Dear Banza,

We at Moms Across America, our team and supporters as signed below, are concerned about the health of our families and community. We are writing to you to request that you switch to sourcing your chick peas only from organic or regenerative organic sources and join us in creating a safer food supply for all.

We agree that chickpeas can be a healthy source of protein and nutrients. We love chickpeas and the idea of chickpea pasta! However, we disagree that chickpeas with any (low or high) levels of glyphosate on them are ever healthy.

We also disagree that just because your products or any food company's products test below FDA allowable maximum residue levels for glyphosate or any pesticide, that your products are safe. Hundreds of studies show that glyphosate and other agrochemicals are not safe at very low levels of exposure. To ignore these studies is irresponsible and misleading to the American public. We know you have no intention of misleading the American public and ask you to do better than the FDA. You can find many of the studies here.

We are also concerned that your letter to the public on your website states that glyphosate cooked down to .1 ppm (100 ppb) when cooked, but you do not state for how long that pasta was cooked. A doctor who communicated with you by email reported that your team stated that the pasta was cooked for 15 minutes to achieve that result. We assert that no one cooks their pasta for 15 minutes unless they have forgotten about it; normal cooking time, according to your package, is 6-9 minutes.

In MAA's testing, cooking the pasta in distilled water for 6 minutes, as recommended, showed 161.5 ppb of glyphosate still present. Neither finding, 100 or 161 ppb is safe. Therefore, it is not accurate to state that your food is safe containing these levels of glyphosate.

In addition, if anyone uses your pasta product dry, as in a casserole recipe, the glyphosate (over 2000 ppb from the box we tested) will not be discarded in the water. It will remain in the casserole dish. Also, for any chickpea pizza crust product you sell, one might expect that all glyphosate residues will remain in the pizza crust if the chickpeas are not first boiled. We ask that you inspect these matters and take action to provide safe products.

We know it is not your intention to have glyphosate in your food products, but continuing to allow it is unconscionable. We ask you to join with us in petitioning the EPA to disallow glyphosate as a drying agent on food and feed crops. In the meantime, we also ask that you switch suppliers to organic and/or regenerative organic farmers and require that future suppliers do not spray glyphosate or any other harmful agrochemical on the ingredients you use in any food product. 

We hope you will agree to these two reasonable and healthy requests.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Moms Across America and supporters as signed below.

To the EPA Pesticide Division:

Moms Across America and our supporters: retail brands, pediatricians, scientists, physicians, health coaches, teachers, farmers, lawyers, and consumers, are requesting that you review the 67 studies that were not included in your review of glyphosate as a carcinogen that the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reviewed and revise your decision regarding the license of glyphosate. We request you also review the new studies connecting glyphosate to many reproductive and endocrine-disrupting issues. Hundreds of independent studies have shown that glyphosate is harmful in many ways, not only as a carcinogen. Glyphosate also has endocrine disrupting properties at very low levels and can cause neurological, nervous system, reproductive, sperm, liver, kidney, and organ damage as well as miscarriages.

There is no safe level of glyphosate in our food or livestock feed supply, and you are the only agency that has the authority to change the current reality: harmful levels of glyphosate contaminate school lunches, fast food, baby food, and gluten-free food. In the past, glyphosate has been detected in thousands of food samples and other substances, including oats, chickpeas, beans, wheat, soy, corn, orange juice, wine, beer, eggs, bread, snacks, cereals, honey, and even breastmilk, hospital gauze, feminine sanitary products, childhood vaccines, and sperm.

America has a physical, mental, and reproductive health crisis, and glyphosate is a significant contributing factor to all of these severely critical issues. Your agency must take action now to protect the health and future of our country.

We are asking you to:

1. Review all of the studies the IARC reviewed and all new independent studies available today on glyphosate and all health effects.
2. Revoke the license of glyphosate.
3. Until the license is revoked, immediately disallow glyphosate from being used as a drying agent or pre-harvest weed killer on all agricultural crops. The EU has recently banned pre-harvest spray with glyphosate to minimize dietary exposure. We are asking you to do the same.

Thank you for taking action to protect the American public's health, not the corporations' profits.

We hope you appreciate that when you reflect on your legacy one day, it will be one of courage, commitment, and integrity.

Thank you.