Two thirds of the people in the U.S. have no idea that most of what they eat every day contains genetically modified ingredients — starting with the primary foundation crops grown in our country.
Primary GMO Crops:
As reported by the by the USDA in 2012, the following represents the total percent of all crops grown in the U.S. that are genetically modified:
• Cotton – 94% (for cottonseed oil)
• Soybeans – 93%
• Sugar Beets – 90%
• Canola – 88%
• Corn – 88% *see note
• Hawaiian papaya – more than 50%
• Zucchini and Yellow Squash – small %
• Quest brand tobacco – 100%
• Alfalfa (recently approved by the FDA; widely fed to animals to produce meat and milk)
• Kentucky Bluegrass (recently approved by the FDA; even more widely fed to animals to produce meat and milk; already an invasive grass in its natural state, it will spread even more uncontrollably with genetically engineered resistance to RoundUp)
• Farmed salmon (as of April 2013, the FDA is still considering comments about their conditional approval of salmon containing a growth hormone)
To check a specific crop, consult the GMO Compass database. For a comprehensive list, consult the Institute for Responsible Technology’s website.
Think you don’t eat much of those crops? Think again. GMO is nearly impossible to escape because the byproducts of genetically modified soy, corn and sugar beets are used in almost every single processed food made in this country.
A few years ago the Grocery Manufacturers of America estimated that 75% of all processed foods in the U.S. contained a genetically modified ingredient. And the numbers have only gone up since. Most of these GMO ingredients come from the “Big Five:” corn, soybeans, canola, sugar beets, and cottonseed (for oil).
Your safest bet? Always buy products marked 100% Organic, USDA Organic, or Non-GMO Project certified. Read more about that here.
Other Sources of GMOs:
- Meat, eggs, and dairy products from animals that have eaten GMO feed (the primary use of GMO corn and soy is to feed U.S. meat animals)
- Dairy products from cows injected with the GMO hormone rbGH
- Food additives, enzymes, flavorings, and processing agents, ranging from the sweetener aspartame (NutraSweet) to the rennet used to make cheese (if the dairy animals were fed GMO feed)
- Honey and bee pollen from bees that have foraged on nearby GMO crops
Typical GMO Foods to Avoid:
Here are the specific types of foods that rely heavily on GMO ingredients in their processing, unless they are certified USDA Organic or Non-GMO Project verified:
• Infant formula
• Protein powder
• Malt (used in beer)
• Sodas (GMO corn syrup)
• Juice drinks (GMO corn syrup)
• Alcohol
• Bread
• Cereal
• Crackers
• Cookies
• Enriched flour
• Baking powder
• Any sugar not 100% cane-sourced
• Confectioner’s glaze
• Vanilla (when it contains corn syrup)
• Chocolate and other candy (Mars and Hersheys use GMO beet sugar)
• Eggs from chickens that are given GM feed
• Milk, cheese, butter and ice cream (from animals that eat GM feed or cross-pollinated hay)
• Frozen yogurt
• Margarine
• Meat from animals that eat GM feed; the USDA recently approved Round-Up resistant alfalfa
• Hamburgers and hotdogs
• Veggie burgers
• Meat substitutes
• Tofu
• Soy cheese
• Peanut butter
• Soups
• Fried food (the frying oil is usually from a GM crop)
• Chips
• Salad dressing
• Mayonnaise
• Ketchup
• Tomato sauce
• Tamari and Soy sauce
• White vinegar
Even non-food items such as cosmetics, soaps, detergents, shampoo and bubble bath often contain GMO ingredients.
Typical GMO Ingredients:
Drilling down one final step, click on this page to see an extensive list of ingredients that are derived from genetically modified corn, soy, sugar beets, canola, and cottonseed oil, which are used in the processing of the above list of GMO Foods to Avoid.
—
© GMO-Awareness.com, 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to GMO-Awareness.com with appropriate and specific links back to the original content.
GMO Awareness 
Pingback: On Gluten Free « farmersdotter
This is so overwhelming!!! Most people do not take this seriously. As a nurse, i see the negative effects every day.
They dont see the long term effects.. Iam dumbfounded on how this is happening…
It is called eugenics.
If you don’t see the impacts, I didn’t either and was diagnosed with arthritis 26 years ago “about the time they GMO was being done to wheat and corn and last year I found out I was allergic to wheat, corn, and dairy products. NOW after 1-1/2 years not eating any wheat, corn or dairy products my joint pain and swelling is gone and I can walk normal and can even close my hands and make a fist. all of the pain and swelling went on for 26 years till my Dr said I was low on iron and I bought 3 boxes of Kellogs Mini wheats and ate 2-1/2 boxes in 3 days and I had so much joint pain I couldn’t even turn my head I went to the ER thinking I had poisoned myself with iron and the test showed it was back to normal. So in searching the web I found that modified wheat and corn allergies are often mis-diagnosed as saretic arthritis. I stopped eating them and 4 months later my joint pain and swelling started to go away and now 1-1/2 years later all my pain and swelling is gone but the damage to my finger joints is there but slowly dissolving away. I was also dumbfounded thinking about the GMO alterations causing problems but when I was a kid I ate wheat and corn all the time with no problems but it seems after 1989 this is when I started having joint pain and swelling so what ever they did prior to 1989 is what made it so that I can no longer eat wheat, corn or dairy products..
From the list,it’s in everything,what can we do,this is scary?
Here’s what to do: https://gmo-awareness.com/shopping-list/ It takes a little effort but it’s well worth it!
I, too, am a nurse with over 16 years experience in an acute care hospital, and I totally agree. I have seen a steady increase over the last 3-5 years in the number of patients diagnosed or admitted with cancer, irritable bowel or other autoimmune disease, gastrointestinal bleeding, etc… The population of patients diagnosed with such is getting younger and younger as well. This is an all out assult on our health and well-being…all under the illusion of that GM foods allows for higher yield to feed more people…This is junk science and statistics prove that, among many other avenues of proof. Control the food, control the people, control the population….Follow the money and it’ll lead to evil almost, if not all the time…
HI I am one that DOE’S take it seriously now. I suffered with joint pain so bad I couldn’t close my hands enough to hold my steering wheel and often had to use the handicap chairs to walk, this went on from 1992-2017. 26 years when my Dr diagnosed me as having arthritis in 1992. well in 2017 my Dr said my iron was low and I bought 3 boxes of kellogs Mini wheats and ate 2-1/2 boxes in 3 days and the next morning my joints hurt so bad I could not even turn my head. thinking I had poisoned myself with iron I went to the ER and the test showed the iron was back to normal I searched the web and found that wheat and corn allergies are often mis-diagnosed as arthritis. I stopped eating both wheat and corn and 4 months later a lot of my joint pain and swelling started going away. and after 1-1/2 years all my joint pain and swelling is gone with the exception of the damage caused by the wheat over the 26 year period of not being able to close my hands to make a fist but it is slowly dissolving out of my joints and I can now hold onto my steering wheel to drive and don’t need the handicap chairs to get around. I feel like I’m 25 years old again even though I am 68. So don’t let any one say the GMO does not effect people as before 1989 I ate a lot of wheat and corn and never hand any problems so what ever they did before 1989 has caused the crops to become toxic
I have always believed that most things are genetically modified but I was surprised at the list. Thankfully my son searches out all that he eats. I am doing my best but it is hard.
eat organic is the only way to safegard
I agree… and growing your own crops would make it even better. Unfortunately, even small farmers thought out the country now are using GM’s since they have been brain washed by monsanto. It’s disgusting what humanity has come to – self centered and selfish. We should be out to help one another instead, we’ve allowed this horrible companies take over. I bet if everyone would just grow their own crops and quit going to the grocery stores they might have to change the way they do business.
I thought being a vegetarian I was eating healthy Now to find that meat substitutes and veggie burgers tofu all contain gmo I was wondering why so many people are now getting cancer ~~after watching a video on you tube and seeing the rats fed on gmo after 4months they developed very large tumours Monsanto do not care about people they want to dominate/rule world food no matter what the cost to humanity All they see is $$$$ They should all be arrested
we were vegetarian and had many friends who were. my husband is diabetic, his doctor told us to seek this type of diet. I always wondered why people who were so healthy eaters were getting cancer and so many other health problems, now I know.
Organic veggie burgers and tofu etc. are available and organic certification forbids the use of GMOs. Generally, just buy organic.
You can all blame the government and the courts for not caring about the health of this nation. Out protests are ignored by all those we have elected. The unbridled greed of companies like Monsanto and all those who support them will be the death of us all unless we change the nature of those we elect. However it may well be too late. Start growing ALL your own food, but don’t let the government know about it. Don’t ever sell what you grow, barter with it only.
hear! hear!
When you say blame the government, bear in mind that the relevant government agencies have now been taken over by the very corporations they should instead be monitoring. Effectively, Monsanto and friends run the FDA, USDA, and EPA. Their revolving door employees keep getting appointed to those agencies by both political parties. So understand that when you communicate with “the government” (FDA, etc.) you’re talking to Monsanto.
Amen !!! Your right!!!
Do you have any idea what GMO really is?? It is simply hybrid plants, College students are paid to cut tassles from corn plants and then the tassles are brushed on other corn plants.
google Native American corn, ears were about 3 inches long, poorly developed and you could not eat it, it had to be ground to make a paste.
Same for Barley and Wheat and rice.. If you stopped eating everything that was called GMO you would starve.
Your stupid house dog is a GMO product, thats right its also called selective breeding.
John, it’s true that the biotech industry would have you believe that genetic modification has been going on for centuries. And it’s also true that the terminology has become muddled in the past two decades. However you are referring to a hybridization process, which is dramatically different from the forceful insertion of bacteria and virus genes into corn, requiring the EPA to register corn as an insecticide. We kindly and respectfully encourage you to learn more, perhaps starting with this page, and continuing on with this page.
Hybridization uses nature’s own processes for selecting within the organism’s gene pool. Genetic engineering forcefully, artificially introduces genes where and in a manner in which nature would not place them. They are not remotely the same despite it being the best (though extremely weak) argument the biotech industry can push.
Monsanto is not modifying the food to make it more plentiful in order to feed the masses, they’re making it “Round Up resistant” (a pesticide THEY make btw) in order to reap all possible profits from their GMO crops! All GMO crops are then drowned in pesticide and it doesn’t pose a risk to the crop but it indeed poses a risk to the humans that eat it.
Hear here, Gloria. That “feed the world” mantra is so false.
Its far deeper than that and other simple things like making grapes seedless. Wake up. Those are the gmo’s talking.
is Quaker Oats a GMO food if so what oat meal should I buy?
Quaker maintains that their oatmeal is not grown from genetically modified seeds, but they also maintain that GMOs are safe. Here’s a first-hand consumer report about this >
Oats are not one of the crops that have been modified so if you are buying PLAIN OATMEAL, no it’s not GMO. If you’re buying a flavoured one, check the other ingredients against the list linked to above.
I don’t blame anyone but me; I find it hard to search out everything I eat. Very hard. I am trying though. This list wipes out all that I eat. This is the temple that the Lord has given me, so I better take care BETTER care of it.
It does get easier once you realize that if it isn’t 100% organic or labeled non-gmo, it is most likely gmo. The easiest way to avoid them is to only eat non-gmo, organic, grass-fed and finished (no gmo grains) everything.
Remember that the poultry and animals that produce your eggs, meat, butter, cheese also need to eat organic feed. There are now more sources of non-gmo, organic poultry feed and also for animals that we eat.
Not so many for horses or dogs, though. If you think feeding yourself is tough, try finding non-gmo, organic horse feed. Or even just organic dog food.
But even if it says non GMO how can they grow it when all the crops have been altered years ago?. the wheat now grows only 2 fwo feet tall and they can’t make the GMO seed go back to what it was when wheat grew 6 feet tall and produced less the same with corn once the seed is altered the offspring will forever be altered also. so even foods that say “NON GMO” if they are produced by a seed that was altered years ago they are still GMO. My allergies are so severe to wheat and corn I am afraid to try wheat or corn that states “NON GMO” as it took the wheat a year to get out of my joints and the pain was so severe I could not even close my hands
There are heirloom seeds still available. And you can buy the wheat that was grown hundreds of years ago. It is more expensive, but it is available. Kamut is the most common. Search for “ancient grains” for others.
You may be reacting to how it is grown, what it is sprayed with, etc. I would definitely never eat any that was not organic from a highly trusted source. (There is a lot of fake organic now from multi-national corporations that can’t be trusted.)
What can we eat then? If I rid our house of all this stuff what do we feed our family? We do push as much organic fruits and veggies
Michelle, anything with USDA Organic on the label. Check out our “Shopping List” section for details. 🙂
What beer is made with Non-GMO ingredients?
We recommend searching “USDA Organic Beer” in Google to find your favorite brands. 🙂
Thanks for your great website.
Our country doesn’t have labels on organic or not. I have read some articles regarding this topic. This is very alarming, but sad to say, our country is more on the ‘cure’. I think we have been dependent on gm products without our knowledge.
No malted barely, rye, or wheat used in the production of beer is GMO.