Tired of Sellouts

One of my favorite bloggers, Food Babe, posted this chart yesterday from Cornucopia.

It is a chart of the big corporations that now own smaller organic and "natural" companies. Why is this a bad thing? Because these evil big corporations have ruined once pure companies and are perpetual greenwashers tainting food with GMOS, pesticides, insecticides, fake foods, and selling them as natural, healthy, and safe. Yes, this is a touchy subject for me. Life is too short to have to research every company/food that's out there to figure out if it's safe or not. I know I don't want my family eating GMOs, tons of sugar, and other unhealthy chemical laden food, so I read about products. But I feel that I shouldn't have to and it's these greedy corporations that have made food unsafe. *If you are concerned about GMOs, check out this post I wrote last year about the GMO food corporation chain.

So back to the poster above. One big example of a sellout- Kashi.  Kellog bought Kashi and now uses 100% GMO soy in their foods and claims there isn't enough organic soy around to supply their demand. But in 2-3 years there will be... hmmm I call bs. Do you think an independently owned company would knowingly allow GMO ingredients in their natural "healthy" foods they've put their heart and souls into? Probably not. But when a greedy corporation has their hands in things, it's their call. Besides the nasty GMOs, there are also the 8+ varieties of pesticides that were found in the berries in Kashi's cereals.

Another example is Dean owns Horizon. Horizon uses ultra high pasteurization in most of their milk since that gives the milk a longer shelf life. This process kills the micro life that exists within milk which is needed in order to properly digest and absorb the nutrients in it. Without the necessary enzymes, the body is unable to digest the casein proteins in milk. Look for the UHP label on the milk to avoid. Horizon has also been accused in the past of not using organic cows on their farms.

Naked Juice was sold to Pepsi. They are being sued for labeling their juice GMO free when indeed there are GMO ingredients in the juice. Some other sellout brands that use GMOs, pesticides, and other harmful ingredients are: BearNaked, Mother's, Barbara's, 365, Nutricious Living, Odwalla, Cascadian Farms, Burts Bees... the list goes on, but those bother me the most.

Some of my favorite GMO free brands are: Organic Valley, Applegate Farms, Nature's Path, Bobs Red Mill, and Stonyfield. Yes, I know Stonyfield sold out- but at least their product hasn't been compromised and they stand with Just Label It.

I do understand that most small companies that sellout want to see their products make it big because they believe in them. But some sellout because they got greedy. Sometimes it's just better to keep it local, keep it pure, keep it organic, keep it real food, and don't sellout. Support your local farmers and independently owned companies. We all deserve to eat real foods that won't cause us to get sick in the long run!

*This post is inspired by the novel Julia's Child: A Novel by Sarah Pinneo. Worried about what her kids eat, Julia Bailey starts a prepared organic toddler meals business. With names like Gentil Lentil, can Julia balance work and family and still save the world? Join From Left to Write on May 24 as we discuss Julia's Child. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.