By Chelsey Erdmann
This is lunch.
Homegrown sweet corn straight from the field. Roundup Ready® sweet corn planted amongst our Roundup Ready® field corn.
The last time this field was sprayed with glyphosate it was no bigger than V8 stage, less than 30” tall and prior to tasseling. Today it’s 5+ feet tall. When the corn plant was sprayed it was only stalk and leaves.
The cob did not have a direct application of the water + chemical mixture.
Did the plant leaves absorb the glyphosate + water mixture? Yes
Am I able to cut apart the plant to analyze how much residual glyphosate is remaining? No
Can I say with 100% certainty that this glyphosate does not contribute to my toxic load? No, I’m not a scientist. I haven’t done the research myself.
Do I know where my personal threshold for a toxic load is? No
What I do know — each day I take multiple risks.
Do I know how carrying a cell phone is affecting my body?
Do I know how the fluoride in our water is affecting my body?
Do I know how our WiFi is affecting my body?
Do I know how my lotions, tooth paste, or shampoos affect my body?
Do I know how other food was raised, handled, shipped, and stocked at the store? Do I know how that affects my body?
Do I know how chlorine affects my body from the public pool?
Each day our lives are filled with risk. We continuously make risk, reward decisions throughout the day. These are all personal choices based on our unique situations.
When we know better, we do better. As for me, and right now, this Roundup Ready® sweet corn is a part of me and my family’s meals. It’s a risk-reward decision I’m currently comfortable making.
Chelsey Erdmann is the District 5 representative on the NDFB Promotion and Education Committee. This post first appeared on her blog, Oh That's Chelsey.