For generations, American farmers grew wheat, oats, soybeans, and other food crops, allowed them to mature, and harvested them without spraying herbicides over the fields shortly before bringing the crops into the food supply. They relied on natural maturation, field drying, swathing, and mechanical harvesting. These methods were not primitive relics of an agricultural past. They were practical techniques that helped feed a growing nation, and many remain in use today. In fact, organic farmers still routinely use these methods to dry crops prior to processing.
Then came another agricultural innovation, one that promised farmers greater convenience, more predictable harvest schedules, and potentially lower operating costs. Instead of waiting for crops to dry naturally, farmers could apply chemical herbicides shortly before harvest to kill remaining green vegetation, accelerate drying, or make harvesting more uniform.
The practice is called preharvest chemical desiccation. Glyphosate, the active ingredient historically associated with Roundup, is among the chemicals used for this purpose. Others include paraquat, diquat, sodium chlorate, saflufenacil, and carfentrazone, depending on the crop and the product’s regulatory approval.
What began as a specialized agricultural technique has become an established harvest-management practice in American agriculture. Yet the American public has received remarkably little information about how frequently these chemicals are applied immediately before food crops are harvested, what residues remain, or whether the benefits justify the additional chemical exposure.
This all needs to change.
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