Editors' Notebook

"So," a friend asked at lunch the other day, "what do you think about Roundup being sprayed on wheat as a desiccant and how that might be connected to gluten intolerance or other allergies we seem to have nowadays?"

I nearly choked on my sesame chicken and rice... with plenty of gluten.

I had not heard of such a claim. I did not know if it was scientifically possible or accurate. I didn't even think they SPRAYED wheat with Roundup, as no genetically engineered wheat is on the market and isn't wheat a grass and wouldn't Roundup just kill the wheat plants?

So I began to research with the help of my friend, Dr. Google.

I am not sure if the "story" started with The Healthy Home Economist (HHE), but she surely did perpetuate it with her post of Nov. 13, 2014. In this post, she bemoans the increased rate of intolerance or allergic reaction to breads/wheat and writes: "Common wheat harvest protocol in the United States is to drench the wheat fields with Roundup several days before the combine harvesters work through the fields as the practice allows for an earlier, easier and bigger harvest

"Pre-harvest application of the herbicide Roundup or other herbicides containing the deadly active ingredient glyphosate to wheat and barley as a desiccant was suggested as early as 1980. It has since become routine over the past 15 years and is used as a drying agent 7-10 days before harvest within the conventional farming community."

The HHE's post can be viewed here: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/…

I am not an expert on growing wheat. So I asked our newsroom wheat guru and cash grains analyst Mary Kennedy about the story. "The bottom line is that this is not a common practice," Kennedy said, "Although the latest social media storm would suggest it to be. Someone didn't get their facts straight, plain and simple."

Mary sent me the link to an article by Jami Howell of the Northern Ag Network explaining how this procedure isn't common in Montana, the third-place wheat producer in the country. Howell reported that pre-harvest spraying of wheat with Roundup is rarely used in Montana; that sprayers they contacted could account for only 3,125 acres out of 1,150,000 acres sprayed before harvest with Roundup.

Howell's post can be seen here: http://www.northernag.net/…

Kennedy also directed me to Tim Luken, manager of Oahe Grain in Onida, S.D. Here's what he had to say in an email to me: "From what I know in the industry, there is no scientific [evidence] that [glyphosate] changes the gluten level in wheat. ... There is NO Roundup Ready Wheat. This was tried and discontinued years ago. The only time Roundup is used around here is if there is a weed issue prior to harvest or what is known as pre-harvest spray. To be honest with you, I don't know of anyone in this area that has used it [glyphosate] for this reason [pre-harvest desiccant]. If they did, the label reads 22 ounces along with 2.5 pounds of ammonium sulfate per acre sprayed at 5 gallons water. You take one acre of being 43,560 square feet the amount is very minimal. The article reads they "drench" wheat with Roundup. Not true with only 5 gallons of water. There is more water on an acre of wheat with a heavy dew in the morning. As far as harvesting after Roundup has been sprayed, producers need to wait for 10 days before harvesting on wheat can be executed. I hope this helps; this is what I know and I am no scientist or biologist."

Just a guy who buys and sells a lot of wheat.

ALL WHEAT IS NOT THE SAME

Whereas I have been lectured many times during my ag writing career that all canola is rapeseed, but not all rapeseed is canola (or is it the other way round?) all wheat is wheat, but not the SAME TYPE of wheat. Different types with different production practices.

"There are actually eight classes of wheat and then each class has specific designations, i.e., spring wheat is from bottom- to top-rated quality, red spring, northern spring, dark northern spring," DTN's Kennedy told me. "Then Canada has seven classifications."

Blogger Jenny Dewey Rohrich explained that all wheat is not the same in a response to the HHE in a post dated Nov. 19, "The Truth About Toxic Wheat."

"Pre-harvesting wheat with glyphosate (most commonly Roundup) is not something the majority of wheat farmers across the nation do," Rohrich wrote. "There is a small sector and region of wheat production that practices this: mainly North Dakota, small parts of South Dakota, and parts of Canada. In the United States, North Dakota represents about 5% of total wheat acres produced.

"Wheat farmers in Kansas, Oklahoma, and the majority of the wheat belt producing regions don't have a need to pre-harvest wheat for a number of reasons ranging from their typically dry and warm climate to the variety of wheat they grow."

Rohrich went on in a very thorough fashion to address on-label uses of glyphosate, rules and regulations for applying these types of chemicals, and registration details for the herbicide.

Rohrich's post can be seen here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

The National Association of Wheat Growers posted a YouTube video featuring Vice President Brett Blankenship explaining how he uses glyphosate on his wheat -- and it's not as a pre-harvest desiccant. You can see that here: https://www.youtube.com/…

Kansas Wheat sent out a news release Wednesday with an item by Jordan Hildebrand debunking the implication from the HHE that wheat in general is not healthy and actually is poisonous.

Poppycock!, is the conclusion Hildebrand comes up with after talking to scientists, wheat farmers, professors and industry representatives. I, for one, am lining up on Hildebrand's side. Hildebrand's post can be viewed here: http://kswheat.com/…

Which brings us to a discussion all this sparked in our newsroom. When obvious falsehoods or even just unintentional misinterpretation of data spark a social media firestorm such as this, what should the ag industry in general (and ag journalists specifically) do? Do we ignore it all, hoping it will go away? Do we do what we do best and research and write up what we know to be true?

At the very least, I think, we write a blog entry.

(AG)

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