undefined | Better HN

0 pointsVLM8y ago0 comments

Glyphosate is banned from organic wheat farming and organic wheat flour is cheaply and widely available for experimenting. "Bobs Red Mill" and numerous other brands, etc.

Glyphosate is popular when growing non-wheat non-organic produce; if a glyphosate allergy existed, it would likely not appear like a gluten allergy because most products that once contacted it are not gluten-containing.

You can buy glyphosate products at home depot for experimentation.

It would appear to be a cheap and simple hypothesis to test.

0 comments

3 comments · 1 top-level

legulere8y ago· 2 in thread

> Glyphosate is popular when growing non-wheat non-organic produce

I only know of glyphosate resistant soy which ends up in cow food. You usually don’t spray glyphosate on stuff you want to eat because it kills it, which only in the case of wheat is what you want.

CodeWriter238y ago

Actually, farmers desiccate wheat before harvest because dying plants yield more seed. Glyphosate is among various pesticides used for desiccation.

saalweachter8y ago

Just want to chime in for other confused people (I grew up on a Midwestern farm and had never heard of the practice of desiccating wheat, so I've been reading a lot about it on the internet today) -- this appears to be a northern latitude practice - every reference I can find to it is from Canada, the UK and North Dakota, so I'm guessing this has to do with growing wheat in a shorter growing season.

So it's not nearly a universal practice, but on the other hand, North Dakota does account for 20% of the US wheat production. (And on the gripping hand, I don't know what wheat distribution in the US looks like; will ND wheat tend to be consumed in a particular region, or will secondary distribution through eg packaged foods tend to distribute it nation-wide?)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse