Last night, I found a new smartphone app that can tell you if what you’re buying is connected with corporations that funnel money into issues you may oppose.
I must say, it was revealing. After I set up the app, I started scanning products in my kitchen (the app uses the barcode scanner in your phone). Some results I almost expected, while others were pretty disappointing.
First, you “join a campaign,” which sets the parameters for the scan results. I joined three:
Then the scanning of UPC labels began. Behold some results of my pulling things out of the fridge and pantry at random:
Wal-Mart did pretty well, which was a nice surprise. I had read somewhere that they do not use growth hormones in their milk; I was glad that the app backed that up.
But then there was the bad news. Look below the red bar on the images below to see how much money food corporations threw at defeating Proposition 37 in California.
And perhaps the most disappointing scan:
Quite the eye-opener. I encourage you to enthusiastically get involved in what foods you’re choosing for yourself and your family. And it’s not that I’m on a mission to change the whole world, but here is my issue: If others want to ingest the chemicals that genetically modified foods contain, that is none of my business. Folks can do as they choose. However, if I am going to ingest anything harmful — or worse, feed something harmful to my children and grandchildren — I want to be told about it ahead of time, so I can not feed it to them.
And all the Monsanto money in Washington won’t change my mind.
So download this app, if you’ve a mind to. It’s free, and from where I sit, nothing is bad about extra information.
Hey guess what: it’s Finkday *and* payday. That should make everyone happy. Have a great weekend!
Linda, thank you for this blog post! I’d love to share it to Rusty Plow Homestead!
Sure, Candy — go right ahead!
What a great app! Wonder if it works here in Euro Land?
Hmmm…it doesn’t seem so from this post on their Facebook page. At least not yet. But from what I read on other posts, they can’t expand fast enough. Looks like they’ve added a bunch of new servers, which is good!
Hmmm….is this worthy of an IRC channel…hmmmph…forsooth? Yikes!–and, awaaay….[thud].
You did not take your medicine this morning, did you.