Roundup applied to wheat before harvest?

[tomsalwasser]

This is the second time I've heard this in a week. I would like to hear from someone who farms for a living. Is this true?

http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/ ... ot-gluten/

[dusty]

I no longer have anyone to contact that might be able to verify this practice BUT having lived in an agricultural community, I do not doubt it. Maximizing production yield maximizes MONEY in the bank.

Fear Not Though. The US Governments' Food and Drug Administration is on duty and will protect us from these potentially harmful practices.

[tomsalwasser]

I hear you dusty. I'm not a sprouts and twigs eating kinda guy but this might have me buying the organic bread from the hippie dippie food co-op uptown.

[dusty]

I hear you dusty. I'm not a sprouts and twigs eating kinda guy but this might have me buying the organic bread from the hippie dippie food co-op uptown.

Tom, please forgive the sarcasm. I was not attempting to minimize the seriousness of your issue. I am certain that there are problems like this throughout the food industry. Farming is no longer a family affair like it was when I lived in wheat country. Farming has become a big business. The number of bushels per acre has always effected the take home but today the industry strives to maximize that take home "at all cost".

When I discussed this with my wife, who grew up on a wheat producing farm in North Dakota, she immediately responded with comments about DDT. The use of DDT is now controlled, if not prohibited, but her grand father absolutely refused to use it on his fields. He belonged to a Coop that joined together in an effort against DDT.

I am not trying to say that what is happening now is as serious as was the use of DDT but it might well be a health hazard.

No, the folks in Washington can not be relied upon to protect us from issues like this. Money speaks much too loudly.

Do price the bread in that hippie dippie outlet. I happened into a Whole Foods outlet a few weeks ago and ended up with a shopping cart that was a couple time more expensive than I had anticipated. I do not shop price tags. If I see something I want, it goes in the cart. Now I know better than to do that at Whole Foods. I gotta stick with Safeway or Fry's.

[tomsalwasser]

Enjoy your wit Dusty, no offense taken. I wholeheartedly agree!

I have purchased the organic bread from the co-op at double the price of the supermarket bread and it was delicious. I just hope it's as pure as the driven snow as they would have you believe.

I have relatives in Canada and they can't even buy roundup. They live in an affluent suburb where everyone has paver driveways. Those cracks between the pavers can get weedy over the years. Here we would just spray some roundup. Those folks either pull the weeds, live with them or re-pave. Many actually re-pave.

[joedw00]

I was raised on a farm and never heard of this.Check this out http://www.snopes.com/food/tainted/roundupwheat.asp

[tomsalwasser]

THANK YOU JOE! I was hoping to find more info on this and the snopes link really sheds some light.

[Ed in Tampa]

I don't know about wheat but I do know the sell seed known as roundup ready. Soybean is one, what this means is you can plant the field with roundup ready seed. And when soy and weeds emerge you can spray the field with roundup and kill only the weeds. The soy plants aren't effected by the roundup.

Now there is problem, some of the weeds are becomming roundup tolerant. I have seen fields of crops over ran by roundup resistant weeds.

[nhelsinger]

Hello Everyone,

Hopefully I can help shed some light on this concern. It is true that weeds definitely develop a tolerance to any kind of weed treatment such as round up. With roundup being one of the industries oldest weed killers that work in correspondence to genetically modified organisms (The corn and the beans planted in the field). With it being one of the oldest, weeds have have the longest amount of time to adapt and evolve a resistance.

The key to control the resistance to to continually change the Mode of Action in which you kill the weeds. This can be done with a pre-emergance herbicide or different kind of post emergence herbicides that effect different part of the weeds resulting in death. The key is keeping the weeds and their surviving offspring "guessing" at what will kill them. They are constantly developing new seeds that can tolerate several different kinds of chemicals while still being fatal to the weeds.

Education is the most important part for the farmer and the consumer (you). The farmer needs to make sure they timely apply their chemical to when the weed kill will be most effective, along with ensuring chemical rates are used at recommended rate. In the past farmers would cut the rates to save some money resulting in resistance built up. I think most farmers understand this issue now and no longer use this practice.

Agriculture is a forever evolving practice and science is a huge part of it. I think about how Agriculture has changed in my for 26 years on earth, and I can't imagine what it has in store for us in the future, but I believe the changes will be exponential.

Nathan

[drl]

My brother is an organic farmer about 50 west of Minneapolis. I sent him the link and if he had heard anything about this procedure. Unfortunately it is true and a number of farmers are using it. I then asked him if the manufacturer endorsed the use of their product in this way. He responded:

I cut and pasted this right off the Roundup label. Looks like they
didn't have a problem with it used in that way.

Preharvest (Feed Barley and Wheat only)
USE INSTRUCTIONS: This product provides weed control when applied
prior to harvest of wheat or feed barley. For wheat, apply after the hard-dough stage of grain (30 percent or less grain moisture). For feed barley, apply after the hard-dough stage and when the grain contains 20 percent moisture or less. Stubble may be grazed immediately after harvest.

Regards,
Dwight