Andrea C. Love, PhD
This comment on Eva Mendes post this week stuck out because it underscores how false and widespread misinformation on food & agriculture is.

And I’m gonna use it to educate:

1️⃣ Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum herbicide: it kills all plants because it interferes with their EPSPS enzyme that is needed to make specific amino acids. Without those amino acids, they can't make proteins and they die.

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Oct 11, 2024 at 8:12pmWeb
Show threadAndrea C. Love, PhDOct 11, 2024
2️⃣ That means, it kills all plants.

Except ones that tolerate it - and they tolerate it because scientists have switched that enzyme for a bacterial version that isn't impacted by glyphosate.

That was done so other plants - weeds - that would strangle those crops - could be targeted by ONE herbicide - instead of having to use many different ones with different plant targets.

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Show threadAndrea C. Love, PhDOct 11, 2024
3️⃣ No bananas or potatoes are treated with glyphosate. Because they don't have tolerant options. They're plants, right?

So spraying those plants would kill them.

And farmers aren't spraying fruits and vegetables: they don't need to control weeds on a finished food. Glyphosate is used on fields early in planting, before crop plants are strong enough to crowd out weeds.

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Show threadAndrea C. Love, PhDOct 11, 2024
4️⃣ And it's used on those tolerant crop fields.
Versions in the US exist for corn, cotton, soybeans, alfalfa, canola, and sugar beets.

5️⃣ They're also not deeply sprayed.
24 ounces is used for an acre of land.
2 soda cans per football field.

No finished FOODs - definitely not fruits and vegetables - are sprayed with glyphosate.

Crop fields are treated, either PRE-PLANTING or soon after seedlings emerge. Because that’s when weeds need to be controlled.

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Show threadAndrea C. Love, PhDOct 11, 2024
6️⃣ Any trace levels that might be detectable AFTER the many stages of processing foods (yes, even fresh produce is processed) are minuscule.

Glyphosate replaced a lot of less safe herbicides. So I'm not sure why this is left out of that story. And it is more safe than some herbicides used in organic farming also.

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Show threadAndrea C. Love, PhDOct 11, 2024
7️⃣ Organic farming doesn't use fewer pesticides. In fact, GE crops allow farmers to reduce pesticide use. In the last 20 years, GE crops have reduced pesticide applications by 8.2% and have increased crop yields by 22%.

If we want to grow food to feed the 8.1 billion people while reducing chemical inputs, GE crops are a critical component.

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Show threadAndrea C. Love, PhDOct 11, 2024
I've written a lot about glyphosate myths, which is kinda funny because I have no direct skin in the "game" even though I'm accused of that.

It's because glyphosate disinformation harms public health, exploits chemophobia, and impedes our ability to improve scientific innovation. And that's the thing I care about.

And the tactics used by people like RFK Jr and Food Babe to make a lot of money off these lies extend well beyond this one chemical.

🧵
Show threadRaven OnthillOct 11, 2024
@dr.andrealove anyone who's actually worked on an organic farm knows why there are herbicides and insecticides. Explaining to people how important these are to agriculture seems to be a lost cause.
Show threadChristine Kolata BottkaOct 12, 2024
How do you respond to experts who say glyphosate damages the ecosystems including pollinators and beneficial insects, earthworms, soil biota, and causes direct harm to agriculture?
Show threadAndrea C. Love, PhDOct 12, 2024
It doesn’t. It breaks down quickly by soil microbes, and those species don’t have the EPSPS enzyme. But we wrote about that here: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/a-skeptical-guide-to-glyphosate-toolkit-for-ten-common-claims/
Show threadPaul ChernoffOct 11, 2024
@dr.andrealove Organic farms use pesticides and herbicides as dangerous as other ones, organic pesticides don't mean safe. @sarahtaber, as a farm safety inspector, wrote about some organic farmers not understanding this basic fact and not following directions on proper use. But to be fair non-organic farmers also have a problem following directions.
Show threadpdiff1Oct 12, 2024
@dr.andrealove I played this wacka mole game for many years when I was still working. Public outreach, social media, coauthor on research pubs. None of it made much difference. Glyphosate became a target when elements around the organic food industry realized they weren’t going to get ☠️ labels on GE products. It then morphed and merged w the anti-vax movement and eventually extreme politics on the left and right. A long sorry tale. Glad someone’s still out there fighting the fight.
Show threadTamar YellinOct 12, 2024
THANK. YOU.