Inconvenient Glyphosate Math
There is a lot of discussion about glyphosate use and its relative toxicity lately. For activists, it is an easy target, as it is easy to put glyphosate in the ag input hopper in close association with DDT and other goodies that freak out affluent white people. You can read on any activist website or comment section that "Roundup Ready seeds are doused in massive amounts of glyphosate- getting this deadly chemical into your body". Farmer David Walton did a really nice discussion of this over at Genetic Literacy Project recently. However, I've had this blog entry half done for ages and with the topic coming up over and over again, I thought I'd expand on David's excellent report and provide some more relative numbers, especially with respect to toxicity. Let's do some math. -- How much is this massive amount ? -- When is it applied to the crop? -- How do amounts used translate to toxicity risks? Massive Amounts? For soybeans, the applic