Glyphosate & Roundup
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Glyphosate and Roundup are back in the news, and for good reason. There are several important – and competing – issues all tangled together, so it’s worth slowing down and looking at what’s actually going on.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warned a couple of years ago that glyphosate is a problem in processed foods because it’s used on wheat as a desiccant shortly before harvest.
In simple terms, spraying glyphosate at the end of the season works like a chemical “off switch” to kill the crop and help it dry down more quickly so it can be harvested on schedule. This practice is called pre‑harvest application. It is used on some wheat acres, especially in cooler or wetter northern climates, but it is not universal on all U.S. wheat.
Why do farmers do this?
In cold or wet years, wheat can stay green and “wet” too long. Killing the plant helps it dry faster so the farmer can harvest before rain, frost, or snow.
Sometimes part of a field is ripe while another part is still green. Spraying helps the entire field reach a similar dryness so the combine doesn’t plug with green stems.
Late‑season green weeds can tangle in machinery and slow everything down. A pre‑harvest spray helps “burn down” those weeds and smooths out harvest.
Farmers wait until the wheat is mature – meaning the grain is fully formed and the moisture in the kernels has dropped to around 30% or less. A common “thumbnail test” is pressing a fingernail into a kernel; if the dent stays, the grain is mature enough for a pre‑harvest treatment.
At that point, a sprayer applies either true desiccants like diquat or systemic herbicides like glyphosate over the field. Contact desiccants kill green growth very quickly and dry the crop in a few days; glyphosate works more slowly and is technically labeled for weed control, but in practice it also helps the crop finish drying and ripening in bad conditions.
Once the plants are brown and brittle and grain moisture is down near storage levels (around 14%), the combine goes in and harvests.
Glyphosate has been around since the mid‑1970s, but its use as a late‑season tool became more common in the late 1980s and 1990s and expanded in the 2000s in places like Canada, the northern U.S., and the U.K., where early cold and wet weather can shut down the season fast.
This raises a real concern about residues: spraying close to harvest can leave more glyphosate on or in the harvested grain than earlier weed‑control sprays.
Some researchers and advocates argue that these residues may contribute to gut irritation or changes in the microbiome and that this could help explain the rise in gluten sensitivity and related complaints. It’s a plausible hypothesis that deserves more independent research, but it has not yet been proven as the main cause of the increase in gluten problems. Multiple other changes – diet, wheat varieties, microbiome shifts, antibiotics, overall chemical exposures – are happening at the same time.
Just to clear things up — there isn’t any GMO wheat being grown commercially in the U.S. right now. When farmers use glyphosate on wheat, it’s not because the crop is engineered to handle it. They usually spray it near the end of the season on regular wheat to help with harvesting, not like the “Roundup Ready” system used for corn or soybeans.
The Roundup Ready system refers to genetically modified crops engineered to resist glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide. Farmers can spray fields to kill weeds without harming the crops themselves.
These crops, like soybeans, corn, and cotton, have a bacterial gene inserted that lets them produce an enzyme unaffected by glyphosate. This allows herbicide application throughout the growing season for easier weed control.
Introduced by Monsanto in 1996 starting with soybeans, it’s now used on over 90% of U.S. soybean, corn, cotton, and canola acres. Benefits include less tillage, higher yields, and reduced erosion, though herbicide use has shifted.
On the other side of the story, we have the political and national‑security angle.
President Trump recently signed an executive order using the Defense Production Act to protect domestic production of glyphosate and of elemental phosphorus, a key ingredient both for glyphosate and for fertilizers and some defense‑related materials.
The concern here is not just about weed control. The U.S. currently has only one major domestic producer of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate.
If that capacity fails – whether from accident, attack, or economic pressure – U.S. farmers would be even more dependent on foreign suppliers, including China, for critical inputs needed to grow corn, soybeans, wheat, and more, and the defense industrial base would lose a key building block for technologies like semiconductors, batteries, and some munitions.
In other words, Trump’s order is trying to shore up a dangerous supply‑chain vulnerability: if you suddenly cut off glyphosate and elemental phosphorus with no replacement, you hit both the food system and parts of the defense supply chain.
At the same time, Bayer (which owns Roundup) faces thousands of lawsuits from people claiming Roundup contributed to their cancers, and a massive settlement could be in the works. That legal and scientific fight over glyphosate’s safety has been going on for years.
Layered on top of this, you have fake influencers and media outlets trying to weaponize the issue. One week critics of glyphosate are dismissed as “conspiracy theorists”; a few months and one executive order later, some of the same outlets are suddenly eager to highlight the dangers of Roundup if it can be used to split Trump supporters or pit different factions on the right against each other.
Meanwhile, figures like Casey DeSantis in Florida have begun calling out high glyphosate levels in everyday supermarket products, and influencers on all sides are using the issue to score points.
The core reality is that this is not a simple “good vs evil” story…
Farmers can’t just shut off glyphosate overnight without serious economic pain, weed problems, and ripple effects on yields and food prices. They need effective and affordable alternatives (other herbicides, cover crops, better rotations, mechanical tools, and new tech) and time to transition.
The public has every right to be concerned about chronic exposure to a chemical that ends up in staple foods and to demand strong, independent science and transparent regulation.
America does need a secure domestic supply of critical inputs like phosphorus so it isn’t at the mercy of Communist China for our food and defense base.
Corporate and political motives are often mixed, and headlines are frequently crafted to divide, not inform.
The problem Trump is trying to address in this executive order (different from RFK Jr.) is that the United States has only one domestic producer of these chemicals. One, singular. As in, if that single producer’s warehouse mysteriously burns down in the middle of the night, American farmers can’t grow corn, soybeans, or wheat and the military loses a key component needed for semiconductors, batteries, and incendiary devices.
The only other realistic source is Communist China. We obviously can’t have that.
It appears that once again fake MAGA influencers and RINOs are trying to pit MAHA against MAGA against us - this time to divide us on the issue of Glyphosate - as they’ve already tried to do on COVID, Israel, Venezuela, Iran, Epstein and more - and the fake news is flip flopping on the issue when convenient to try to hurt Trump AND RFK Jr.
This issue is multi-faceted and not a one trick pony that can be solved by flipping a switch.
BTW - less than six months ago, the New York Times was singing Roundup’s praises, and calling critics conspiracy theorists again:
Now the New York Times is “worried” about Roundup and wants Trump to fix it!
What a difference five months and one executive order make! The New York Times is now SO excited at the chance to fracture the MAGA-MAHA alliance that they are willing to throw their beloved Roundup under the bus.
There are good arguments on both sides. Farmers can’t just stop using Roundup, it’s too late for that. They need an effective alternative or another proven strategy. America needs a secure domestic source of phosphate. But we also need safe food so that we aren’t just bigger rats in a larger experiment. Smart people need to reason together to work through these issues and find a solution but it won’t happen overnight.
So, when you see conflicting headlines on this issue - dig deeper! Because there’s also two or more sides to a story and most motives aren’t pure!
RFK JR: “In 1993, somebody figured out a way to Genetically Modify Corn to be resistant to Roundup. Today, 95% of corn in the United States is now Roundup Ready Corn.”
MJTRUTH: “Perspective. This subject is more complex than most people realize. The patents on seeds, the soil, the scale. This is about recognizing the system built around it over 25+ years. Abruptly pulling the plug without viable, scalable alternatives have real consequences.
Trump and RFK Jr inherited this.. they didn’t create it. All the outrage right now seems very odd considering this has been in place for a very long time. At least RFK Jr was honest about it and says they are working to scale back and find solutions. What other president or HHS secretary has done that in your lifetime?
If you thought you had it all figured out about Glyphosate, and that President Trump sold us out — you need to listen to this.
RFK Jr. says he was not happy with the Executive Order, but he emphasizes this is a 60+ year train-wreck that President Trump did not create, and it certainly cannot be fixed overnight. RFK Jr understands exactly why Trump did it, and this is the dark truth:
• A large majority of our food supply is Glyphosate ready and simply would not survive without it, and immediately banning Glyphosate overnight would cause a chain reaction that would destroy our food supply and economy.
• He says, as I discovered when researching, the large majority of glyphosate (the active ingredient in herbicides like Roundup) is produced in China. So think about it:
— our crops need glyphosate
— China controls glyphosate
— Which means, China controls our food supply.
— therefore, China, our greatest adversary could cripple our food supply.
— which means, this is a matter of NATIONAL SECURITY
• RFK Jr emphasized the importance of President Trump realizing the National Security implications, making his decision to start producing Glysophate in America absolutely necessary, and could limit the dangers getting it from our greatest adversary.
• RFK JR emphasized the dangers of Glysophate very openly, minced no words about it — and said that his agency is actively working on new technologies and methods that get us off of this dangerous chemical for good.
I 100% stand behind what RFK Jr said. When the EO came out, I didn’t understand why.. but after researching how we got here, I quickly understood this was a very complex problem, one that doesn’t get fixed overnight.
I am thanking God right now that we at lease have a President that recognized the dangers the past administrations have put us in, and a Health Secretary who understands the risks openly and is willing to do everything he can to stop this madness.
I trust these men, both Trump and RFK Jr. I believe they are making amazing strides to fix the problems they inherited. Give them time. Have faith. It will all work out in the end.”
PS: If you’re a wheat farmer and I got anything wrong - let me know!
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