Glyphosate Contamination in Wine - Moms Across America

Widespread Glyphosate Contamination in Wine

100% of Wine Tested Showed Positive Results

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Los Angeles - Today, Moms Across America released  new results revealing that ten major California wines contained the chemical glyphosate, the declared “active” ingredient in Roundup weedkiller and 700 other glyphosate-based herbicides. Glyphosate, deemed a probable carcinogen by the World Health Organization in 2015, was found in all three categories of wine. This includes conventional (chemically grown), organic and biodynamic wine. The methodology used for the testing was the same as the beer tests in Germany, where all 14 beers tested positive for glyphosate. The highest conventional wine test result for glyphosate was 28 times higher than the glyphosate levels found in the organic and biodynamic wines.

View the report here: https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/yesmaam/pages/680/attachments/original/1458848651/3-24-16_GlyphosateContaminationinWineReport_(1).pdf?1458848651

Because Roundup/glyphosate is not permitted on organic or biodynamic vineyards, the results are unexpected and can only be explained by the drift of chemical sprays from neighboring vineyards. This could mean legal ramifications for the contamination and devaluation of another company’s product.

Zen Honeycutt, Director of Moms Across America, states “We have recently learned that the detection of glyphosate is an indicator of the presence of many other co-formulants in glyphosate-based herbicides which, combined, are 1000 times more toxic than glyphosate alone. French scientist Gilles-Éric Seralini and his team have also discovered that these co-formulants are also endocrine hormone disruptors, which can lead to breast cancer, miscarriages, birth defects and many other health issues.  There should be zero glyphosate and related chemicals in our wine, food or personal products.”

Consumers may wonder how Roundup/glyphosate is getting into their wine.  Roundup/glyphosate is sprayed every year in conventional vineyards. A 1-2 ft strip is sprayed on either side of the grape vines which are planted in rows, to kill weeds when the vines are dormant in late winter or early spring. According to plant pathologist, Don Huber from Purdue University, the vine stems are inevitably sprayed in this process and the Roundup is likely absorbed through the roots and bark of the vines from where it is translocated into the leaves and grapes.

All the wines tested were from the Napa Valley, Sonoma and Mendocino County areas. According to the CA Dept of Health, breast cancer rates in the Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties is 10 to 20 percent higher than the national average.  700 lawsuits are currently pending against Monsanto for the connection between non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and Roundup.

Currently the FDA does not require end product testing or labeling for pesticides.  Therefore the public is unable to know the type or amount of any pesticides that are present in the wines.

Moms Across America and other groups call for the protection of organic and biodynamic brands, farm workers and consumers by requesting that all food producers STOP spraying toxic chemicals on their crops.

Contact:

Blair Fitzgibbon  202-503-6141                    

Zen Honeycutt [email protected]


Showing 5 reactions

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  • Eddie Warne
    commented 2018-06-21 16:09:09 -0400
    I wrote a new blog on glyphosate with emphasis on the tech companies who have worked so hard to invent technologies that will prevent spray drift and only spray the weeds,
    http://mostpopularhashtags.com/2018/05/30/glyphosate-hashtags/
  • Ruth
    followed this page 2016-08-19 16:24:21 -0400
  • Garry Cohen
    commented 2016-03-27 22:26:14 -0400
    I am a rarity in the wine business in that I do not use glyphosate in my vineyard. We spend twice as much time per vine as “typical” vineyards because of the need to hand trim the cover crops around the base of each of the vines. Yet, I still worry as neighboring farmers continue to spray their crops with glyphosate with impunity. www.mazzarothvineyard.com
  • Ellie Kirchner
    commented 2016-03-25 22:28:37 -0400
    Glyphosate should be banned. Hopefully the wine drinkers of the world will urge the winemakers of the world to stop using glyphosate and work to ban this poisonous herbicide from being used. Here are other crops that are sprayed with glyphosate, as recommended by Monsanto.
  • Zen Honeycutt
    commented 2016-03-24 16:21:41 -0400
    Please note that many have asked for the names of the brands. Our response:
    The supporter who gave us the results of the wine testing has not agreed to release brand information at this time. However, the issue is not the brand, it is the impact of chemical farming and the widespread contamination of consumer products. These results show that any vineyard using these toxic chemicals can expect that their wines and their neighbors’ wines will be contaminated with glyphosate based herbicides.

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