Does Glyphosate Cause Cancer?

Q: Does the herbicide glyphosate cause cancer? 

A: There is evidence to suggest it may cause cancer at very high doses, but not at the low doses typically found in foods.

FULL QUESTION

A FoodBabe.com article says glyphosate has been found in prepared foods. Vani Hari (FoodBabe) cites a couple of studies about the effects of glyphosate on animals. Are these studies legit? I was just wondering what your organization’s take on this is. Also the organization in France has declared that glyphosate is carcinogenic. Any help understanding this issue would be great.

FULL ANSWER

Many of our readers have asked us to sort out the facts about whether glyphosate, the most used herbicide in the world by volume in 2015, causes cancer.

Our readers often cited an article on FoodBabe.com, which outlines a report that found “alarming levels” of glyphosate in various brands of cereal, cookies, chips and crackers. This article has spread through Facebook, with users sharing it roughly 2 million times.

In her post, Vani Hari of FoodBabe.com claims the report, commissioned by the environmental groups Food Democracy Now! and the Detox Project, shows “millions of people [are] being poisoned by” glyphosate.

Hari also says that “[i]ndependent research links glyphosate to cancer … and it has been deemed a probable human carcinogen by the World Health Organization,” which are claims the report itself also makes.

Hari isn’t wrong about findings by researchers at WHO. She also isn’t wrong that glyphosate has been found in foods. But she doesn’t tell the whole story.

Some experts that at very high doses glyphosate can cause cancer, but at low doses, typically found in foods, the herbicide the disease.