Recent polls across the world have consistently shown that, if they had a choice, 90% of people would actively seek to avoid GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in their food.
Unfortunately, GMOs are taking over our farmland so quickly, it is virtually impossible to avoid eating GM foods... unless you know what to look for:
HOW TO AVOID GMO FOODS:
1. Look at the stickers on fruit - there is a PLU code with either 4 or 5 numbers. If your fruit's label has 4 numbers, it is conventionally grown. 5 numbers starting with a 9 means it was organically grown, and 5 numbers starting with an 8 means GMO.
2. Buy local & talk to your farmers - this is the best way to ensure you're eating real foods. It's estimated that up to 85% of pre-packaged and processed foods contain GMOs, so buying fresh from the farm is a great way to avoid that.
3. Avoid the Top Four GMO Crops of Soy, Corn, Canola and Cottonseed - most blended oils in North America contain canola and cottonseed. Replacing these with 100% extra virgin olive oil is a safe alternative.
4. Encourage your favorite food providers to label their food GMO-free. We don't need the government to force companies to label their foods, and we're seeing more and more that we as consumers have tremendous power, and if enough of us ask for GMO-free labels, and support the companies that use them, we'll see a huge increase in labeling. And we're already starting to see this.
Get to know the companies that are labeling their foods GMO-free.
5. Buy Organically Grown Food - For now, the organic certification process is a relatively safe bet to ensure your food is free of GMOs, although this may not be the case in the future. Help support global sustainability by purchasing certified organically grown food.
6. Conventional Sugar - Over 90% of this year's sugar beet harvest will be Monsanto's GM Roundup-Ready Sugar Beet. That means if you are using sugar, or eating anything with sugar in it, you're eating GMOs. Alternatives to sugar are listed here.
7. Grow your own food - Plant a garden using heirloom seeds! (thanks to Amy31415 on YouTube for pointing out this important tip!)
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More tips, from A Little Bit of Green - "7 GMO Products I Bet You Are Still Using":
Iodized Salt - Iodine doesn’t like to stick to salt crystals so it needs a little “glue†in the form of corn starch. And the manufacturer doesn’t even have to list it on the label. Isn’t that nice for them.
Fresh Fruit & Vegetables - Have you heard that most fruit and vegetables aren’t GMO? They might not be when they come off the tree but many are by the time they get to the store. Apples, cucumbers and many others are coated with a layer of wax or oil mostly derived from cheap GM corn.
Canned Goods - Nice, cheap citric acid no longer just comes from citrus. Take a look at your canned tomatoes, fruit juice, etc. If they aren’t organic and they say citric acid or absorbic acid you may be looking at code for GM corn.
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SOURCES & MORE RESOURCES:
How to Avoid GMOs in Restaurants
Aaron's Environmental: Organic Certifications, Labels, and What They Mean
Top 5 Ways to Avoid GMOs in Your Food
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TAKE ACTION:
Take the "Replace Roundup" Challenge and help divert millions in revenue from Monsanto!
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The current broken food system exists only through our economic participation... so let's vote with our wallets!
Please leave a comment & let me know if I'm missing anything!
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Special thanks to Tarrin Lupo for making me a necklace with my bytestyle logo!! How cool is THAT? He makes all sorts of one-of-a-kind liberty-oriented jewelry - check it out here!
Awesome list. 1. Look at the
Awesome list.
1. Look at the stickers on fruit - there is a PLU code with either 4 or 5 numbers. If your fruit's label has 4 numbers, it is conventionally grown. 5 numbers starting with a 9 means it was organically grown, and 5 numbers starting with an 8 means GMO.
This really helps me a lot. It is easy to understand.
Terry Winkle
NCLEX questions | how to save a relationship | lose weight quick
I really love the work you
I really love the work you guys are doing, don't really know how many people are behind bytestyle.tv and freedom movement. Also, already subscribed to you in YouTube.
I have a question, I'm from Canada and I'm pretty sure we share some of the same issues when it comes to products like GMO and regulating bodies like FDA, EPA, and so on. trying to get pregnant quickly, Quite a bit of our legislature and data is taken from those agencies. Yet we also have our differences. I have not yet found anything like what you guys have done here in Canada. Could I be selfish and ask if you can consider the Canadian audience and adapt to us too? Or I would love to network and see if we can get something like that started up here with your help. Thanks alot!!
Girl, thanks for all you do.
Girl, thanks for all you do. If I wasn't married, I'd close my Contour Abs blog, run for president, win and make you my first lady so you could battle it out with the french pres' wife on who looks the best and who's got more brains. You'd win...hands down in both areas.
Keep up the great work. I imagine you get tired from time to time but know that your work will live on long after you're gone.
I really love the work you
I really love the work you guys are doing, don't really know how many people are behind bytestyle.tv and freedom movement. Also, already subscribed to you in YouTube.
I have a question, I'm from Canada and I'm pretty sure we share some of the same issues when it comes to products like GMO and regulating bodies like FDA, EPA, and so on. Quite a bit of our legislature and data is taken from those agencies. Yet we also have our differences. I have not yet found anything like what you guys have done here in Canada. Could I be selfish and ask if you can consider the Canadian audience and adapt to us too? Or I would love to network and see if we can get something like that started up here with your help. Thanks alot!!
Great article. As far as the
Great article. As far as the commenter who says GMO food taste good that is not surprising. They can make cardboard smell like steak, even have the texture and taste of steak. So you want to eat cardboard?
Send this viral...
Send this viral...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y98HxYbsdBM
What about those that start
What about those that start with the #3 - I thought those were GMO as well? Examples right off the bat that have PLU's that start with #3 are the "Saturn" (flat) peaches, yellow kiwis, and a cultivar of pear that's at the grocery store right now. Anybody know anything about this? And thanks for the good info!
not Shelley's best work (if
not Shelley's best work (if you're going to read it to us, why not just make this a document with a few bullet points I could have read much faster than you stumbled through it). Beauty & Brains aint everything, work on your delivery.
You guys are doing great
You guys are doing great work!
Keep it up!
I have to go ahead and agree
I have to go ahead and agree on the brains/attractiveness issue, but i will say one thing about physical beauty(which you have, of course)....it doesn't really mean much to someone who has matured past the boy/girl stage in life. So what really makes you attractive is that you didn't let your looks do all the work, your brains shine through your physical beauty and i respect you for that.
That being said, i am OF COURSE very cautious of ANY government or society that decides that genetically modified crops or high-input farming is desirable to the ever-ready alternative...and that of course is industrial hemp. I mean we are talking about, arguably, the FIRST domesticated crop in human history....and industrial hemp only has trace amounts(>.1% THC) of drugs! Also, this same crop has the best mix of proteins, carbohydrates, and minerals(the optimal Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids) making it one of the best crops to distribute to food banks and other similar programs.
What i see here in Missouri is lots of areable farm-land being put into state-run programs that encourage people to NOT grow food. Of course it has a benefit b/c too much farming strips the soil of nutrients but that isn't a problem with hemp, one simply chops the heads, harvests the stalks, and tills the heads back into the soil AFTER they have been shaken to harvest the seeds.
We also need to be looking at increasing yields naturally by studying and encouraging the symbiotic relationship that mychorrizal fungi and ANY plant enjoys. We also need to start studying the benefits of companion growing(which, admittedly, is usually done only on a small scale b/c of efficieny). We need to be looking at programs to compost our food waste and turn that into NEEDED organic fertilizer(which doesn't work very well w/o mychorrizal fungi) and STOP letting Dow and DuPont tell our farmers what they need. We need to start considering the small farmers that love their way of life and the area they live in, and come up with free market solutions that will allow them to continue on their land for generations to come.
Why the issue of industrial hemp isn't on the minds and tongues of every American is beyond my comprehension! I know it all boils down to basic education of this beneficial(and in my area's case, absolutely needed) cash-crop, but everyone who hears and understands this has the responsibility to pass the facts on and to get more people educated...its time to stop letting fears dictate our policies.
I have been looking for this
I have been looking for this data, am really glad you posted it. the data on GMO is terrifying, and the increase in cancer, in other illnesses, the rise of the number of unhealthy children that I've observed is appalling. The only solution I can come up with is our food sources.
I will pass this site on.
thanks.
I am perplexed by what seems
I am perplexed by what seems to be a desire to limit food choices from you. Please do not take offense here, as I highly respect your work. However most of the evidence I have seen is anecdotal in the end. I am sure this will generate hate mail from some here, but this movement is about freedoms, so here goes. What really has me worried is a question:
How can you assure me that this is not like the early days of the environmetal movement a few decades ago? It seems eerily similar. Back in the late 70's and 80's when I was a kid, it was all about how the big evil corporations were wantonly polluting the environment, and they needed to be stopped. Now the environmental movement has become one of the primary ways through which government is restricting freedom and implementing totalitarian agendas.
I grew up around farming(my family owned/operated a rural repair shop), but have nothing to do with agriculture today. I have seen the numbers from the tremendous yield increases from modern crops, and find myself wondering, is this a way governments can over time get everyone worked up, then decide modern hybrid crops are not allowed? Suddenly, we cannot grow enough to feed everybody, and governments get to decide who can eat and who starves etc.
Just some questions. I do not claim to know the answers, but I have trouble getting behind this one for the reasons I state.
thanks for reading and keep up the good work,
David
David: i understand your
David:
i understand your suspicion, one can never be too careful. i agree that people should be free to choose what types of foods they eat - GMO/nonGMO
however, many of the people who produce these crops don't feel the same way. for instance check out the most recent assault on small farmers and growers - HR 2749. this bit of law was sponsored by a lady whose husband has ties to Monsanto. i'm no enemy of business, but when big agra and corrupt politicians team up against small biz and consumers, we all lose.
just my two cents
also check out this vid about ag subsidies...
http://reason.tv/video/show/agricultural-subsidies
A note to Anonymous who said,
A note to Anonymous who said, "Who cares? GMO's taste the same, are just as healthy and are much cheaper."
Only someone who (A) hasn't studied the data on GMOs or (B) has an agenda to keep the truth about GMOs from the public, would make such a statement.
Obamacare sounds like a good fit for you? After all, he is selling his national health insurance as "the same, just as healthy and much cheaper" too. Regardless of what insurance you have, however, you will need it if you keep eating GMO food products.
The link for the PDF above
The link for the PDF above for the non-GMO shopping guide, when clicked on, says 'dead'.
Is it just my system not recognizing it?
Girl, thanks for all you do. If I wasn't married, I'd run for president, win and make you my first lady so you could battle it out with the french pres' wife on who looks the best and who's got more brains. You'd win...hands down in both areas.
Keep up the great work. I imagine you get tired from time to time but know that your work will live on long after you're gone.
Kurt
Who cares? GMO's taste the
Who cares? GMO's taste the same, are just as healthy and are much cheaper.
Awesome, Anonymous. I like
Awesome, Anonymous. I like that rhyme. I'm lucky, I guess. Where I live here in Wyo, I have access to a lot of great food. A dairy on the other side of town sells milk directly to our grocery co-op in town. A butcher in Nebraska (not far from here, about 30 miles) sells meat to the same co-op. There are farms all over the place and many of them are happy to allow us to come and pick our own by the bushel.
Thanks for the great info, Shelly! I'll be mentioning this on my site too to link back.
Hey Aaron - Yes, that rhyme
Hey Aaron - Yes, that rhyme came at the right time - it was meant to shine, by no fault of mine ;)
My hazy's gettin' crazy -
Corn syrup I will remove it -
my diet will be a riot ,
Nature's goodness, I'll follow through withit -
Synthetics I must scorn, for we've all be forwarned -
If you don't push through for purity, you'll end up in obscurity !
-ES
I bought milk that said
I bought milk that said 'organic' -- but i dont think it's as good as RAW MILK, because it probably still was pastuerized and homengenized .. but at least the cows ate grass ,, and it tastes great (not as great as RAW) -- because it's WHOLE - the low fat milk cuts the milkfat and many of the natural proteins that go with it !
I can get 1/2 gallon RAW milk for about $4.39 .. but I have to travel 10 miles to whole foods - or 1 mile to grocery to get the $5.79 'organice milk' --
Traveling 10 miles to Whole Foods also requires putting the milk on ice as it spoils quick in the Florida heat ...
There should be a better way to remember that the PLC code number for GMO foods begins with 8 and is 5 digits .. secret code rhyme time ... " 5 digits that begin with 8 means that it's really not so great "
you work for the mnemonic
you work for the mnemonic society, admit it! ;)
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