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My name is Courtney Swan. I have a Master's of Science in Nutrition, and I host the Real Foodology Podcast, and thank you so much for listening to us today.

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Our food is being tainted by dangerous chemicals, and it's making us sick.

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In 2009, I started to get debilitating stomach aches.

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I bounced around between specialists with no clarity for two years, until 2011, when I was diagnosed with a gluten intolerance.

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I was also told to avoid corn and soy, which are common food sensitivities amongst my generation.

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Unfortunately, my story is not unique.

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Clueless to how this was connected to our food system, I started to do some digging.

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What I found was alarming.

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Our current agriculture system origin story involves large chemical companies.

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Not farmers, chemists.

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85% of the food that you are consuming started from a patented seed sold by a chemical corporation that was responsible for creating Agent Orange in the Vietnam War.

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Why are chemical companies feeding America?

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Corn, soy, and wheat are not only the most common allergens, but are among the most heavily pesticide-sprayed crops today.

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In 1974, the U.S. started spraying our crops with an herbicide called glyphosate.

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And in the early 1990s, we began to see the release of genetically modified foods into our food supply.

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It all seems to begin with a chemical company by the name IG Farben, the later parent company of Bayer.

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Farben provided the chemicals used in Nazi nerve agents and gas chambers.

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Years later, a second chemical company, Monsanto, joined the war industry with the production of Agent Orange, a toxin used during the Vietnam War.

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When the wars ended, these companies needed a market for their chemicals.

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So they pivoted to killing bugs and pests on American farmlands.

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Monsanto began marketing glyphosate with the catchy name Roundup.

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They claimed that these chemicals were harmless and that they safeguarded our crops from pests.

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So farmers started spraying these supposedly safe chemicals on our farmland.

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They solved the bug problem, but they also killed the crops.

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Monsanto offered a solution with the creation of genetically modified, otherwise known as GMO crops that resisted the glyphosate in the Roundup that they were spraying.

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These Roundup-ready crops allow farmers to spray entire fields of glyphosate to kill off pests without harming the plants.

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But our food is left covered in toxic chemical residue that doesn't wash, dry, or cook off.

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Not only is it sprayed to kill pests, but in the final stages of harvest, it is sprayed on the wheat to dry it out.

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Grains that go into bread and cereals that are in grocery stores and homes of Americans are heavily sprayed with these toxins.

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It's also being sprayed on oats, chickpeas, almonds, potatoes, and more.

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You can assume that if it's not organic, it is likely contaminated with glyphosate.

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In America, organic food by law cannot contain GMOs and glyphosate, and they are more expensive compared to conventionally grown options.

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Americans are being forced to pay more for food that isn't poisoned.

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Thank you very much.

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In 2018, Bayer bought Monsanto.

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They currently have patented soybeans, corn, canola, and sugar beets, and they are the largest distributor of GMO corn and soybean seeds.

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Americans deserve a straight answer.

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Why does an agrochemical company own where our food comes from?

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Currently, 85 to 100 percent of corn and soy crops in the U.S. are genetically modified.

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80 percent of GMOs are engineered to withstand glyphosate.

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And a staggering 280 million pounds of glyphosate are sprayed on American crops annually.

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We are eating this Roundup-ready corn, but unlike GMO crops, humans are not Roundup-ready.

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We are not resistant to these toxins, and it's causing neurological damage, endocrine disruption.

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It's harming our reproductive health, and it's affecting fetal development.

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Glyphosate is classified as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer.

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It is also suspected to contribute towards the rise in celiac disease and gluten sensitivities.

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They're finding glyphosate in human breast milk placentas, our organs, and even sperm.

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It's also being found in our rain and our drinking water.

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Until January of 2022, many companies made efforts to obscure the presence of GMOs and pesticides in food products from American consumers.

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It was only then that legislation came into effect mandating that these companies disclose such ingredients with a straightforward label stating made with bioengineered ingredients.

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But it's very small on the package.

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Meanwhile, glyphosate still isn't labeled on our food.

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Parents in America are unknowingly feeding their children these toxic foods.

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Dr. Don Huber, a glyphosate researcher, warns that glyphosate will make the outlawed 1970s insecticide DDT look harmless.

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In comparison to glyphosate.

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Why is the U.S. government subsidizing the most pesticide-sprayed crops using taxpayer dollars?

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These are the exact foods that are driving the epidemic of chronic disease.

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These crops heavily sprayed with glyphosate are then processed into high-fructose corn syrup and refined vegetable oils,

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which are key ingredients for the ultra-processed foods that line our supermarket shelves and fill our children's lunches in schools across the nation.

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Children across America are consuming foods such as goldfish and Cheerios that are loaded with glyphosate.

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These crops also feed our livestock, which then produce the eggs, dairy, and meat products that we consume.

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They are in everything.

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Pick up almost any ultra-processed food package on the shelf, and you will see the words,

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contains corn, wheat, and soy on the ingredients panel.

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Meanwhile, Bayer is doing everything it can to keep consumers in the dark while our government protects these corporate giants.

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They fund educational programs at major agricultural universities.

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They lobby in Washington, and they collaborate with lawmakers to protect their profits over public health.

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Two congressmen are working with Bayer right now on the Farm Bill to protect Bayer from any liability

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despite already having to pay out billions to sick Americans who got cancer from their product.

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They know that their product is harming people.

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Chronic illnesses are on the rise, and half of our population is obese.

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This is a national security issue.

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Seventy-seven percent of young Americans are ineligible for military service.

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We have industrialized our food at the expense of our health,

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prioritizing profits over people to the point where our bodies can no longer cope with this chemical assault.

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We must stop subsidizing the foods that make us sick.

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We must prioritize people over profit.

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This isn't just about policy.

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It's about survival.

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Let's create a future where our food system is designed to nourish us and not destroy us.

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Thank you.