Toxicity is often misunderstood to be a black-and-white concept: a chemical either is or is not toxic. The reality is that toxicity is a continuum. Anything can be toxic if you consume enough of it — salt, baking soda, caffeine, Tylenol, vitamin D (which, by the way, is a great rat poison).
What does this mean for making choices about food safety? I make mine based on how the levels of toxin in my food compare to the safe limits (and how confident we are of those limits). Bringing this back to glyphosate and produce, let’s look at the answers to two questions:
How much glyphosate is in my conventionally grown food — in a worst case scenario?
How much glyphosate is safe?
I reasoned that if the worst case amounts of glyphosate are far below the most conservative safety limits set by international agencies, then I am in the clear. (Yes, I do trust the international guidelines, especially the more conservative ones.)
I focused my analysis on soy and corn because they are likely to have the highest levels of glyphosate (notably, the “Roundup Ready’ type).