Celebrating Non-GMO Verified Food!

This October, we're celebrating non-GMO verified foods.  Our friends at the Non-GMO Project believe that you deserve the strongest certification for GMO avoidance, making it easier for you to avoid GMOs in your shopping cart.

Let’s talk about GMO’s!

Over the last 45 years, author, educator, and health guru Janet Jacks has been asking good questions about our food and our health.  We asked her to share some of her thoughts on GMOs and the non-GMO project and here’s what she said:

We are lucky! Today, we have choices. We have opportunity to benefit from the hard work of those who have taken ‘the road less travelled’, established guidelines, stood against the status quo, and created safe and healthy food for us to enjoy. 

Certified organic foods are GMO-free and are grown on healthy soil without pesticides or herbicides. I celebrate the many pioneers who saw the need to grow our food with integrity and who worked hard to create the framework for organic growers, protecting organic certification from GMOs and dangerous chemicals. Making the organic choice protects you and your loved ones from unnecessary and harmful substances, among other benefits too numerous to mention here. 

The Non-GMO Project is an independent consumer-driven, non-profit organization, world leaders in non-GMO testing and certification. Here’s great news! Because of their hard work, thankfully you can choose to avoid GMOs! To date, over 50,000 products carry their certification. Look for their butterfly symbol! Non-GMO Verified is the fastest growing label in the natural products industry: your assurance that the food you choose has been tested and contains no GMOs. 

Did you know?

• Labeling of genetically modified foods is not required in Canada or the US, while 64 countries have mandated labelling. 
• The best practice in GMO labelling would require all food that is genetically engineered to be labelled, with clear understandable terms. 
• In November 2012, the decision hung in the balance. Californians were asked to vote on a proposal to require food in the Golden State to be labelled if it included genetically modified ingredients. Proponents said people have a right to know what is in their food. Industry poured nearly $41 million into advertising to defeat the proposal, arguing that labelling creates “a false impression that there's something amiss” about foods that come from engineered crops. (But in truth, actually there is something amiss.) Proposition 37 was narrowly defeated, with 48.6% voting to require GMOs to be labelled.
• Roundup-Ready crops are GMOs that tolerate the application of Roundup, a toxic herbicide whose key ingredient is glyphosate. Common GMO crops include corn, soy, sugar beet, canola, summer squash, zucchini, papaya, and alfalfa. Newer to the table are browning-resistant potatoes and apples. There are dangers inherent in genetic engineering, as well as dangers from the increasing amounts of these chemicals used, as weeds become resistant to it. It cannot be removed through washing or cooking.
• Foods most contaminated with glyphosate include oats, wheat, and lentils. Oats! Who would have thought? Though these are not GMO foods, the crops are sprayed before harvest to dry them. The EWG (Environmental Working Group) reported in 2019 that widespread glyphosate contamination affected breakfast cereals, oat products, pasta, crackers, chickpea flour, pizza, and lentils.
• If you do nothing else, be sure you choose organic oats, wheat, and legumes to assure you that this and other contaminates are never used on your food.
• According to The Guardian, other foods with high contamination levels include almonds, beets, sugar beets, canola oil, carrots, corn and corn oil, quinoa, soy products, sweet potatoes, and vegetable oil. Look for non-GMO and organic certifications to protect against a growing toxic burden.

Every day I am thankful for the privilege and opportunity to choose organic and non-GMO verified foods. I am grateful for foods that nourish and sustain. Foods that heal and restore. Foods that energize and empower. Thankful for the farmers who understand the issues and care for the soil, the plants, the animals in the very best way. Thankful for Goodness Me!’s commitment to source exclusively certified organic produce. Thankful for the innovators, big and small, who produce the thousands of organic and non-GMO products in our stores. Thankful for knowledgeable staff who work hard every day to make it possible for you and me to access all the healthy foods I enjoy each week.  

Celebrate with me the global movement for a better, more sustainable food system! And enjoy in your own self the wellbeing that can bring.