Levels of Allowed Glyphosate Residues in Food Increase

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has raised the permitted tolerance levels of glyphosate residue in many fruits and vegetables. The new regulation raises limits on levels of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, in oilseed crops, which include sesame, flax, and soybean, sweet potatoes, carrots, and several other agricultural products, including animal feed, root crops and fruit trees. Many are worried that a rise in tolerance levels will allow farmers to spray food with more chemicals, increasing health and environmental risks. This is especially worrisome, because even the EPA’s own technical factsheet on glyphosate states that chronic long-term exposure can cause kidney damage and reproductive effects.