Hello Jeff: Thank you for your thoughts on glyphosate in wheat in the
April 15, 2018 Bread-Bakers Digest. Your observations were very
thought-provoking. I have an experience to add to the conversation on
the effect of glyphosate in our food supply. Firstly, a bit of
background.
My husband and I own an organic vegetable farm, Full Harvest Farm, in
Washington County, Wisconsin. One day, several years ago, we were
driving down a country road when we saw a spray rig in a wheat field
(the ones that look like something our of a Star Wars movie). I asked
my husband what it was doing there. He replied it was spraying Roundup
to dry the wheat. After that, I started buying organic wheat
flour. Recently, I became a Master Gardener. The president of our
group, a nurse whose father is a wheat farmer and consultant, seemed a
good person to ask about this incident with the spray rig. She was
surprised, saying that she never heard her father talk about spraying
his wheat with glyphosate, and said she would ask him. Several weeks
later, she reported back to say her father never used glyphosate to
dry down a wheat crop, and he didn't know anyone who had, nor would he
recommend it.
Firstly, Roundup is expensive, so using it raises a farmer's costs and
lowers how much he can make on his wheat crop. Secondly, a farmer can
get the same result by waiting 7-10 days for the wheat to dry
sufficiently to harvest. Since getting wheat to market is not
time-sensitive, waiting makes sense. Apparently, wheat farmers lose
more money when storms and high winds flatten some of their wheat. I
still buy organic flour, but have added some Non-GMO Project flours to
my list too, namely Wheat Montana.
Thanks for all your and Reggie's efforts to provide this forum for
fellow bread bakers.
Keep on baking,
Terry