Glifosato en la cerveza alemana: nuevas pruebas 

Germans are serious about the quality of their beer. While there are countless beer brands, the level of quality is not the same for every brewer.

A recent study by ÖKO-TEST (the German equivalent of Consumer Reports) found trace amounts of glyphosate in beer for 12 of the 50 German beer brands they tested. Only the organic brands showed no detectable levels. 

You can read details from the ÖKO-TEST study here, but it's in German, so you might need a translation tool like Google Translate. Keep reading here as we analyze the findings. 

Meanwhile, in July of 2020, a second Canadian grain processor restricted the processing of oats sprayed with glyphosate as a desiccant (drying agent)  in their facilities due to the impaired quality of the oats. The presence of glyphosate in beer, made with various grains often sprayed with glyphosate as a desiccant, would indicate a potential decrease in the quality of the product.

¿Qué mostraron los resultados de ÖKO-TEST con respecto al glifosato en la cerveza?

Hay buenas noticias: los laboratorios que encargaron encontraron muy pocas sustancias problemáticas. Sin embargo, los expertos encontraron trazas de glifosato en doce cervezas, aunque los valores están muy por debajo del máximo permitido en la UE para cebada cervecera. 

¿Por qué ÖKO-TEST cree que el glifosato es malo?

ÖKO-TEST criticizes the weed killer, correctly blaming it for being partly responsible for the death of bees and insects. The main reason they criticize the residue of the weed killer is that it harms biodiversity. The Cancer Agency of the World Health Organization (IARC) classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans." The European Chemicals Agency ECHA could not or did not want to confirm this.

¿Dónde estaba el glifosato en la cerveza?

Los fabricantes que producen la cerveza con trazas de glifosato respondieron que su malta proviene exclusivamente de cebada cervecera cultivada en campos que no son tratados con glifosato. Por lo tanto, es probable que los residuos lleguen a la deriva desde otras áreas tratadas.

El informe afirma: "Las ocho cervezas orgánicas de nuestra prueba no contienen glifosato".

¿Dónde se encuentra el glifosato en Alemania?

In Germany, glyphosate is still by far the most commonly sprayed herbicide. Above all, the harmful consequences to the environment have recently come more and more into focus for Germans. 

¿Qué está haciendo Alemania con respecto al glifosato?

There are plans to phase out the use of Glyphosate by the end of 2022. So it makes sense that the German beer industry is working on removing it from its supply chains. This is confirmed by statements from the German Brewers' Association.

¿Qué tan similares son estos hallazgos a los hallazgos de Glyphosate in Wine?

Click here to read more about our findings.

¿OGM en la cerveza?

Un nuevo artículo en BNN Bloomberg, La cerveza editada genéticamente es la siguiente en la cruzada argentina por la aceptación de OMG, afirma: "Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. de Argentina, la compañía de tecnología agrícola (empresa que cotiza en los EE. UU.) que está tratando de convencer al mundo de comer trigo genéticamente modificado, está en conversaciones con el fabricante de cerveza artesanal de Buenos Aires, Rabieta, para elaborar la primera lager GM.

Este avance potencial de los OMG se ha resistido durante décadas. El trigo transgénico ha sido ampliamente rechazado.

The article acknowledges this resistance, "While the vast majority of the world’s soybean and corn crops are already GMOs, these are largely fed to livestock. On the other hand, Biotech wheat would be directly eaten by humans in bread and pasta, something consumers and regulators have rejected in the past."

La firma se está moviendo para suministrar sus semillas de trigo HB4 a la compañía cervecera Rabieta y a un productor avícola para piensos, dijo el director financiero, Enrique López Lecube, en una entrevista el miércoles en el evento New Economic Gateway Latin America de Bloomberg en Panamá.

While this gene-edited wheat is being promoted as drought-tolerant, the potential approval of GMO wheat would open the flood gates for endless possibilities of genetic modifications, which could include not only off-target RNA and DNA mutations, as has been shown in preliminary gene-edited organism testing, but also the tolerance to toxic chemicals such as glyphosate, glufosinate, Dicamba, 2,4-D and others. In addition to introducing potentially harmful technology and chemicals, GMO wheat poses an enormous and inevitable risk of contamination of non-GMO wheat crops, impacting the eco-system, quality, and potentially international trade.

The presence of glyphosate in German beer (as well as US beer as previously detected in numerous tests) and the possibility of GMOs in beer have many consumers wondering ...why mess with something that isn't broken? Why allow toxins in a brew that millions worldwide have enjoyed for generations? Why try to "improve" on a product that can be made from various grains? Why not focus energy on reducing climate change in the first place?

Los fabricantes de cerveza pueden estar seguros de que sus clientes harán preguntas y tendrán cuidado en la sección de la cerveza que elijan disfrutar.