GMO Foods: Getting Them Off Your Plate and Out of Your Shopping Cart

In my last blog, I shared the details of how crops from genetically modified seeds have grown to play such a significant part of our food supply.  In less than two weeks, California voters will go to the polls to decide the outcome of Prop 37. Should food processing companies be required to label foods containing ingredients derived from genetically modified seeds?  Do we have the right to know what we feed our families?

As I write this blog, I am listening to a No on Prop 37 ad paid for by the Council for Biotechnology Information whose members include Monsanto, Dupont and other GMO companies, warn voters of  "millions of government dollars wasted" and rising prices at the cart if GMO foods are labeled.  Both claims have been invalidated by third parties including Emory law professor Joanna Shepherd-Bailey who has testified before the US House of Representatives.

Companies change labels all the time to reflect New and Improved. It's doubtful the cents per person will be passed on by the grocery companies who will aim to keep customers buying GMO products. 

If California voters believe Monsanto or if you live in a state where labeling is not required, how can you avoid these bioengineered foods that have never been safety-tested before being released into our environment and in our grocery carts?

1. Purchase Organic-Certified foods which may not intentionally use GMO-derived ingredients.

2. Look for the "Non-GMO Project" label, third-party verified non-GMO foods.

3. Download the "Non-GMO Shopping Guide" or app on your i Phone or smart phone.

4. Avoid Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal), an artificial sweetener in process of being rebranded as "AminoSweet," a genetically modified sweetener.

5. Be aware of the following foods, ingredients or derivatives.

Corn: Conventional corn, derivatives including high fructose corn syrup, corn oil, maltodextrin, corn meal.  Conventional popcorn is not currently a GMO crop.

Soy: Non-organic soy, tofu, soy sauce, soy derivatives including soy flour, soy protein, soy lechitin, texturized vegetable protein.

Oils: Cottonseed, corn, canola oil.

Sugar Beets: Non-cane sugar, processed from Roundup Ready sugar beets.

Hawaiian and Chinese Papaya

Some conventional zucchini and crookneck squash

6. Focus your diet on the outside aisles.  Fill your cart with organic fruits and vegetables.  Avoid processed foods.  According to reknowned journalist and author Michael Pollan, over 45,000 foods containing corn or corn derivatives line the grocery shelves.

7. Buy only non rbST or organic dairy.  Bovine growth hormone or rbST has been connected with rising rates of breast and prostate cancer as well as tumors, infertility and other significant problems in lab animals 

8. Purchase organic and free-range poultry, beef, pork and dairy products.  Livestock fed GMO feed may pass on the DNA and genetic manipulations to those who consume their meat and milk.

Avoiding GMO-derived groceries can be challenging, especially without labels.  But, as long as food companies play this dangerous game of polluting our food supply with GMO foods associated with a myriad of health problems, we will need to be responsible for our own education and health, a worthy goal for all of us.