Glyphosate Probably Isn't Giving You Cancer

Why you are probably safe to eat fruit and vegetables farmed using the weedkiller glyphosate

Pictured: Crops, probably. Could be a natural field, but it seems unlikely. Photo by Jake Gard on Unsplash

Note: This is the first in a series of posts for subscribers where I’m looking at issues I’ve covered before, and go over the most recent evidence and what we know now about the question. I first covered the glyphosate/cancer issue in 2019. This is a more comprehensive look at that issue, with a bit more nuance than my first piece (which was focused more on a specific study).

Glysophate gets into the headlines with impressive regularity. Nothing engenders fear in our modern society quite like the thought that we are being slowly poisoned en masse by pollutants in our food and water. There are few things we all get more worked up about than the idea that invisible substances we eat and drink every day are ruining our lives.

Which is where all of the controversy comes from.

Every three-six months, there is a new spate of headlines that describe glyphosate as an evil, cancer-causing chemical that is making everyone in the world sick. Apparently, it’s common, awful, and a terrible blight on humanity that we must be rid of as soon as possible.

Now, you might not actually know what this evil substance is. Glyphosate, commercially sold as the weedkiller RoundUp, is one of the most common products used in the world today. It’s especially common because, unlike earlier weedkillers that were used in the 60s and 70s, it is comparatively safe. In terms of acute doses, you can eat glyphosate in similar quantities to table salt, and there are videos of people doing just that online.

Pictured: Grapes. Possibly also some herbicides. Photo by jose alfonso sierra on Unsplash

But there still persist some worries about the LONG-term risks of the herbicide. While you can drink quite a lot of the stuff and be fine the next day, people are concerned that glyphosate can cause disease in normal people eating products over a lifetime that contain much lower levels of the chemical.

Fortunately, this doesn’t appear to be a problem. While I have no particular love for industry - please feel free to use whichever herbicide you prefer, and buy whatever products you like - the evidence is quite convincing that glyphosate poses no long-term health risks in the quantities that the average person is exposed to in their daily life.