PICTURED: Presidential hopeful and representative of Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard smiles for the camera next to Bernard Freeman, an activist looking to raise awareness about the toxic chemical glyphosate and its presence in our food.

Recent court cases have established beyond reasonable doubt that the active ingredient in Monsanto’s pesticide Roundup called glyphosate causes cancer. $8 billion has been offered from Monsanto for damages to over 40,000 cancer-victims as a settlement in a recent class-action lawsuit. This same toxic chemical glyphosate has been found in everything from Oreo’s to organic beer.

Along with cancer, it has also been linked to diseases such as Alzheimer’s, autism, autoimmune issues, dementia, diabetes, gluten intolerance, infertility, and others. It’s especially toxic to the unborn and babies because they have underdeveloped kidneys for filtering it. Many experts believe this is the cause for the skyrocketing autism rates in the country.

The evidence is so convincing, that the WHO and the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified glyphosate as a carcinogen.

“This poison in our food is arguably the most important and timely issue affecting Americans,” says Bernard Freeman in an interview with World at Large. Freeman is an activist working in the early primary states attempting to spread awareness of this massive public health issue and to garner support from Democratic candidates.

“This message is so simple… poison is bad,” continued Freeman. 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang echoed that sentiment two weeks ago on twitter after Freeman spoke to him at a town hall.

A Clean Food Act

Glyphosate, the toxic ingredient in Roundup is already banned in 19 countries as varied as Italy, Malawi, and Thailand, for use as a pesticide, herbicide, and for use on crops, foodstuffs, or near to bodies of water. Here in the states, California is the only member of the union to have reached any consensus on limiting glyphosate use.

Along with Yang, Freeman was able to meet with Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard – another of the 2020 presidential hopefuls. It was his hope that she would take lead on a Clean Food Act.

“Her response was that congress doesn’t know what glyphosate is” said Freeman. “She’s pretty strong on standing against Monsanto, Hawaii hates them. She’s all about protecting the air, water, and land”.

While measureable parts per-million of glyphosate has been confirmed in practically every commercially available food product or produce, there isn’t a large amount of media coverage on this particular public health risk.

Freeman thinks this is because Monsanto, who genetically engineer most of their crop seeds to be glyphosate-resistant and “Roundup-ready,” has an entire internal division dedicated to countering scientific evidence that would damage their reputation or operations.

Barack Obama appointed former VP of Monsanto Michael Taylor to a high-level advisory role at the Food and Drug Administration of all places, suggesting just how wide-reaching their influence is.

Trying to get this situation out before the eyes of legislators, Freeman has drafted what an example of what a Clean Food Act might look like, and it basically comes down to aligning farmer’s incentives with American health requirements – requirements which certainly everyone can agree start with “poison is bad”.

The short bill calls to limit the legally-bearable amount of glyphosate in foodstuffs to levels measured and permitted for in the state of California, which holds much stricter standards than the rest of the nation, followed by an effort to join members of the EU like Italy and Holland and ban glyphosate altogether, and increased efforts to test products for glyphosate presence.

On suggestion from Tulsi, Freeman encourages people to contact their elected officials (which you can do here) and explain what glyphosate is and what it does.

Freeman’s next stop is an event of Tom Steyer, an American billionaire and philanthropist who is also seeking the 2020 nomination from the Dems.