The Grocery Store Blacklist: 12 Food Companies to Avoid (and 95 Sneaky Aliases)Daisy Luther It seems like no matter how hard you try to avoid them, GMOs and toxic foods creep into your life. Take for example, the earthily-packaged natural foods that are showcased in your grocery store aisles. They cost twice as much, have obscure brand names, and tout their health benefits and natural sources. You can almost smell the freshly tilled soil when you pick up the box. Unfortunately, this isnothing more than corporate sleight-of-hand. Many of the products that seem so good are actually just subsidiaries of the companies that were most complicit in blocking GMO labeling, aided and abetted by everyones favoritepurveyor of death, Monsanto. (Monsanto, incidentally, donated$7,100,500.00to the fight against the labeling of GMO-containing products.) Not every item on this list contains genetically modified ingredients. The list is based on the duplicitous marketing of the companies. More consumers are trying to make healthy choices at the grocery stores, but its difficult when companies push their toxic wares and dress them up as health food. Young people in particular fall victim to these schemes. You have to give a kid credit for purchasing something called Vitamin Water over a soda pop, and its infuriating that the kid, trying to make a good choice, has been tricked into the purchase by deceitful advertising and marketing. Protect your health and help starve the beast by avoiding products distributed by these companies and their subsidiaries: (Hains is actually owned by Heinz, Phillip Morris,Monsanto, Citigroup, Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart and Lockheed Martin) It isnt all bad news. There are a few companies you can still count on keep in mind that corporate mergers take place every day. When businesses change hands, there is no obligation to notify the public. One such cautionary tale took place with the company Deans, which acquired Horizon foods. They quietly phased out the use of organic products without making any changes to the label and used non-organic milk produced under factory farm conditions. As well, they dropped the quality of their organic soy and began purchasing cheaper harvests from Asia. Meanwhile, unwitting retailers had no idea that the company had ceased producing the items organically, and continued to promote the products as they had previous to the acquisition. Right now, these are some labels to look for. Another way to avoid unscrupulous food producers is through an App called Buycott. If you happen to have an iPhone, this App can be used to check a product that you see in the stores to see what corporate links exist. You can find itHERE. (Thank you to Miranda for this link!) If I had a cellphone, I would definitely download this tool. Of course, the best ways to avoid GMOs and toxic additives are to avoid packaged foods altogether. Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website,The Organic Prepper, wherethis article first appeared, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy onFacebookandTwitter, and you can email her atdaisy@theorganicprepper.ca 