How To Identify GMO’s In Our Foods

The government and big business are messing with our food supplies in order to produce larger yields and to prevent crops from being eaten by insects and other pests. For most of us, this isn’t a big shocker but the sheer volume of foods that are being genetically modified is horrifying, especially considering that no labeling is required.

What is GMO?

Short for genetically modified organism, GMO’s are spliced into the actual cells of the plant to make it resistant to insects and disease. That sounds like a great plan since now they won’t have spray pesticides on it, right? Wrong. The GMO actually IS a pesticide and it’s being incorporated into the plant at the cellular level. In other words, there’s no way to wash it off like you can many pesticides.

Worse, there are no labeling requirements for products that contain GMO, so you don’t even know that you’re eating it. Since it’s actually part of the product and not an ingredient, companies don’t have to spill the soybeans about genetic modification.

Genetic modification has been going on since practically the beginning of agriculture in order to increase food yields and disease resistance or to improve flavor but the standard procedure was to use natural processes. For instance, combining two different types of corn to make the new breed sweeter and more disease resistant is a common practice. The difference is that in GMO, foreign genes that aren’t naturally occurring to the plant are introduced by chemical engineers.

In short, they’re literally poisoning the plant at the cellular level. Though mainstream research says that this is OK, there’s no long-term research done on GMO’s and it’s hard to believe that eating pesticides is a good thing.

In recent decades, since the introduction of GMO, food allergies and diseases such as cancer have skyrocketed. Could there be a link? Many believe so.

What Foods Contain GMO?

Now it’s time to look at some numbers, and they’re shocking. According to some estimates, GMO’s are in 60-70% of foods on American supermarket shelves. That’s right – more than half of the foods in the grocery store have been genetically modified in some way. Here are some of the top ones:

  • Papayas – 77% of crops grown in Hawaii are genetically modified to be disease-resistant.monsanto-toxic_GMO_bt_corn
  • Corn – 80-90% of the corn grown in the US is genetically modified. Most ends up as animal food or as filler in processed foods, but recently, Montsanto, a genetics company, introduced sweet corn with GMO. That brand is what you’ll find at one of your local superstores.
  • Milk – RGBH is a genetically-engineered form of a natural hormone that causes cows to produce milk. It’s banned in milk products in many countries, but up to 90% of dairy products in the US, including milk, ice cream, and cheese, contain it.
  • Zucchini and squash – most of these products are GMO-free but there are about 25,000 acres of it sold in the US that has been genetically engineered to be resistant to viruses
  • Processed foods – the vast majority of processed foods contain GMO’s.
  • Soy, canola, and cottonseed oils – Currently about 90% of these oils contain GMO. Milk products are usually the exception to this. Companies such as Silk, a leading soymilk producer, do not use soy with GMO. Cottonseed and canola oil are both used by restaurants to fry their foods.
  • Sugar beets – 95% of sugar beets in the US contain GMO.

In addition to foods that actually contain GMO’s, there is also the danger of cross-contamination of foods that are not genetically modified being processed alongside food that has been. Also, a small amount of oil is often added to dried fruits, and – you guessed it – those oils are often canola, soy, or cottonseed.

Finally, though meats containing GMO’s aren’t currently approved for human consumption, the corn and other feed that they eat contain GMO’s so you’re getting them because they can be passed into the meat.

How to Avoid GMO’s

The only real way to avoid GMO’s is to either grow your own food so that you know exactly what is going into it, or buy organic-certified foods from local farmers or grocery stores. Foods that are certified as organic cannot contain GMO’s according to government regulations.

Some states, including Connecticut and Maine, are now requiring that genetically-engineered products be labeled as such but these laws don’t go into effect until other states adopt the requirement as well. Until then, assume that most of your non-organic food may contain GMO’s in one way or another and

This article has been written by Theresa Crouse for Survivopedia.

Photo sources: 1, 2.

Written by

Theresa Crouse is a full-time writer currently living in central Florida. She was born and raised in the hills of West Virginia, where she learned to farm, hunt, fish, and live off the land from an early age. She prefers to live off the grid as much as possible and does her best to follow the “leave nothing behind but footprints” philosophy. For fun, she enjoys shooting, kayaking, tinkering on her car and motorcycle, and just about anything else that involves water, going fast, or the outdoors.

Latest comments
  • While I appreciate this list and the percentage of “contamination” by GM, you didn’t really explain how to identify foods that have been genetically modified. It is my understanding that there is no way to tell, but if there is, I would surely like to know.

    • I read huge amounts on GMO’s and as far as I know, you are correct .. no way to physically tell (at home) if a product has GMO’s. But if you try to eliminate as many items as you can from the list, that sure helps. And of course, either buy organic or grow your own. Biggest problem I have found is corn products. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds says they not only don’t “knowingly buy or sell GMO seed”, but they have theirs TESTED. And it “is getting very difficult to find seed not contaminated” because corn is wind pollinated over a pretty fair distance. A lot of companies now have a disclaimer about not buying or selling. Baker is the only one I know that says they test. I had white corn 2013 over 1/4 mi from neighbors field (yellow) corn, over the hill and far away I THOUGHT. But mine had yellow kernels mixed on a number of ears, so I KNOW it was contaminated by the field corn!
      I’ll keep growing mine as it has to be safer than others, because I strongly suspect even labeled organic corn is contaminated by the GMO’s.

    • WHEN SHOPPING IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD GROCERY STORE, FOR EXAMPLE,FRUITS &VEGGIES,THEY HAVE LITTLE STICKERS OR TAGS ON THEM W/ NUMBERS ON THEM.THOSE NUMBERS WILL TELL YA A LOT LIKE WHERE & HOW THEY WHERE GROWN (&/OR) PROCESSED.ALSO LOOKING @ LABELS WILL TELL YA IF THE PRODUCT’S NATURAL OR FULL OF CHEMICALS OR OTHER JUNK THAT’S NOT GOOD FOR YA. “BE SMART & STAY SAFE”

      • Certified Organic or fruits and veg have sku# that begin with 9 ONLY. And “natural” or” locally-grown does not mean ORGANIC.

    • When it’s in writing on a Conservative website, I believe it. Contact Burpee. They wrote me and said they did NOT have GMO in their assortments and never have.
      Ferry-Morse does, I believe and any off-brand Dollar Store seed packs surely will have GMO seeds.

      Getting the seed out there is key.

      Monsanto has figured out a way to include RoundUp (dioxin) into each seed the produce, Now there’s another one, I hear, that they have an even worse product that does more damage to the tissue of humans.

      The only seeds/products I KNOW are pure and unadulterated at made by Brow those big, biological Interests. You will not grow those big, beautiful, colorful, tasteless and toxic veggies but your plants will be clean foot.

      God help us all.

  • Another serious problem with GMO’s is that they are killing off the bee population. No bees and the necessary healthy pollination of all plant-life is at risk.

  • I would love to know more about GMO food. I’ve been having migraines for 7yrs now, & their just getting worse. I have also, cut way down on a lit of foods & sugars. I still live w/pressure heafaches but my migraines are the worse!!! My Dr. Neurologist can’t find anything wrong with my brain! Every time I have an MRI, Cat scan or bone scan, he says, I have a perfect brain, there’s nothing wrong!! Yes, he’s baffled too 🙁

    • Teresa,

      I had a lady fellow church member whom fought migranes for yrs to find out that she was short on female hormones. It was so bad that her husband left her over it.
      good luck email me back + I will give you her name
      Bob Borders [email protected]

    • Dear, Teresa
      I absolutely, know exactly what you are talking about. I went (are going through) the same thing. What this article is saying is true about GMO’s however, it doesn’t stop there. First and foremost, I am NOT a doctor, I can only tell you what I know from My own experience as it is. And what I have re-searched. GMOs are poisons!! They break down a persons’s autoimmune system. Gmo’s effects your whole body: thyroid, nervous system, brain cells….everything!!! Some people are effected worse than others they become sensitive to gmos. The immune system breaks down hence why more people are sick or have chronic pain. Gmo’s cause inflammation and inflammation = pain. We live in a polluted environment!! However, gmo’s is only part of the puzzle another part to consider is cell towers, radio towers, satellites, microwaves …. anything electric or that has waves. I’am talking about being hypersensitive E.M.F.(electronic magnetic frequencies) and R.F (radio frequencies). EMFs an RFs cause headaches, migraines, head spaciness or brain fog and a lot of illnesses….effects the autoimmune system, your whole body: thyroid, nervous system, brain cells…. etc…everything!!! So, a person’s body is being bombarded with toxins, poisons, waves, pollution….etc. We as humans were not made for such toxins and being human with no real way to adapt. So, we need to find solutions to make life better. It took me a few years of being in chronic pain to figure this shit out!! I am not saying I am right all I can tell you is that it it all started with a headache. I am living product of what GMO’s and EMFs and RF’s does to a person. Start by detoxing your body(and use plenty of cayenne). I am gluten free,sugar free, dairy free, egg free, everything I love to eat I can’t have anymore. The payoff is I am getting better. I also, must move away from theses dumb ass towers and transformers !! And live a simple life the way God intended us to live.

      • Sadly, the lady in red, is correct.

  • Thank You

  • I agree with the first commenter. You do not actually tell how to identify foods that have been contaminated with GMOs. Plus, I don’t eat any of the products that you mentioned. So, I found no useful information in this article at all.

    • Hi Liberty, if only we could all be so sure we don’t consume GMO’s…any commercial packaged products likely contain soy or corn or their derivatives – hence GMOs. Also, if you eat ordinary meats (not labeled organic) or dairy foods, the animals likely were fed GMO feeds. Certain common fruits and vegetables are also being genetically modified. It’s surely getting harder for all of us to avoid the nasties.

  • This is quite interesting and a bit scary. I have a friend that has MS and she grew up on a farm growing wheat. She has noticed that the wheat her dad would grow would be taller then her and now it does not even get half that height, she was wondering what has been happening to the growth of the wheat and if they are doing something to the seed or genetics of the wheat. Is this why we have more people with food allergies these days? She wonders if this may be the cause of her MS. This country is getting very scary to live in in all aspects. Are we at a start of another Holocaust?

  • @happyclinger, what Theresa Crouse is saying is that if you consume food containing one of the products listed and they are not organic, you can assume they contain GMOs. There is no way to tell, otherwise, since there are currently no mandatory labeling requirements.

    @Annette, there is currently no GMO wheat. Wheat has been modified the old-fashioned way of crossing different varieties to make it taller and more productive. Wheat has its own problems (gluten, etc.), but GMOs are not one of them.

    To me the problem with GMOs is that they encourage farmers to use more herbicides, because that’s the main purpose for most of the GMOs: to make food crops impervious to herbicides. However, herbicides have been scientifically shown to be bad for our health. Furthermore, weeds are becoming ever more resistant to herbicides like Roundup, which causes farmers to use even stronger herbicides. It’s just like antibiotic resistance.

  • People will believe the damndest things!

  • Hello all! Unfortunately, there is no way at all to tell if the foods that you are eating contain GMO unless you buy organic, grow your own, or avoid all of the foods that I’ve listed. Even avoiding those foods won’t guarantee that you avoid GMO’s though because, like with the dried fruits, you never know when they’ll be slipped in. Since there are no labeling requirements, growers and packagers can use them whenever they want without listing them.

    As another poster pointed out, make sure that if you grow your own food, you use seeds that have been tested. She’s right – uncontrolled cross-pollination has led to contamination of non-GMO crops, which results in contaminated seeds.

    I wish that I could offer more in the way of how to identify products that contain GMO but there truly is no way to tell if you buy regular produce or processed foods from at the store.

  • I have felt for a long time that half the health issues in America like diabetes, heart disease could be traced directly back to the GMO’s and the preservatives they add in food so they can sell it for a longer period of time. No scientific proof just a suspected guess. Especially now since we are seeing how underhanded the politicians and those who think they are in charge of making sure everybody is healthy have been caught doing lately.

  • Even the seeds we purchase for our own garden has a good chance of being GMO if they are not marked as heirloom seeds which are hundreds of years old and you can save the seed and have the SAME product each year.

  • I think its strange that so many people think there is no GMO wheat. The first time i saw it being grown was in 1980. It have never stopped being grown to this day.

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