Bar Codes and Produce Codes
I published this data but long enough ago that it would be good to do it again. I refer to this data while shopping, always…and not willing to trust my possibly faulty memory on something so important, carry along in my purse a cheat sheet.
It is OUR responsibility to get educated and to make good choices. Don’t expect governments to provide the info obviously.
I look for products, food, anything, made in the US to support Americans and our USA economy even in this small way. Searching at most big stores shows that virtually everything is sourced, by the really big stores, Walmart, Target, Sam’s, Costco, and on and on, from China. This ticks me off so much, as it is an unmistakable indication of an only selfish interest and lack of caring for the American people. We need jobs and business flowing through our own economy.
Many products no longer show where they were made, only give where the distributor is located which is probably going to be US company. It is important to read the bar code to track the country of origin, of cultivation or manufacture.
Bar Codes that reveal country of origin
Barcodes starting with come from:
690 – 695…………….The People’s Republic of CHINA
00 – 90…………………USA or Canada
30 – 37………………..France
40 – 44………………..Germany
47 (usually 471)…..Taiwan
49…………………………Japan
50…………………………the UK
57…………………………Denmark
64…………………………Finland
76…………………………Switzerland and Liechtenstein
628………………………Saudi Arabia
629……………………….United Arab Emirates
740 – 745……………..Central America
480 – 489……………..The Philippines
For made in USA, look for the ZERO at the start of the number on the barcode.
Codes for Produce Cultivation Methods
Produce can look great but if it is conventionally grown, it has far less minerals, it has poisons on it and which have likely been absorbed, coatings that contain who knows what including posible poisons (such as arsenic reported to be in apple wax).
Even organically grown produce has fewer minerals than it might, but the soil organic produce grows in has WAY more minerals than the nearly entirely depleted soil used in conventional farming.
The best is biodynamically grown produce where the farmers go wild with older technologies for remineralizing the soil and making sure that the micro-organisms that make soil rich are abundant. The also often plant as per phases of the moon, may let fields go fallow (or unused to let the old plant matter give its nutrients back to the soil for a future planting), etc. Quite a few organic farmers do these things as well. One can usually go to the website or email/call the farmer and ask. I do.
To make the choice for organically grown foods even less of a preference than a matter of vital necessity, there are GMO’s. I am always stunned when I consider how evil urge is to own seeds and transform nature into something, plant by plant, animal species by animal species, that can be owned with exclusivity. To use the power of big money and government to sue and aim to wipe out traditional farmers cultivating traditional seeds in the traditional way.
Organic and biodynamic farmers need our support. Plus, it behooves you (old word for it’s good or helpful to you in case my speech is antique…I just love that word :o) — yes, it behooves us to not eat anything that’s been genetically modified. So let’s spend a bit more for:
• good health and that of our families
• the viability of the organic farming industry
• a good night’s sleep knowing we’re not supporting the bad guys
Codes on the Produce Stickers
four-digit number beginning with a 4 — conventionally grown (or see below, the code starting with an 8)
four-digit number beginning with a 3 — conventional or irradiated
five-digit number beginning with a 9 — organically grown
five-digit number beginning with an 8 — genetically modified
but there is no law requiring that these be labeled as such, right? so these GMO’s are ore likely to be labeled with a four-digit number starting in a 4 as commercial only.
Hope this helps you make it safely through the mine field called the supermarket.
Evan