Reports

This scorecard grades legislators on their votes on significant bills CALPIRG supported or opposed in 2018. Thanks to bills passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Brown in 2018, our electricity will be much cleaner, our consumer products will be less likely to contain toxic chemicals, and net neutrality principles were restored for an open Internet. Childcare centers will test their drinking water for lead, we’ll reduce unnecessary plastic straws from going into our waste stream, and consumers will have stronger protections to keep their personal data secure from identity thieves.

To explore how much Roundup we’re drinking, U.S. PIRG tested beer and wine for glyphosate/Roundup. As we’ve confirmed in this study, Roundup is found in beer and wine. This confirms past studies on the topic, which found that glyphosate is found in almost all adult beverages. For example, in 2016, beer testing in Germany also revealed residues of glyphosate in every single sample tested, even in independent beers. After that study was released, German brewers managed to severely limit the amount of glyphosate used in brewing, and saw marked improvement in a 2017 follow-up study. A study from 2018 in Latvia came to similar conclusions as the original German study, finding glyphosate in all products tested.

We tested 15 products: Five wines and 10 beers. The wine brands tested included Beringer, Barefoot and Sutter Home. Beer brands tested included Budweiser, Coors, Miller Lite, Sam Adams, Samuel Smith Organic and New Belgium.