Last week my family had a
barbecue. At the last minute, I decided we really needed some baked beans to go with the burgers. We have
serious foodies in our family, so I couldn't just buy a can or two of a popular brand and heat it up; I
had to combine my own beans and molasses so my nearly instant cheaters’version would taste as
authentic as possible.
At the local grocery store, I
searched for some pink beans. On the shelf, down by my knees was a can of generic, pink beans for $.96.
About the middle of the shelf were the organic pink beans for $1.42 and up at eye level, right in my face,
(I'm rather tall), under the warm glow of the light bulb were the organic, non-GMO-verified, pink beans for
$2.46!
What was this non-GMO-verified
label anyway? I pulled out my smart phone and went to the website
listed on the can. Even though I
was in a hurry, I wasn't going to spend that kind of money on a can of beans unless it was really worth
it. It only took a few minutes for me to discover that companies and grocery stores were paying to
have their products labelled as non-GMO-verified. At the site, there was a list of "common GMO
foods" There were eight of them. Beans were not one of them. Neither was wheat, coconuts, almonds or any
of the other foods I have since seen pointlessly carrying this label at the store.
That narrowed my choice down to
the two less expensive cans. Since my family's bodies can't tell the
difference between cooked, canned
beans based on growing method, I decided to go with the $.96 can of conventionally grown pink
beans and call it good.
But my wallet knows the
difference. Shelling out extra money for a non-GMO-certified label on a food that has never been GMO (at least
in the current context) makes no sense. I can’t support a company attempting to dupe me into
thinking there is a danger when none exists. But those foods are making money appear like magic in the
bank accounts of the company behind the verified label. Magic
beans are real after all!
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