Most Frequently Used GMO Grown Foods – the “Big Five”

On this blog we’ve so far covered the topics like countries that label GMO food, are GMO grown edibles harmful consumed on regular basis and 5 Good Reasons to Choose Organic over GMO Grown Foods. It seems that it’s about time we put some accent on the GMO food itself, right? Let’s introduce most frequently used GMO grown foods – the “Big Five”, as we like to call it.

1.     Soy - Each grocery that contains soy in it has a 93% chances to be GMO, unless it is clearly labeled that it is organically produced. In 2011, the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) exposed an attempt of a Chinese company which used false organic certificates in order to import fake organic food into the US.

2.     Corn - Approximately 88% of US corn is genetically modified. The analysis showed that even some well-known brands of organic corn flakes are largely made from genetically modified corn.

3.     Cotton - Genetically engineered cotton or Bt (biotech) cotton, produced by Monsanto, is currently grown on 25 million hectares around the world, mostly in India, China, Pakistan and the US (although prohibited for growing in Hawaii since 2013). Other countries growing significantly smaller amounts of GM cotton are South Africa, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Columbia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Burma, Australia, and Egypt.

4.     Canola – Meet canola, whose seeds are used for producing cooking oil. Canola oil is considered the healthiest cooking oil due to low levels of saturated fatty acids with plenty of omega-3 fatty acids. But the problem is that today nearly 90 percent of canola is genetically modified.

5.     Sugar Beets - GMO Sugar beet in the US has been allowed since 2005, then banned in 2010 and then again allowed in 2012. GMO sugar beets make 50% of US sugar production.