“Every time you buy, you’re voting for the world you want or the world you don’t want.” – Gary Hirshberg, Chairman of Stonyfield and Founder of Just Label It & Only Organic
I found this to be the most powerful sentence I heard at last week’s ShiftCon event. It’s such a simple and somewhat obvious statement, but it brings to light the fact that when you purchase something, you’re supporting a product – and not only the product itself, but also how it was made.
The view from the Marriott in Manhattan Beach, where ShiftCon took place
ShiftCon took place last week in the pretty town of Manhattan Beach, and was an event geared towards health, wellness and green living. You can check out this YouTube video to get a better idea of what the conference is all about. I randomly won a ticket to the event through my ambassadorship with FitFluential, and was excited to check out what the event had to offer. My cousin lives in the neighboring town of Long Beach, which was great because I got to crash at her place for a few days and spend some time with her.
The conference had an exhibit hall full of brands that I love, including Barbara’s…
(Can’t wait to try their new pumpkin cereal! Sadly they didn’t have any actually at the show.)
Annie’s was there with their yummy snacks and pastas…
…and organic yogurt company Stonyfield had a big presence there. Their gingered pear Oh My Yog! was delicious. 
ShiftCon also had sponsored lounges, including one with Naturepedic that allowed you to zen out on their comfy organic mattresses while charging your iPhone.
(This was me entering their giveaway for a new mattress by tweeting a picture. I didn’t win, but winning a ticket to ShiftCon AND a mattress would have been just too crazy!)
During a conference focused on food and the environment, it was no surprise that THE major topic of the event was GMOs. With states bringing labeling laws to elections and the House recently passing what its opponents refer to as the DARK Act (Denying Americans the Right to Know), which if passed, would preempt states from requiring labeling of GMO food, we are a really pivotal time when it comes to GMOs. I’m disheartened to know that many Americans don’t have any idea what GMOs even are, and since I learned a lot of facts at ShiftCon about them, I thought I’d share some GMO stats with you all today:
Big food companies like General Mills are pouring millions of dollars into getting the DARK Act passed
- So exactly what are GMOs? They are organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally.
- What crops are GMO? They’re primarily in soy, corn, cotton, sugar beets and canola oil. This may not sound like many foods, but it translates to GMOs in 75% of conventional food in the U.S.!
- With the increase of GMO crops, herbicide applications have also dramatically increased. The primary ingredient in Monsanto’s popular Roundup herbicide, glyphosate, was just deemed to be a probable carcinogen, meaning cancer causing, in the state of California.
- Annual applications of glyphosate in America has risen from 16 million pounds to more than 280 million pounds (!!).
- Worldwide, more than 1.4 billion pounds of glyphosate are now applied per year.
- Studied have shown that 60-100% of the rain water in heavy farming states like Mississippi contain glyphosate. Scary stuff huh?
- Overuse of Roundup has led to resistance in our farmland. As weeds have become resistant to glyphosate, farmers have turned to more toxic weed killers linked to cancer, Parkinson’s disease and reproductive problems.
- 64 nations around the world now have GMO labeling laws, including China and Russia.
Source: Just Label It!
- 41% of the world’s GMOs are sold in the U.S.
- Polls show that nearly 90% of Americans would like to know what’s in their food (Duh, why wouldn’t we want to know what’s in our food??).
- Some of the health impacts linked to GMOs include reproductive issues and immune system disturbances, while environmental implications include water and soil toxicity, as well as super bugs and weeds.
Source: Just Label It!
While we aren’t 100% certain that GMOs cause cancer, there just hasn’t been enough research done to determine its longterm effects. To me, it seems like common sense that genetically altering crops and spraying tons of herbicides on the food that Americans eat every day at every meal does NOT seem healthful.
I also think that we as consumers simply have a right to know what’s in our food. Whether people care if their food contains GMOs or not is another story, but to me, labeling that simple fact should be a given. It also says something that countries that are known to give their citizens a lot less freedoms than in America already have GMO labeling. It just seems like an obvious law that should be in place, but unfortunately, big food companies have a lot of power in this country and are strongly campaigning against the idea of labeling mandates.
I hope that you enjoyed this GMO lesson and learned a thing or two! I know that I found these stats that I learned at ShiftCon really interesting. And now, time for a giveaway of some delicious non-GMO foods!
I received a ton of fun swag from ShiftCon prior to the show, during the show, and in gift bags when I arrived at the conference. The brands that exhibited at ShiftCon are awesome in trying to make a positive difference in the food industry, and I want to share the yummy non-GMO food love by doing a giveaway of some of the products that I received doubles/triples of with one lucky reader! The goodie bag includes…
- Made in Nature Cinnamon Citrus Fusion fruit & nut mix
- Made in Nature Italian Expresso Toasted Coconut Chips
- Nature’s Path Love Crunch Aloha Blend Granola
- Teeccino Hazelnut and Dandelion Caramel Nut Herbal Coffee
- Lundberg Farms Short Grain Brown Rice
- Crunchmaster Multi-Seed Cracker snack packs
- Nutiva O’Coconut Hemp & Chia Coconut Treats
- Non-GMO Project canvas bag
- Dr. Bronner’s orange ginger lip balm
- Naturepedic sleep mask
To enter, simply leave me a comment below telling me… Which product would you like to try the most? Or which of these brands do you already love?
I’ll randomly choose a winner in a week on 10/7. Giveaway open worldwide.
Thoughts on the topic of GMOs? Share em below!
What a fun conference and score that it was so close to home for you! 🙂 Those pumpkin puffins sound yummy!! I’ll be honest, I should be more educated when it comes to the foods I am eating and posts like this are always helpful. I’d love to try the crunchmaster crackers, I have a snack with me at all times!! Ha!
Awww well I hope that you learned a thing or two about GMOs reading this, Marielle! 😉 I always have snacks on hand too. I’ve been known to give granola bars to homeless people while waiting at traffic lights because I always have them around in my car!!
So much good info in this post Nicole! I’d love to try the aloha granola!
This conference sounds amazing! I am totally a big believer that food should be labeled so you know what you are getting. I have to say though, after living in Brazil, the US is so far ahead of other countries. In Brazil there are way more pesticides used, tons of products contain sugar (the second ingredient in baby cereal is SUGAR) and if a product is GMO, I would have no idea. Not to mention that organic is really hard to find. We made a quick trip back to the US and I have TWO suitcases full of organic baby food for the little guy. I am totally with you though that we should keep pushing to improve labeling! 🙂
I think that in that respect, the major difference between the American food industry and places like Brazil is that here we have organic and healthy options available… though 90% of the food here is total crap, we at least have the option to choose healthy! I’m not sure that that was the case as much 20 years ago.
Awhile back I almost had a heart attack when reading the nutrition label on one of my nephew’s formula boxes… I was horrified that we feed those ingredients to kids at such a young age. It’s crazy!
What I love most about these kinds of events are all the new foods I get to try out. I have discovered so many new favourites from blogging events.
I would LOVE to try the Hazelnut and Dandelion Caramel Nut Herbal Coffee. I love your website. It is VERY informative!
They all look good but I gotta say I love trying different coffees so would go with that and the granola!
Love the GMO info… Thanks for sharing! That cinnamon citrus fruit and nut mix sounds great!
I’ve been terrified by some of the articles I’ve read recently about labeling. They did a study on a bunch of probiotic pills that are labeled “gluten free” and found that a huge percentage of those bottles actually had gluten levels above the amount that’s allowable to be “gluten free”! Scary that you can’t even trust labels when they do have them.
Anyways, I love Nature’s Path products! Their granola is addictive 🙂
Yup, and with gluten free falsities, people could really get sick over consuming those products. They’ve done similar tests on products that have labeling like “all natural” and “hormone free” and things that don’t necessarily have strict regulations, and have proven some of those claims to be totally false. It’s scary huh!
Totally awesome that you won a ticket through FitFluential! I live not too far away from where the conference was and kinda wish I went – perhaps next year! 😀
Would love to meet you sometime, Miss GiGi! We are only a few hours away from each other, so maybe one day we’ll bump into each other. There was that time that we both were at IDEA World…. but unfortunately I never saw you!
Nature’s Path Love Crunch Granola is one of my favorites ever!
Agreed, their granola is SO GOOD!
I would love to win and try those coconut bites! I love anything coconut.
This was really fascinating. Thanks for sharing all you learned at ShiftCon. It’s crazy because obviously GMOs are something bad or else why would companies care about labeling their products? If GMOs were something to be proud of, of course they’d want to claim it.
I love the Nutiva brand. I actually just got their coconut oil in the mail this morning. BUT – also love Teeccino. I think it’s amazing and am super interested in those flavors. They sound delicious! Thanks for the awesome giveaway! 🙂
Congratulations on winning the giveaway, Mariah! 🙂
Everything sounds so yummy! I really enjoy Love Crunch granola, never tried this flavor though. And the coconut chia bites sound divine!
I am a huge snacker, so all of these goodies sound divine to me. Thanks for the great giveaway!
I would love to try the Nutiva O’coconut treats, this is the first time I am hearing about them. I love anything with coconut and cook mostly with Nutiva coconut oil add chia to it and I’m in, I also love that they don’t have cane sugar and are only 60 calories each.
Yup, they make for a great little bite when you just need a little something sweet or a mini snack to hold you over for a bit!
I like several of those brands and I’d really like to try the Dr. Bronner’s orange ginger lip balm.
I’d love to try the Italian Expresso Toasted Coconut Chips – I’ve tried coconut chips and loved them, but have never seen flavoured ones before.
Made in Nature also makes a cinnamon coconut chip flavor!
Great information about GMOs; very sad to hear about brands fighting labeling. I would most want to try the Dr. Bronner’s lip balm. The brand I already use (and love) is Crunchmaster.
They all sound great, but I’d especially love to try the Crunchmaster Multi-Seed Cracker snack packs!
I totally agree – I definitely consider what I buy a vote for what I believe in – it’s one of the reasons we spend more on our food … I think it totally matters! If that makes sense… I don’t think I’m explaining well 🙂 haha
Sounds like a fantastic conference!!
You’re making perfect sense and I completely agree! I spend a lot of $ on food too, but to me it is SO worth it. Food is what fuels our bodies and keeps us alive and well (or the opposite for a lot of people…).
I love Love Crunch granola, especially the ones with chocolate in them.
I love stonyfield already! Thanks for sharing these goodies!
That’s awesome you won a ticket to that conference! Those facts are scary! It just amazes me how many people just don’t care about what is in their food at all. They think 1) they only live once and they are going to enjoy eating what they like; and 2) when they hear a few major things that aren’t healthy, they think that they might as well not even bother trying to change their eating. Until they have some health issues though, there is still a lot of people that just don’t care!
That love crunch granola is so good! I haven’t seen the Dr. Bronner’s chap stick! I wanna try THAT! Right now I’m hooked on Kiss My Face chap stick.
You are totally right, and that is so sad to me that people only try to change their habits AFTER they get really sick. Sometimes it’s just too late when you’ve been malnourishing and poisoning your body for so many years…. which is why prevention through nutrition and a healthy lifestyle is so important!
I haven’t tried any of these but Dr. Bronner’s orange ginger lip balm sounds like something fun to use. And I’d try all those snacks!
I love Dr. Bronner’s! Would love to try the Made in Nature fruit and nut mix.
I would like to try the coffee.
Everything!! However the Teeccino coffee seems interesting and something I haven’t seen before. I have some pumpkin puffins at home if you’d like to sample it. ? Love the Barbara’s brand.
I’m coming over to eat pumpkin Puffins!!! 😉
I really love everything, but would love to try the Nutiva O’Coconut Hemp & Chia Coconut Treats.
So much great information, Nicole! I would have loved to attend an event like that. Although I would have been majorly disappointed that there wasn’t any pumpkin cereal. That sounds SO good!
I especially love the quote you shared at the beginning because that is exactly how I think of it. I spend a TON of money on groceries each week but knowing that I’m supporting companies with morals makes it all worth it.
I’m 100% with you! I’d rather spend more on food and feel good with what I’m eating, knowing that I’m feeding my body well and supporting brands that are doing things the right way.
I’m already a huge fan of crunchmaster!