Residual chemicals in straw intended for mulch????

Hi all. New to this site, but gaining lots of info. Wanting to 'redo' the garden this year with raised hugelbeds and mulched straw walkways...if this latest foot of snow would EVER disappear!!! Not wanting to fork over any $ we don't have for straw, we have access to all the canola straw we want, laying in field since last fall, but it had been sprayed for weed (well, actually oat control from the previous year), with some chemical called 'StartUp'... assumed to be a variation of 'Roundup'. Would there be any possibility of chemical residue in the remaining straw which might affect our garden produce? Or, for that matter, would any type of straw procured from non-organic sources potentially be "tainted"? Thanks for any comments.....

Here is some info about startup

wiki on the chemical in start up

link to a publication by Monsanto on startup


A few highlights:

The median half-life of glyphosate in soil ranges between 2 and 197 days; a typical field half-life of 47 days has been suggested. Soil and climate conditions affect glyphosate's persistence in soil. The median half-life of glyphosate in water varies from a few days to 91 days.[24]

ATTENTION: AVOID CONTACT WITH FOLIAGE, GREEN STEMS, OR FRUIT OF CROPS, DESIRABLE PLANTS AND TREES SINCE SEVERE INJURY OR DESTRUCTION MAY RESULT.

I personally would have nothing to do with any organic matter that was sprayed with startup. If the canola was sprayed with startup than it is probably genetically modified to have the 'round up ready gene'. I would think that any non organic straw would be tainted to some degree, and maybe even some organic straw if used while there are still fertilizer residues on it.

Zach Muller wrote:
I personally would have nothing to do with any organic matter that was sprayed with startup. If the canola was sprayed with startup than it is probably genetically modified to have the 'round up ready gene'. I would think that any non organic straw would be tainted to some degree, and maybe even some organic straw if used while there are still fertilizer residues on it.

This is why we have fungi, to decompose and recycle organic matter. If months of being out in the sun hasn't degraded the glyphosate in the straw, then a few weeks of fungal decomposition will.

For those that don't trust fungi to decompose things, I suppose you could always make biochar out of the organic matter.

John Elliott wrote:

This is why we have fungi, to decompose and recycle organic matter. If months of being out in the sun hasn't degraded the glyphosate in the straw, then a few weeks of fungal decomposition will.

For those that don't trust fungi to decompose things, I suppose you could always make biochar out of the organic matter.

Good point John, I agree and I do trust fungi. I think in a different circumstance like if I was hurting for organic matter in my system I would consider taking the sprayed material, keep it quarantined, and inoculate it with fungi and microbes until the glyphosate was gone. Around here there are so many sources of less contaminated organic matter that sprayed things aren't worth the time and space.