By Dr. Mercola

Mark Kastel, founder of the farm policy research group Cornucopia, is deeply dedicated to making sure we have high-quality food and that we're not being deceived about what we're eating.

Here, we discuss Agent Orange, and one of its active ingredients, which is now creeping into our food supply.

As  described by Kastel, Cornucopia's mission is:

"To empower farmers, consumers, and wholesale buyers with information, so that they can make good, discerning purchasing decisions in the marketplace.

Among other things, we act as an organic industry watchdog to preserve the integrity and authenticity of the organic label and products to make sure that it remains to be a true marketplace alternative for people who want safer and more nutritious food."

Agent Orange Ingredient Headed Toward Your Plate?

To most people, "Agent Orange" is synonymous with the Vietnam war.

Many veterans suffered permanent side effects from their exposure to this potent defoliant, and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese children have been born with serious birth defects as a result of its use during the war.

Now, one of the active ingredients in Agent Orange, 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), a broadleaf herbicide, may be introduced directly into our food supply, because weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to Monsanto's broad-spectrum herbicide Roundup, which is used in massive quantities on all genetically engineered Roundup Ready crops. It's estimated that more than 130 types of weeds spanning 40 U.S. states are now herbicide-resistant, and they're showing no signs of stopping. In fact, the situation is getting progressively worse.

"Agent Orange was an herbicide used to defoliate the jungles in Vietnam and South East Asia, which also include a myriad of other incredibly toxic chemicals that we know had profound deleterious effect on the health of the indigenous people who lived in South East Asia and to our veterans who served there," Kastel says. Now we see one of these ingredients, 2,4-D, introduced [into our food supply] because the Dow Company... is introducing a new genetically engineered corn plant that "will be resistant to 2,4-D."

Yes, Dow AgroSciences (a subsidiary of Dow Chemicals), which was one of the original manufacturers of Agent Orange, has developed a new generation of genetically modified (GM) crops called "Enlist", designed to resist not just one, but THREE different herbicides: glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup), glufosinate, and  2,4-D, in the same way that Monsanto's Roundup-Ready crops are resistant to glyphosate.

After a mere 15 years' worth of consistent use on Roundup Ready crops, vast areas are now overrun with glyphosate-resistant superweeds that can't be destroyed. What makes them think triple-resistant crops are going to be any better, or produce different end results?