Note from Goldenlight: Ok, I’m beginning to realize that it is almost impossible to avoid GMO foods, and that there exists considerable confusion and misinformation on GMO labeling and companies to avoid. Apparently even foods labeled USDA Organic are sold by the megalopolis Monsanto GMO corporation. It is also possible that companies with the “Non-GMO Project” label are still not safe. Just this morning I had Cascadian Farms “USDA Organic” granola with Silk Almond milk. Yet these companies are listed in this “Buycott” app as being owned by GMO companies. The Silk Almond milk is labeled with the Non-GMO project label (2), yet their company is on GMO lists. So even the labeling is confusing. The company that owns Silk, Dean Foods contributed $253,950.00 to fight GMO labeling. I wrote to the NON-GMO Project today to ask them why a product that is labeled with their “non-GMO project” label is listed on companies who are GMO and who have contributed funds to fight GMO Labeling. I’ll post my findings here as soon as I have further information.
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New App Lets You Boycott Monsanto, Koch Brothers, And More By Scanning Your Shopping Cart
source: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_27527.cfm
- By Clare O’Connor
Forbes, May 14, 2013
Straight to the Source
For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Genetic Engineering page and our Millions Against Monsanto page.
In her keynote speech at last year’s annual Netroots Nation gathering, Darcy Burner pitched a seemingly simple idea to the thousands of bloggers and web developers in the audience. The former Microsoft programmer and congressional candidate proposed a smartphone app allowing shoppers to swipe barcodes to check whether conservative billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch were behind a product on the shelves.
Burner figured the average supermarket shopper had no idea that buying Brawny paper towels, Angel Soft toilet paper or Dixie cups meant contributing cash to Koch Industries through its subsidiary Georgia-Pacific. Similarly, purchasing a pair of yoga pants containing Lycra or a Stainmaster carpet meant indirectly handing the Kochs your money (Koch Industries bought Invista, one of the world’s largest fiber and textiles companies, in 2004 from DuPont).
At the time, Burner created a mock interface for her app, but that’s as far as she got. She was waiting to find the right team to build out the back end, which could be complicated given often murky corporate ownership structures.
She wasn’t aware that as she delivered her Netroots speech, a group of developers was hard at work on Buycott, an even more sophisticated version of the app she proposed.
“I remember reading Forbes’ story on the proposed app to help boycott Koch Industries and wishing that we were ready to launch our product,” said Buycott’s marketing director Maceo Martinez.
The app itself is the work of one Los Angeles-based 26-year-old freelance programmer, Ivan Pardo, who has devoted the last 16 months to Buycott. “It’s been completely bootstrapped up to this point,” he said. Martinez and another friend have pitched in to promote the app.
Pardo’s handiwork is available for download on iPhone or Android, making its debut in iTunes and Google Play in early May. You can scan the barcode on any product and the free app will trace its ownership all the way to its top corporate parent company, including conglomerates like Koch Industries.
(2) http://www.nongmoproject.org/find-non-gmo/search-participating-products/search/?brandId=293
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