Honey is the World’s Healthiest Sweetener but the North American Honey Supply is Contaminated

Honey is one of nature’s most perfect and beneficial foods. The documented research on the incredible health benefits of honey is truly astounding. If you type in the search term “honey” in the National Library of Medicine on the NIH Government website, you will get 18,000 results from peer-reviewed journals. If you search for honey on Health Impact News, you get over 150 results documenting the health benefits of pure honey, such as: "Phenolic Compounds and Enzymatic Activity in Raw Honey Positively Affect Oxidative Stress and Bone Density" "Honey Out-Performs Antibiotics in Fighting Superbugs" "Honey: A Powerful Anti-Cancer Agent" - Honey is the ONLY sweetener on the market that you can purchase that is a complete, whole food, as opposed to granulated sugar which is an extract from either a grass (sugar cane), or from beets (sugar beets). But purchasing real, pure, unadulterated raw honey that is not contaminated with herbicides or pesticides, is another matter altogether. Testing done in 2011 on grocery store honey showed that up to 80% of the honey sold in grocery stores is adulterated and even fake, much of it imported from China illegally. Honey that is produced in the U.S. and Canada is mostly a by-product of professional beekeepers who make their primary income from leasing out their bees to pollinate crops in commercial agriculture. These commercial crops are heavily treated with herbicides and pesticides, and the resulting honey from these bees is just a by-product of these commercial bee operations, and that includes most “local” honeys, which are highly contaminated. Pure raw honey has been proven through numerous studies to be more effective than drugs in treating many diseases, and since honey can be stored indefinitely and tends to improve with age, like fine wines, this is a food that you want in your long-term food storage plans, and you want honey that heals, not honey that is contaminated, or “honey” that is not even real honey at all.

Are Your Grains Tested for Glyphosate? Ancient Khorasan Wheat Glyphosate-Tested Now Available!

There has been a resurgence in interest in ancient grains in recent years, as more and more people begin to realize just how toxic modern wheat products are, with many "gluten intolerance" diseases increasing in modern times. Unfortunately, ancient grains grown in the United States, along with all other grains such as wheat, oats, and barley, are almost all contaminated by modern pesticides and herbicides, even if they are certified organic. We published a report on an investigation I conducted in 2014 by testing both organic and conventional products made from American (both the U.S. and Canada) grains, and we found very little difference between organic and conventional grains in terms of being contaminated with glyphosate, the active ingredient in the world's most popular herbicide, RoundUp, which has been linked to cancer and other diseases. When we began to search for sources for ancient grains, all the ones we found at the time tested positive for glyphosate, which forced us to begin searching for glyphosate-free grains outside the U.S. We found that Italy had the cleanest ancient grains which consistently tested negative for glyphosate, and we found some organic, heirloom corn that tested clean in Central Mexico, where glyphosate was banned. We eventually found a source of Khorasan Wheat from a single farm in Italy, and sold that for a few years. But their harvest in 2023 was not successful, leaving us with very little left in stock from the year before. But we recently just found a farm in Washington State that grew Khorasan in 2023, and samples from their field tested clean for any glyphosate. I proceeded to purchase many tons of this product, and we now have it in stock as a whole grain which you can purchase in bulk, as well as a whole grain flour. Here are some studies published in the peer-reviewed literature on the health benefits of Khorasan Wheat, conducted mainly by researchers in Italy.

New U.S. Government Research is Finally Admitting that Glyphosate Weed Killer Causes Cancer

New research by top US government scientists has found that people exposed to the widely used weed killing chemical glyphosate have biomarkers in their urine linked to the development of cancer and other diseases. The study, published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, measured glyphosate levels in the urine of farmers and other study participants and determined that the presence of high levels of the pesticide were associated with signs of a reaction in the body called oxidative stress, a condition that causes damage to DNA. Oxidative stress is considered by health experts as a key characteristic of carcinogens. The authors of the paper – 10 scientists with the National Institutes of Health and two from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – concluded that their study “contributes to the weight of evidence supporting an association between glyphosate exposure and oxidative stress in humans.” They also noted that “accumulating evidence supports the role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of hematologic cancers,” such as lymphoma, myeloma and leukemia.

US Supreme Court Declines Bayer/Monsanto Bid to Challenge Glyphosate Cancer Rulings

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a bid from Bayer-owned Monsanto that aimed to challenge thousands of lawsuits claiming its weedkiller Roundup causes cancer – a potentially costly ruling, AFP reported Tuesday. The high court did not explain its decision, which left intact a $25 million ruling in favor of a California man who alleged he developed cancer after using the chemical for years. The decision marks a major blow to the German conglomerate’s legal fight against Roundup-related cases, and Bayer has set aside more than $15 billion to deal with a wave of US lawsuits linked to the weedkiller.

Will Supreme Court Let Bayer-Monsanto Off the Hook for Cancer-Causing Glyphosate Herbicide Roundup?

In June of 2020 it was announced that Bayer-Monsanto had reached the "largest settlement in pharma history" by agreeing to pay $10 Billion to settle about 125,000 lawsuits by people who died or came down with cancer from glyphosate poisoning, the main ingredient in Roundup, the world's most heavily used herbicide (weed killer) that is found in most food today. But there is one lawsuit that Bayer has contested, where plaintiff Edwin Hardeman was awarded $80 million in damages due to having non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), a known side effect to too much exposure with glyphosate. The trial court judge reduced his settlement award to $25 million, and Bayer appealed the decision, which was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. It is now before the U.S. Supreme Court, and U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar has recommended that the Supreme Court deny Bayer's appeal. The stakes are high, as the Supreme Court's ruling could affect all future lawsuits against Bayer-Monsanto, and possibly even past lawsuits. What will the Supreme Court do, and just what are the Wall Street Billionaires and Bankers who largely control the Supreme Court planning behind the scenes in all of this? To rule in favor of Bayer could save investors $billions, and allow the EPA to continue to authorize the use of the world's most deadly herbicide to continue to be sold and used to poison our food supply. If they allow the decision of the Ninth Circuit to stand, how will that affect what the EPA does next regarding approving Roundup for agricultural use? While many people and groups have been calling on a ban of glyphosate-based herbicides, the fact is that if it is banned outright immediately, a very significant percentage of agriculture will no longer be able to produce food, as certain crops, such as corn, are over 90% genetically modified and could not grow without the herbicide Roundup. It would take many years to transition to something else. Whatever the reasons are behind the scenes for what the Supreme Court does, the stakes are high, and the results could be disastrous no matter which way the High Court rules. The best case scenario would be to allow all these lawsuits from people killed or injured by glyphosate to receive their settlements, and to put pressure on the EPA to start phasing out the use of Roundup giving farmers enough time to make the transition, so as to not bring major disruptions to the already fragile food supplies. But in that scenario the people would win, and Wall Street would lose, and that is just not something I see happening much, if at all, in today's judicial system.

Contamination of U.S. Food Supply Worsens as 50% of Foods Tested Contained Cancer-Causing Glyphosate Herbicide

The Detox Project recently published their latest results from the most comprehensive glyphosate testing of food products ever conducted in the U.S., showing that the contamination of the U.S. food supply with the cancer-causing herbicide glyphosate is becoming significantly worse since their first report published 5 years ago. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the world's most heavily used herbicide, Roundup. So even though it has widely been shown that glyphosate is linked to higher rates of cancer, getting it out of the food supply is no easy task. What is particularly concerning is that even foods labeled as being "USDA Organic" or labeled as free from GMO contamination, also test positive for the presence of glyphosate. Many people, for example, choose gluten free alternatives to wheat, thinking that it is a healthy choice, but the grains, nuts, and seeds that make up most gluten free products are heavily contaminated with glyphosate as well. My own company, Healthy Traditions, began testing all of the food we sell for the presence of glyphosate back in 2014, when we did our own testing and investigation and found that most of our certified organic grains that we were selling at the time were contaminated with glyphosate. We were shocked to learn that the National Organic Program for USDA certification allows for smaller amounts of glyphosate to be present even in foods certified organic. So we mostly abandoned the USDA Organic program, and started testing all of our food ourselves, practicing strict batch control so that we could trace each batch back to the producer. We now do our own testing for glyphosate, and also for GMOs, as many foods advertised as being free from GMOs, also contain small amounts of GMO DNA, especially American corn.

Largest Settlement in Pharma History: Bayer-Monsanto Agrees to $10B Settlement With Victims Poisoned by Roundup Weedkiller

Bayer will dole out between $10.1 billion and $10.9 billion—the single largest settlement in pharma history—to put an end to thousands of lawsuits tied to its acquisition of Monsanto and glyphosate-based Roundup. The $10 billion settlement will be apportioned to four leading plaintiffs’ law firms, who will in turn distribute the money to nearly 100,000 clients who were stricken with cancer after prolonged use of the toxic weedkiller. The German company acquired the St. Louis-based agrochemical giant Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion, and inherited liability in thousands of lawsuits filed by people who claim exposure to Roundup and its main ingredient glyphosate was the cause of their cancer.

Glyphosate Weedkiller a Primary Cause of Kidney Damage

Significant bioaccumulation of glyphosate has been documented in the kidney, an organ with known susceptibility to glyphosate. Glyphosate-induced kidney toxicity has been associated with disturbances in the expression of genes associated with fibrosis, necrosis and mitochondrial membrane dysfunction. Further, as noted by the Environmental Pollution study researchers, “Previous studies have associated glyphosate exposure with changes in renal function, kidney injury, and chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology. There is growing evidence linking glyphosate exposure with the epidemic of chronic kidney disease of unknown origin in farmworkers in Central America, Sri Lanka and central India.” Dr. Sarath Gunatilake, professor of health science at the University of California and Channa Jayasumana, Ph.D., a faculty member of Medicine and Allied Sciences at the Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, have published papers linking glyphosate exposure to chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu) in Sri Lankan farmers.

Kellogg Pledges To End Pre-Harvest Use of Weedkiller Glyphosate on Grains – Too Little Too Late?

Last year (2019), a report published by The Environmental Working Group (EWG) showed that virtually all of America’s breakfast cereals, consumed primarily by children, are contaminated with the toxic herbicide, glyphosate. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s RoundUp, and has been linked to cancer. Juries in recent court cases have awarded billions of dollars in damages to cancer victims who were exposed to glyphosate. This week, EWG is reporting that Kellogg is pledging to stop using glyphosate in the harvesting of grains by 2025. Kellogg's pledged to work with its wheat and oat suppliers to end the use of the herbicide, sold under the name Roundup, as a pre-harvest drying agent in all of its major crop markets, including the U.S., by 2025, according to a statement published on the company’s website and reported on by the Washington Post. While this is encouraging news that Kellogg will eventually phase out its usage of glyphosate, it is impossible for any company producing products from American grains to remove glyphosate from their products today. Even getting the other cereal producers like General Mills and Quaker to stop their grain farmers from using glyphosate to desiccate will not solve the problem. The reason for this is because even USDA certified organic grains in the U.S. today are contaminated with glyphosate, as are conventional crops that do not spray their crops with glyphosate at harvest. So how do you find food that is not contaminated with glyphosate?

How Glyphosate Herbicide Has Destroyed America’s Wheat

As we have reported many times since 2014, America has a major problem with its wheat supply. Virtually all of the wheat grown in the northern climates is contaminated. There is currently no GMO wheat grown in the U.S., even though from time to time a farmer will find wheat growing that does not die when sprayed with glyphosate herbicides. These are no doubt rogue varieties of wheat left over from GMO test plots years ago, but there is currently no commercially grown GMO wheat. And yet, most of the nation's wheat is contaminated with glyphosate. This is because of the practice of "desiccation," where farmers will apply the herbicide RoundUp with glyphosate to kill the wheat so it can be harvested at a convenient time, like before the first snow fall. Glyphosate is now linked to cancer as well as many other diseases. Some scientists believe that the gluten intolerance epidemic we face in the U.S. has less to do with wheat and gluten than it does with the contamination of the wheat supply with glyphosate. A new study just published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, may have identified another problem with America's wheat supply that is desiccated at harvest with glyphosate. The title of the study is PRE-HARVEST GLYPHOSATE APPLICATION DURING WHEAT CULTIVATION: EFFECTS ON WHEAT STARCH PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES. The study looks at the maturity of the wheat when it is desiccated with glyphosate and the digestibility of the starch in wheat. When glyphosate is applied before the wheat is mature, it affects the physicochemical properties of the starch.