How to read the little stickers on loose fruits and vegetables... These stickers can tell you a lot about the food you are buying.
A label with four digits indicates conventionally grown food.
Labels with five digits starting with an 8 indicate that the food is Genetically Modified.
Labels with five digits starting with a 9 indicate that the food is Organically Grown.
I've printed this, cut it out and kept it in my wallet. But then I developed a mental association and can remember it without looking - "Four digits - normal food. 5 digits - heads up!" Then I consider that 9 is higher than 8, and Organically grown is superior to - higher than - Genetically Modified.
PLEASE NOTE: the "8" for GMO was instituted when the food industry thought that people would pay extra for GMO foods. When the organic backlash began a few years ago the industry stopped using the "8." It's OPTIONAL, not required.
You rarely know when you're buying GMO foods at the stupormarket. For example, 80% of all soybeans grown in America are GMO, but labeling is not required, and the food industry is actually trying to outlaw that form of labeling.
Again, there's no substitute for home-grown and local farmers!
- Jim Carey
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