The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Crescent City Times.com By Center for Food Safety – February 21, 2026 For decades, the chemical industry promised that genetically engineered crops would reduce pesticide use. Instead, the widespread adoption of glyphosate tolerant genetically engineered corn, soy, and canola has driven glyphosate use up exponentially. What was sold as weed-control tool has become a toxic treadmill, locking farmers into escalating chemical use as weeds evolve resistance and regulators respond by allowing higher and higher residues in food. This treadmill is harming public health, wildlife, and the integrity of our food system and it ends on your plate. As glyphosate use has surged, the legal limits for how much glyphosate is allowed to remain in food have risen dramatically. Over the past three decades, allowable residue levels have increased hundreds of times over, not because glyphosate has become safer, but because industrial agriculture demanded regulatory accommodation. Glyphosate is now routinely sprayed on crops like wheat, oats, corn, and soy right before harvest. Nearly all processed foods contain some form of corn or soy. That means exposure is widespread, constant, and largely invisible. Yet the public is kept in the dark. We are not told when glyphosate is in our food. We are not told how much is there. And we are not given clear, independent information about the risks, especially for children. Despite these realities, the Environmental Protection Agency continues to allow rising glyphosate residues while failing to collect adequate real world data and exempting glyphosate from key child health protections required by law. This is unacceptable. You have the right to know what is in your food and the right to demand that regulators put public health ahead of chemical industry profits. Go to: alerts@centerforfoodsafety.org and add your name to the petition.