(NaturalNews) The recent news that a number of non-GMO foods were found to be saturated with glyphosate weedkiller caught many people by surprise and left a lot of us wondering exactly how this could happen.

As reported on April 20 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, on Natural News, a sample of the Strawberries and Cream flavor of Quaker Instant Oatmeal was shown to contain a whopping 1,327.1 parts per billion (ppb) of glyphosate in testing at Microbe Inotech Laboratories, Inc.

The finding was shocking not only for the incredibly high level of the toxic chemical noted but also because oats are actually not genetically modified crops in the first place.

This highlights a fact that even many consumers who are pretty well-versed on organic and GMO food are not aware of: glyphosate is regularly sprayed on crops such as oats, wheat and barley just before harvesting as a desiccant. This is believed to boost their yield as well as their uniformity and save some time when it comes to harvesting.

Monsanto actually published a paper back in 2010 promoting the practice, showing photographs of how glyphosate can help with yield and uniformity.

Many people fall into the trap of assuming that glyphosate exposure is only an issue with GMO foods, but this is actually not the case, despite what Big Ag wants you to believe.
 

Major oat supplier refuses to give up glyphosate

General Mills recently made waves by announcing that Cheerios would become non-GMO. Some people were quick to point out that GMO oats do not actually exist, but the cereal did switch to non-GMO sugar. Nevertheless, their non-GMO are still likely contaminated with glyphosate, which has been declared a "probable" human carcinogen.