Blacklisted: 12 Food Companies to Avoid Featured Hot Please help support eatLocalgrown by sharing this article! Author Daisy Luther Originally published at Occupy Monsanto A genetically modified rose by any other name may smell sweet, but it could still have frankenthorns that might independently detach themselves and lop off your finger while you’re smelling it. That’s not unlike a trip to the grocery store these days. There are a lot of ugly surprises in pretty, charmingly-named packages. It seems like no matter how hard you try to avoid them, GMOs and toxic foods creep into your life. Take for example, the earthily-packaged “natural” foods that are showcased in your grocery store aisles. They cost twice as much, have obscure brand names, and tout their health benefits and natural sources. You can almost smell the freshly tilled soil when you pick up the box. Unfortunately, this is nothing more than corporate sleight-of-hand. Many of the products that seem so good are actually just subsidiaries of the companies that were most complicit in blocking GMO labeling, aided and abetted by everyone’s favorite purveyor of death, Monsanto. (Monsanto, incidentally, donated $7,100,500.00 to the fight against the labeling of GMO-containing products.) Don’t forget that Monsanto is now above the law due to the Monsanto Protection Act, a traitorous rider that Senator Roy Blunt managed to attach to a bill that was subsequently signed into law by President Obama. (you know, that guy in the White House, who made the labeling of GMOs one of his 2007 campaign promises?) I wish I could make a comprehensive list, but there are more stealthily labeled toxins on the shelves every single day. It all boils down to a these big companies that own nearly all of the foods sold in the United States. Some of the quietly owned subsidiaries may surprise you. Included is the amount that the company (and its subsidiaries) donated to defeat California Proposition 37 which would have required GMO labeling. Not every item on this list contains genetically modified ingredients. The list is based on the duplicitous marketing of the companies. More consumers are trying to make healthy choices at the grocery stores, but it’s difficult when companies push their toxic wares and dress them up as health food. Young people in particular fall victim to these schemes. You have to give a kid credit for purchasing something called “Vitamin Water” over a soda pop, and it’s infuriating that the kid, trying to make a good choice, has been tricked into the purchase by deceitful advertising and marketing. Some of the products listed, may in fact be exactly what they are portrayed to be, but I choose not to financially support the corporations behind them. Protect your health and help starve the beast by avoiding products distributed by these companies and their subsidiaries: Campbell’s - $250,000.00 Healthy Request Wolfgang Puck Soups Pace Foods Pepperidge Farms V-8 Cargill, Inc - $202,229.36 Truvia Natural Sweetener Shady Brooks Farms Diamond Crystal Salt Liza Nature Fresh Peter’s Chocolate Wilbur Chocolate Honeysuckle White Rumba Meats Good Nature Coca Cola - $1,164,400.00 Vitamin Water Smart Water Dasani Nestea Minute Maid Honest Tea Odwalla Vitaminenergy Con-Agra - $1,076,700.00 Orville Redenbacher’s Organic Hunt’s Organic Lightlife Alexia Healthy Choice Hebrew National Dean Foods - $253,950.00 Horizon Silk White Wave General Mills - $908,200.00 Nature Valley Fiber One Cheerios Cascadian Farm Muir Glen Lärabar Gold Medal Organic Food Should Taste Good Heinz- $500,000.00 ABC Bagel Bites Complan Daddies Delimex Farex Greenseas HP Sauce Heinz Lea & Perrins Ore-Ida Smart Ones Tater Tots TGI Friday’s Wattie’s Weight Watchers Wylers Hain-Celestial UPDATED TO ADD: Heinz has divested itself of Hain-Celestial stock over the past couple of years. Two sources report that the primary investors for Hain-Celestial are companies of extremely dubious consideration for our health: Phillip Morris, Monsanto, Citigroup, Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart and Lockheed Martin. (Farmwars and Home for Health) Earth’s Best Spectrum Organics Garden of Eatin’ Casbah Rice Dream Soy Dream WestSoy TofuTown MaraNatha Mountain Sun Walnut Acres Fruiti di Bosco Health Valley Bearitos Bread Shop Celestial Seasonings Kellogg’s - $632,500.00 Kashi Muslix Nutrigrain Bear Naked Morningstar Farms Gardenburger Kraft - $551,148.25 Snapple ReaLemon Triscuit SnackWell’s South Beach Boca Back to Nature Nabisco Nestle - $1,169,400.00 Pure Life Pelligrino Perrier Poland Spring Gerber California Pizza Kitchen Tribe Mediterranean Sweet Leaf Tea PepsiCo $2,249,661.61 Miss Vickie’s Sun Chips Aquafina SoBe Harvest Crunch Dole Ocean Spray Tropicana Miranda Tazo Quaker Naked Juice Mother’s Unilever – $467,000 (source) Salada Knorr Ben & Jerry’s A little bit of good news… There are a few companies you can still count on It isn’t all bad news. There are a few companies you can still count on – keep in mind that corporate mergers take place every day. When businesses change hands, there is no obligation to notify the public. One such cautionary tale took place with the company Dean’s, which acquired Horizon Foods. They quietly phased out the use of organic products without making any changes to the label and used non-organic milk produced under factory farm conditions. As well, they dropped the quality of their organic soy and began purchasing cheaper harvests from Asia. Meanwhile, unwitting retailers had no idea that the company had ceased producing the items organically, and continued to promote the products as they had previous to the acquisition. Right now, these are some of the GOOD LABELS to look for: 7th Generation Amy’s Kitchens Apple and Eve Applegate Azumaya Blue Diamond Bob’s Red Mill Bossa Nova Cal Organics Cedarlane Cell-nique Choice Organic Teas Clif Bar/ Nectar Fruit Coombs Family Farmers Cosorzio All Natural Country Choice Crystal Geyser Alpine Water Doctor Kracker Dr. McDougall’s Dr. Praeger Eat Raw Echo Farms EcoMeal Eddie’s Pasta Eden Foods (The only company NOT using harmful plastic in the lining of their cans as bonding agent!) Edward and Sons Endangered Species Chocolate Ener-G EnvironKiz Fantastic Foods. Giving Nature Golden Temple Go Naturally Greenway Farms Harvest Bay Hawthorne Valley Ian’s Natural Foods Koyo Organics Lakewood Lesser Evil Let’s Do…Organics LifeStream Living Harvest Lundberg Family Madhava Murray’s Chicken Nasoya Native Forest Natural by Nature Nature Factor Nature’s Path Newman’s Own Organic Organic Prarie Organic Valley Pacific Naturals Pamela’s Peace Cereal Petalumi Rapunzel Real Foods Republic of Teas Road’s End Organics San J Sensible Foods Seven Star Farms Sunergia Tasty Bite Indian Terra Nostra Texmati Theo chocolates Think Organic Turtle Island Tofurky Vermont Mystic Pie Vitasoy Vita Spelt Vivani Chocolate Wizard’s Saucery Woodstock Farms XOXOXO chocolate Yogi Tea Zija Zoe’s Granola Another way to avoid unscrupulous food producers is through an App called Buycott. If you happen to have an iPhone, this App can be used to check a product that you see in the stores to see what corporate links exist. You can find it HERE. (Thank you to Miranda for this link!) If I had a cellphone, I would definitely download this tool. Of course, the best ways to avoid GMOs and toxic additives are to avoid packaged foods altogether. Raise and preserve your own food Buy organic and local Cook from scratch Avoid processed food Please add your own blacklisted items in the comments section below!
Posted on: Sun, 07 Jul 2013 05:33:45 +0000
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