to Microbe Infotech Lab of St. Louis. What they found was shocking. The active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller, glyphosate, tested positive in both conventional, and organic wines (although organic wines had significantly lower levels).
The test results showed that all 10 samples tested positive for glyphosate. The highest level detected was 18.74 parts per billion (ppb), which was found in a 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon from a conventional vineyard. This is 28 times higher than all other samples tested.
The lowest level detected was 0.659 ppb, which was found in a 2013 Syrah, a biodynamic organic vineyard, which, according to the owner, has never been sprayed.
All wines were from the North Coast region of California, the premium wine growing region of California and includes wines from Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties. The wines were sent in Sept of 2015 and February of 2016 in two separate groups.
The wine brands tested included:
– Gallo
– Beringer
– Mondavi
– Barefoot
– Sutter Home
So essentially, stay away from all wines made from California vineyards if not organic.
New Study Reveals Similar Results
This isn’t the only study that has revealed toxic weedkiller in alcoholic beverages. A new study released in March of 2019 confirmed that beer and wine are not safe from the cancer-causing weedkiller.
To explore how much Roundup the average person drinks, the U.S. PIRG tested 15 beers and 5 wines for glyphosate, the weedkiller’s active ingredient. Of the 20 samples tested, all but ONE contained glyphosate, and 3 out of 4 organic beers and wines contained glyphosate.
Brands with the highest concentration of glyphosate were as follows:
Wine
1. Sutter Home Merlot: 51.4 ppb
2. Beringer Founders Estates Moscato: 42.6 ppb
3. Barefoot Cabernet Sauvignon: 36.3 ppb
Beer
1. Tsingtao Beer: 49.7 ppb
2. Coors Light: 31.1 ppb
3. Miller Lite: 29.8 ppb
4. Budweiser: 27 ppb
5. Corona Extra: 25.1 ppb
6. Heineken: 20.9 ppb
7. Guinness Draught: 20.3 ppb
Other brands also came up positive for glyphosate, but at lower levels.
Health Concerns Over Glyphosate
Exposure to glyphosate at doses nearing the 0.100 ppb mark completely destroy beneficial gut bacteria, and exposures higher than that can cause breast cancer, destroy nerve cells, and damage the kidneys and liver. It can also cause miscarriages, as it destroys the placenta in pregnant and fertile women.
Since 1974, America has used over 1.8 million tons of glyphosate, with over 9.4 million tons having been sprayed on crops worldwide.
The World Health Organization finally declared that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans” in their International Agency for Research on Cancer in March 2015. That isn’t to say that Monsanto necessarily agrees, however, as they have been actively trying to fight this claim since then.
A simple Google Scholar search on glyphosate reveals its effects on health:
– stimulates the growth of human breast cancer cells
– chronic inflammation
– leaky gut
– endocrine-disrupting effects
– cell death
– neurotoxic to brain cells
– reproductive problems
– oxidative damage
– modifies sex hormone balance
– birth defects
– wipes out beneficial gut bacteria
How Does Glyphosate End Up In Wine?
As we all know, wine is made from grapes, and these grape plants are sprayed by Roundup. Roundup is used on every crop grown conventionally around the world. Contaminated soil can also retain these chemicals for over 20 years thereafter.
Back to the grape plants. Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) enters the plant through its roots. It is then taken up into the plant and quite literally embedded in the DNA and cell-fluid of the grape. Sounds tasty, right?
Vineyards aren’t the only crop susceptible to Roundup spray.
An EPA memo from October 2015 revealed a variety of popular food crops sprayed with Roundup. Even more shocking, is that when you compare this list, to the previous data from 2011, it shows that glyphosate use for popular food crops has continued to grow at an alarming rate.
Things like almonds, corn, grapes, oranges, sorghum, soy, sugar beets, sunflowers and wheat recieve well over one million pounds of glyphosate annually.
Cotton, another highly-sprayed crop, also receives around 18,400,000 pounds of glyphosate annually. So it’s not just in the foods or drinks you consume, but also on the clothes you wear.
Not Just Glyphosate?
Glyphosate is dangerous, but it is also important to be aware of other co-formulants present in glyphosate-based herbicides, which have been shown to be hormones disruptors and are 1000x more toxic than glyphosate alone.
According to a study by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health:
Up to now, the endocrine-disrupting effects of pesticides have been studied mostly based on tests on their declared active ingredient. Here we report for the first time that, below their toxicity thresholds, the co-formulants, generally classified as inerts and kept confidential, act as endocrine-disrupting chemicals at levels up to several hundred times below the level at which the declared active ingredient demonstrates the same activity. Glyphosate is never used alone, but always with its co-formulants. Thus the physiological effects of co-formulants should be more thoroughly tested and declared. We also recommend that the calculation of the ADI for pesticides should be based on toxicity tests of the commercial formulations rather than solely the declared active ingredient.”
It is important to understand that glyphosate is toxic, no matter what the companies (who directly support or work for Monsanto) have to say. It kills the crops it’s sprayed on, and so crops are genetically engineered to be able to survive exposure to the chemical. We should NOT be eating these crops!
Not Just Wine!
Other alcoholic drinks, like beer, have also been found to contain the nasty chemical glyphosate. A report from Germany showed that 14 beers tested positive for glyphosate.
Glyphosate is also found in pretty much all conventional foods grown worldwide, so if you’re not too keen on drinking conventional wine or beer, you might also consider switching eating habits from conventionally grown food items to organic, local or home-grown.
Devin says
Carly, why not include relevant info about how much glyphosate has been determined to be an acceptable daily intake?
“To evaluate risk the amount of residue detected has to be compared with the acceptable daily intake (ADI) as determined by regulatory agencies around the world. The ADI is based on animal studies, human epidemiological evidence and knowledge of how glyphosate is metabolized. As a general rule, a hundred fold safety factor is built into the ADI based on the maximum amount that causes no observed adverse effect in animals. The consensus is that an ADI of around 0.5 mg intake per kg body weight is supported by the available data. In other words, a 70 kg person can take in 35 mg glyphosate a day without the chemical causing any problem. In the wines tested, the maximum amount detected was 18 ppb, or 0.018 mg per Liter. This means that to approach the ADI someone would have to consume 35/0.018 or 1944 Liters! Furthermore, the 18 ppb was found in only one sample, all the others had at least 28 times less glyphosate. Of course, there are arguments that the ADI is not a reliable benchmark for risk because it does not emerge from studies on humans who have been exposed to known amounts of glyphosate for decades. The fact is that such studies cannot be carried out ethically or logistically. Indeed the ADI is a guess, but an educated one. Even if it were off by a factor of a thousand, which is most unlikely, it would still mean that one could consume 1.9 Liters of that single sample of wine with the 18 ppb residue every day without a worry. And let’s keep in mind that alcohol is a known carcinogen, so it is actually of greater concern than the trace residues of glyphosate in wine.”
In summary, based on science’s best guess, you would need to drink 1,944 liters of wine a day to reach the acceptable daily intake.”
So unless your readers are drinking more than about 2,000 liters per day of the sample tested at 18 PPB they are safe. And they would need to drink more than 56,000 liters of the other samples to reach the ADI.
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/you-asked/should-we-worry-about-glyphosate-residues-wine?fbclid=IwAR3lfceWMiS2Dc1JQ0nfdgeLVILn0GBPI-_70sy4oN2rGg2i2P_XPBhCa9U
Carly Fraser says
If you’re new to my blog, please read my other articles about glyphosate. This article is a bit older, so I didn’t touch much on that aspect (perhaps I should update), but everyone will have their point of view on what the “safe limit” is. Personally, I believe NO limit is safe, regardless of what the FDA says (the FDA also said DDT was safe at one point – case in point, it’s no longer safe or legal). Glyphosate is largely protected by Monsanto, with countless of studies funded by them and other buddies of theirs to prove their product is safe (when it is indeed not). When a herbicide is labelled as a probable carcinogen by the WHO, I don’t believe ANY level is safe. Again, this is just my opinion.
Devin says
The study you cite tested 10 samples in California. There are over 3,000 wineries in the state. While the title you chose for this article is technically correct, 100% of the wines tested contained glyphosate, it is misleading in that less than .2% of all wineries were tested.
Also if you are so concerned about carcinogens, why not include the fact that 3.5% of all cancer deaths are attributed to alcohol?
This is weak journalism at best.
Carly Fraser says
Hey Devin – because the title of the article is referencing the study, it is accurate. 100% of California wines tested. Meaning, all the wine samples they tested (from California) turned up positive. Glyphosate is a much worse carcinogen than alcohol, and not just that. It targets your nervous system, and also targets the gut (leading to weakened immune systems and worse nutrient absorption from foods).
M. Patrick Oleson says
I appreciate the article, but would like to know which wineries to avoid
Carly Fraser says
I mention them in the article! Under “wine brands tested.” They didn’t disclose all brands, though.
W. Hood says
I think anyone who wants people to believe that there are minimum acceptable levels of toxic chemicals (applied to any type of agriculture) inferring or outright saying is ok to be ingested on a daily basis must be “trolling”, works for, or is a lobbyist of sorts for these corporations.
Carly Fraser says
Yes. There are no acceptable limits of glyphosate.
Michael Kreimer says
And I totally agree wit your opinion. 0 ppm is that only acceptable level. Monsanto and Con-Agra are poisoning and putting toxic chemicals into everything we eat, with the help of the FDA and USDA. This has to stop. Many European and Asian countries have outlawed Genetically Modified Foods. Almost all Commercially grown food lacks the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that the human body needs due to the soils being depleted and sprayed with toxic pesticides etc. This has got to stop.
Cee Cee Anzaldi says
No level of glyphosate is acceptable as far as I’m concerned.
Joe says
Devin you’re arguing for the sake of arguing!
Aka a troll. If you think these levels of a known carcinogenic are ok to consumer then I say “Cheers to you! “. Drink up!
Christianna says
I just want to say that i appreciate your work on educating the public on the dangers of what Monsanto is doing to our food! It is so important to let people know. High five! Please don’t give up the good fight. May you be divinely protected and blessed beyond belief.
Carly Fraser says
Thanks Christianna! 🙂
trevor astley says
The article is inferring that the Vines are sprayed with Round Up – only GM crops can be sprayed – Round Up is a broad spectrum herbicide which will kill or make the plant sprayed very sick.
In grapes it would be the root zones sprayed to kill competing weeds.
Using Round Up in this situation is risky – if you get drift onto the vine or run off which can be taken up by the roots – you’ll kill the plants you are making a living from.
There are many specific herbicides more suitable than Round Up for this task.
Also consider the Fungicides and pesticides being used – which are usually sprayed to the point of Run Off – so you have them going into the soil as well.
Carly Fraser says
Unfortunately, this is not true. 1,500,000 pounds of glyphosate is sprayed on grapes every year (and likely increasing). Taken directly from the EPA website: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-pJR4cGo9ckb3k4UDczbVdiT1E/view.
Susan says
Thanks for the info
Sean says
10!!! I repeat ONLY 10 samples were tested out of millions of bottles of wines produced in California
Carly Fraser says
This is true – I wonder what the results would be if they were all tested…considering grapes are highly sprayed with glyphosate (over 1,500,000 pounds a year: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-pJR4cGo9ckb3k4UDczbVdiT1E/view).