October is Non-GMO Month. A month about raising awareness of the GMO/biotech industry and what is being done to our food.

Raising awareness and helping people reduce their exposure to GMO foods is not just for one month for Earth’s General Store. We work on this issue throughout the year but the Non-GMO Month offers an opportunity to highlight the issues and we fully participate in this awareness raising event.

Earth’s General Store has been involved in raising awareness of this issue since 1998. We have been involved in the organisation of BioFreedom (an early anti-biotech NGO based in Edmonton), sold books on this industry and issue, hosted film screenings, been involved in the March Against Monsanto**, and offering certified Organic and Non-GMO Verified foods through our store all year long.

Any product that is in our store that is Certified Organic started off with non-GMO seeds. The final product may have been contaminated by GMO along the way and even items that are Non-GMO Verified are allowed to have trace levels of contamination. It seems this industry has done a good job of polluting everything with their patented DNA.

Non-GMO Verified products have been tested to ensure that they only contain zero or trace levels of GMO contamination. The downside to this certification/verification process is that the crop can be grown using all the synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides that are prevalent in the industrial food complex. Earth’s General Store looks for items that reduce their impact on the environment and reduction in the chemicals used in industrial agriculture do not fit well in that mission.

We look for products that are certified Organic AND Non-GMO verified to ensure that the planet and workers were not exposed to agro-chemicals and there is minimal or zero GMO contamination in the end product.

We think this is a winning combination.

So participate in October is Non-GMO Month by looking for certified Organic products, items that are Non-GMO Verified and local organic products. Look around our stores, ask questions, and when you are in other stores ask them questions about GMOs.

Environmental Working Group just put out a great little questionnaire so you can test your GMO knowledge. This is American focused but still relevant.

* * “March Against Monsanto” – I am opposed to just vilifying this one company since there are several companies that are involved in this technology. For your information there is the possibility of a March Against Monsanto event happening on October 17th, 2015. Stay tuned for more information.