Story at-a-glance

• Glyphosate has become the most widely used herbicide in history, with usage increasing 100 to 300-fold since the late 1970s, resulting in its presence in 60% to 80% of the general population through food, water, and air exposure

• Research has shown glyphosate can accumulate in the kidney, liver, colon, and brain, cross the blood-brain barrier, and has been found in human breast milk, indicating it doesn't simply get excreted as claimed

• A two-year study found that exposure to Roundup (a glyphosate-based herbicide) at doses far below permissible levels caused organ damage and increased tumor incidence, particularly mammary tumors in female test subjects

• Glyphosate has been identified as an endocrine disruptor, showing eight out of 10 key characteristics associated with endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and can affect future generations through epigenetic changes

• Studies show switching to an organic diet can reduce urinary glyphosate levels by about 71% within six days, with the highest sources of exposure being conventional grains, processed foods, and the "Dirty Dozen" produce items

A pesticide is any substance or mixture of substances designed to kill, repel, or control pests. Let's break it down into the two components: The term "pest" refers to any organism (insects, weeds, rodents, fungi, bacteria, etc.) that is considered harmful or undesirable, particularly in agricultural settings. And then "-cide" is a suffix derived from the Latin word "caedere," meaning "to kill."

It is commonly used in words to indicate something that kills or destroys, such as herbicide (kills plants), insecticide (kills insects), and fungicide (kills fungi).

Pesticides serve as an umbrella term for substances targeting pests, with subcategories defined by the type of pest being addressed, such as herbicides for weeds, insecticides for insects, fungicides for fungi, and rodenticides for rodents.