Attention everyone, we’ve got some good news to share: all Hirsch Organic supplements are now certifiably free from glyphosate.
While our products were already free from glyphosate, their glyphosate-free status is now official. Keep reading to learn why this is such a big deal — and how it all fits into our mission to provide all-natural, fully transparent products to our customers.
- Glyphosate contamination: a hidden epidemic?
- Is glyphosate toxic to cattle?
- Is glyphosate toxic to humans?
- Why we test our products for glyphosate
- Hirsch Organic: 100% glyphosate-free
Glyphosate contamination: a hidden epidemic?
Do you eat non-organic foods? Do you drink public water? Do you breathe air in agricultural areas?
If you answered yes to any of the above, you probably have glyphosate in your body. Studies show that glyphosate is in everything from oats to breakfast cereals to drinking water. A February 2022 report from The Detox Project explains that glyphosate use has caused a “mass contamination” of “essential foods.” Studies show that any given individual’s exposure to glyphosate has increased by over 500% in the past ~25 years. [1]
Why’s all this such a big deal?, you might be wondering. What is glyphosate, even?
Good questions. Glyphosate is a pesticide — the most popular pesticide in the world. Its efficacy and versatility mean it’s used by as much as 25% of the UK’s farmers. Normally glyphosate comes in the form of Monsanto’s Roundup. Roundup is often used in conjunction with GMO seeds that have been modified to be glyphosate-resistant.
As if this weren’t bad enough, glyphosate itself has a whole slew of side effects. It’s bad for humans, cattle, and the environment. More on these side effects next.
Is glyphosate toxic to cattle?
At first glyphosate’s makers claimed it was completely safe for living creatures (with the exception of weeds and other plants, of course).
Unfortunately, that couldn’t be much further from the truth. A recent study from the Journal of Environmental & Analytical Toxicology found that all 30 of its dairy cows had some amount of Roundup in their systems. Unsurprisingly, each and every cow showed signs of organ damage and mineral depletion. Study authors rightly concluded that Roundup is toxic to dairy cows. [2]
This study also highlighted several related problems. The very same Roundup these dairy cows were ingesting via sprayed crops was also making its way into the soil, binding to critical minerals and harming soil microbiota in the process. In other words, the food many conventionally-raised cows are eating isn’t just laced with toxins — it’s also sorely lacking in nutrients. And it’s all because of Monsanto’s reckless marketing of Roundup and other harmful pesticides.
Both alternative and mainstream health professionals are starting to recognise glyphosate’s danger to animals. “[…] Grass-fed is better for a variety of reasons, the simplest of which being that a grass-fed animal is not going to be fed grains at the end of its life. The grains would likely have glyphosate, et cetera, et cetera,” Dr. Paul Saladino explains on a podcast with 180 Nutrition. [3]
In other bad news, glyphosate is just part of the problem with how non-organic cows are treated. But that’s beyond the scope of this article. Let’s move along and see how glyphosate might also be harmful to humans.
Is glyphosate toxic to humans?
In simple terms…yes. Glyphosate appears to be capable of damaging human health in an almost impressive amount of ways.
One of the most fundamental ways glyphosate works is by swapping itself out for normal metabolic intermediates.
The very same metabolic disruption that allows glyphosate to kill unwanted plants allows it to skew your gut bacteria. Many of these vital gut bacteria use the same shikimate amino acid pathway that plants do! Considering how important gut health is to overall health, that’s not good. [4]
Some experts, like MIT research scientist Stephanie Seneff, say that glyphosate’s ability to damage and disrupt goes even further. Seneff and her colleagues claim glyphosate may:
- Interfere with liver enzyme function (notably CP450 enzymes)
- Chelate important minerals like iron, cobalt, and manganese
- Interfering with glycine synthesis and placement
- Interfering with methionine synthesis
- Interfering with sulfate synthesis
By these mechanisms, Seneff theorises, chronic glyphosate consumption may lead to a wide variety of diseases:
- COPD
- Asthma
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Glaucoma
- Hypertension
- Hypothyroidism
- Pulmonary edema
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Adrenal insufficiency
- Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Making matters worse, glyphosate’s water-solubility allows it to wind up in places you might not expect. It can seep through surface layers of soil, down into the water table, and out into drinking water supplies. Even crops that don’t get sprayed with glyphosate may wind up containing trace amounts of it eventually.
After years of obfuscation and cover-ups, mainstream sources are finally catching on to glyphosate’s dangers. This can be reflected in Monsanto’s recent legal troubles, as Dr. Saladino explains in the same podcast we mentioned above:
“In the US there have been a number of large cases recently awarding people money on the premise that glyphosate is carcinogenic, and so I think that as we move on in time, we’re gonna see more and more that glyphosate is a very harmful compound for humans […] one of the greatest injustices that has been done the human population over the last 20-30 years is the introduction of this compound by Monsanto […].”
Why we test our products for glyphosate
At Hirsch Organic we believe that food is most nutritious when it’s been least altered. In 2018 our founder Kristina realised that the foods our ancestors ate were a far better fit for human health than the industrialised frankenfoods so popular today. It’s obvious enough that glyphosate falls into the ‘frankenfood’ category.
Eating foods sprayed with glyphosate — or by extension, animals eating foods sprayed with glyphosate — simply isn’t optimal. It’s a compromise we’re not willing to make.
It’s for these reasons that we’ve gone the extra mile to ensure our products are glyphosate free.
Hirsch Organic: 100% glyphosate-free
It’s true: Hirsch Organics is now certified Glyphosate Residue Free by The Detox Project.
This organisation has some of the industry’s most stringent standards when it comes to acceptable glyphosate levels. Before they certified us, they tested our products in an ISO 17025 accredited lab to ensure the products’ glyphosate levels. Another aspect of the Glyphosate Residue Free Certification is a requirement to conduct ongoing lab testing throughout the year.
All in all glyphosate avoidance is just part of the puzzle that is ancestral health. Thanks to this new glyphosate-free certification, though, it’s a puzzle piece that our customers can confidently claim!
