Saying Goodbye to Roundup Herbicide: Napa's Progress

I never thought I would see the day when the SF Chronicle's wine department would take up the topic of Roundup herbicide again. 

But that day came today! 

Have a look (gift link).

And kudos to Napa Green for its work on this effort. 

Unmentioned in this article is the Napa Valley Grapegrowers own work on this topic. See the story of growers spontaneously cutting back due to public inquiries in the wake of the three Bay Area court cases awarding a school landscaper and home users millions in awards for Roundup's role in contracting Non Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) which attacks the lymphatic system. 

Unfortunately, Napa and other growers throughout the wine growing world continue to use this soil killing herbicide widely.

That's why you should buy organically grown food and wine.

In wine, the risks of residues in the wine on humans' microbiome is not well understood but there are many significant studies on its soil killing properties. Wine testing studies showed that organically grown wines had far fewer residues than conventional or sustainable wines.  

(Most people absorb glyphosate in the body from eating non-organic grains, non-organic grain products [bread, cookies, cereals, etc.] and non-organic potatoes.)

For the latest exciting new science looking at glyphosate (the active ingredient in the commercially available Roundup these days–Bayer stopped selling home owners the glyphosate version after the spate of lawsuits halved its stock price due to the court case payouts) and human health, see the international collaboration of leading scientists at the Global Glyphosate Study. 

The latest discovery in the science community? Glyphosate (both alone and in commercial formulas) causes more kinds of cancer than were previously known-and at lower doses than previously thought. The researchers have shared their findings with regulators in the hopes of impacting policies.

It should be noted that none of the lawsuits involved in vineyard workers (so far). Most were of landscapers and residential users who used the herbicide frequently.

Vineyard workers are often exposed to far more dangerous vineyard chemicals with higher toxicity, but few studies have looked at this. One study showed that Parkinson's is related to one of those chemicals (paraquat), but its use has now been curtailed in the state of California. 

According to the National Institute of Health (pre-Trump) "Parkinson's disease is the world's fastest growing brain disorder, and exposure to environmental toxicants is the principal reason." Paraquat is one. 

If you want to support human health and soil health, vote with your dollars.

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A reminder: Slow Wine USA's guide to wine lists only wines farmed without herbicide. Get your guide here (amazon) or here (bookshop.org).

Gift idea: pair the book with a bottle of wine from one of the producers in the guide!

Hint: there are hundreds of wines, both in Napa and the rest of the US, grown without herbicides. 

And a final note: ALL the ORGANIC grower are always glyphosate free.