Stores

A word about stores. First, these stores are what we call "non-GMO friendly" because its possible to get our food there. None of these restaurants or stores except the organic ones are set up specifically for non-GMO food. Do NOT rely on stores to answer your questions or you will be steered wrong even by knowledgeable places. Trust us! Especially when it comes to meat. However, you can raise awareness- which brings us to our Second point: Every time you ask for non-GMO food in a store you are increasing your chances that next time they will carry it. If you go to a manager to express your interest, or ask to speak with someone that knows what non-GMO is, you are being a soldier. Stores will follow consumers. (And remember to use the term "GMO" with the expectation that others know the term.) Also, some of these are combination market and restaurant like New Seasons and Proper Eats. Remember, when in doubt, buy organic. Update: We've seen first-hand what has happened just from our saying "non-GMO" all the time. We've educated some employees and there is also an increasing awareness just happening right now and they're putting $2 + $2 together! So keep saying you want non-GMO. You, shopping soldier, have great power- more than we even thought initially. Think of these featured stores as our projects and give them that positive reinforcement. Then, tell us where you shop so we can investigate the possibilities. :) Thank you for making this project successful. We'll be getting some more recommendations on the site very soon.

Alberta Cooperative Grocery

If you’re a grocery store that people will buy tee-shirts for, you are definitely cool. But today, I saw the free Alberta Cooperative Grocery temporary tattoos- I kid you not. Northeast Portland Loves their co-op and we love it too. The people are really friendly, the aisles have things you can’t find just anywhere like non-GMO baking powder- and…. bulk organic jelly beans! (Amidst a good selection of bulk dry foods, many of which are non-GMO / organic). We were asked at a farmers market to see if the jelly beans had high-fructose corn syrup in them. The answer, I found out from a passionate employee, is that there is NO hfcs in any products. They have 3 organic deli meats which is pretty good- and quite possibly the largest selection of organic cheese we've seen. But your eyes will bulge when you look at the tags on the produce. We assumed for a moment that the color scheme for the produce was the same as for the dry goods where a few brown tags among the green were marked “conventional.” There were many dark tags mixed in with the green. Hmm. Then we read them. Here, green still meant organic, but brown meant local and organic! This huge produce selection appeared to be all organic! Amazed, we asked an employee who was stocking, “Is there any produce that isn’t organic?” “Yes,” she said, and produced a shucked coconut that had a treatment to keep the outside from browning. I challenge anyone to find more organic and local fruits and veges in a store. No need to take your dirty-dozen/ clean-fifteen list in here! Alberta cooperative is special to us because although they don’t want a decal on their window they are buying the brochures to give to customers and they are celebrating non-GMO month like some other friends. For that, they are definitely our partners so we welcome them as our first store Patron! It turns out that they’ll have a store-wide promotion for October, which is National Non-GMO month, with posters, shelf tags, and all. Perhaps you will be in the neighborhood Saturday, August 21 from 11am to 8pm for the annual Alberta Street Fair - we can tell you from last year the store will be a hoppin'! But back to the promotion- can you believe that a local store is having a month-long non-GMO promotion?!! Whoo hoo! I think someone should get a real tattoo featuring Alberta Cooperative Grocery. GMO-Free Portland! will buy that person a ten-dollar store gift certificate. http://www.albertagrocery.coop/

Food Front Cooperative Grocery

Food Front is a member-owned cooperative with a mission- defined by what they buy but also the co-op model. Both are discussed here. We are familiar with the NW Portland store and it is impressive. They also have a new store in Hillsdale (just west of Portland). Many Americans will shop for the lowest cost at any cost.--> Fortunately, the tides are changing. A lot of us found out about GMO's in a process of peeling away layers of the food system- we no-GMO's and people reducing or considering eliminating GMO's from their diet are not in the group of the blissfully ignorant. Either is Food Front. They make sure they know about what they sell us. They focus on local, fresh and sustainably grown foods. We know from shopping at Portland's Farmers Markets that local and sustainably grown food, often including organics, do not always cost more Speaking of, Food Front has a farmers market next door on Thursdays from 3pm to 7pm.

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Sustainability practices in general can save a company money in the long run and that may be passed along in the pricing. In the links page we talk about sustainability -->When you focus on sustainably grown local food like Food Front does, you are punishing those that do harm indirectly by directly rewarding the good farms and other food businesses. That is how we operate at GMO-Free Portland.

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If you do pay more for certain products, you may be doing so as a vote for what you believe is right. If you've ever given money to an organization to undo damage to our planet in some way, you might also be ready to take the next step and ask "What is the right price to pay for food?" which is discussed in the FAQ # 1. Look also for quality to save you money in the end. Food Front carries some products that are geared for lower cost and not sustainability but we really like their local focus and that does yield itself to eco-friendly shopping. More than that, we shape the products they carry with our business- and also by becoming FF member-owners who have a stake and a vote!

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Buying local and from smaller companies helps us all. As long as there is competition from them, we don't have to support bad megacorp. practices. Food Front has an outstanding produce selection- perhaps the best we've seen. Everything is fresh and bright and there is a good selection of organics (whether that means "certified organic," or if you know the farm, organic for all intents and purposes. --> It takes a lot of investment to bring quality local produce with sustainability in mind. FF manages accounts from a huge number of small farms. The store, member-owners and other shoppers, and the farms get more from eliminating the middle man but it is an investment of resources. Every time a crop is not looking good or is unavailable, they go to another local farmer. It is no coincidence that their fresh food is delicious and beautiful.

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Coop employees that I've talked to make the store a part of their lives and contribute their talents, taking on projects and sharing their ideas, and really rolling up their sleeves. The employees are the power and energy behind cooperatives (co-ops) action of serving the community. Coops, by nature, benefit everyone. Read about their missions on the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) Co-op Principals page. Portland is special in its support of the cooperative business model- many other communities can't or won't support them. The Food Front website explains member benefits in the link called "ownership" (but you don't have to be a member to shop there- its completely optional. Finally, you can't beat the location on a sunny day, so we recommend a little fruit and cheese at one of the many street-side tables. www.foodfront.coop

More...

While writing about Food Front we wound up with topics needing a sidebar for notes!

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Have you ever heard someone say "I don't want to know- it will spoil my appetite." or "Not during dinner, please."? (!) It's one thing if a person is saying something that might take some convincing- for example, a lot of vegetarian horror stories might be written off as exceptions. But what about when the person asking you not to talk about an argument for not eating certain food is completely aware and just doesn't want to think about how the food got there like .... third-world slave labor, animal cruelty, or harmful amounts of pesticide poison? That's how it is with the GMO talk. Email us for a free brochure to leave them.
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Here is one example of an unsustainable practice we find part and parcel to GMO's: Some farms pour wasteful amounts of nitrogen made in a dirty oil guzzling process because they stripped their soil of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Their soil is "dead." What's more, all that excess nitrogen runs through groundwater out to the sea where it causes algae to bloom and bacteria that decompose it to thrive. Both deprive the ocean of oxygen so nothing else can live in it. Such is the case with a huge and growing area at the mouth of the Columbia River. Who has the right to make soil and ocean waters devoid of life?
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Without horribly expensive and difficult certification, no one can use the word Organic anymore. Some growers get the certification but if you knew every practice you would choose a non-certified grower in some instances. We can't all know who deserves and doesn't deserve our business, and in general, buying certified organic is a good choice. But some stores we feature here like Food Front are choosy and have personal relationships with farms , so we trust their choices of growers to be "Organic for all intents and purposes." Walking the walk versus certification is also discussed below in mini-stops in regard to Fair-trade.
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Dave's Killer Bread

We are honored to be in the company of the Rockstar of Bread- who like every other business owner we’ve met so far is hard at work at his own store, including his older brother, Glenn, of the parent company Nature Bake (also fantastic bread). You must know how good Dave’s bread is, but did you know that in the store attached to the bakery in Milwaukie you can get day-old and two-day-old bread for around $2-$4? Or that you can get any of the breads, cookies or Sin Dawg (gooey cinnamony goodness) as soon as they’re cool- or get samples – or buy Test Products?!!! The kind lady who sold us our bread and goodies is working on the upcoming Gluten-Free loaf. Yay! Think of how many people’s jobs it is to make those ingredients just for his bread (including a 21-grain) that are having to defend themselves from GMO contamination. It’s like a small town. We’re going to be the non-GMO sheriffs of that little bread town - keeping that GMO riff-raff far away from their foods because Dave said, “It needs to be done,” followed by asking “what do you need?” Glenn and Dave are both serious about staying non-GMO in the face of the contamination attacks. You can eat anything in the bakery’s store or anything bearing those brand names and its going to stay that way because, as he reminded us, his mission is to “Make the world a better place, one loaf of bread at a time.” He and another future client are going to need us to become a true organization to serve them, and that is just what we’re going to do. This is going to help us keep advocating and supporting smaller businesses that don’t have any resources to devote. Thank you to our new friends supporting our right (theirs, ours and yours) to non-genetically engineered food.
www.daveskillerbread.com

Harmony J.A.C.K. Farms

We are proud to introduce our newest Patron, Harmony J.A.C.K. Farms. Harmony J.A.C.K. offers grass-fed, organic beef and pasture-raised pork, goat and chicken out of their ranch in Scio. No corn or soy in an over-crowded feed-lot for these animals! Since Scio isn't a convenient drive for most of us, they deliver to almost anywhere in the Willamette Valley, from Eugene up to Vancouver, WA. Prices are extremely competitive. Depending on the quantity and cuts desired, most meats run from $5.50 to $8.50 per pound. This is approximately what you would pay at the grocery store for grass-fed, organic , local meat when you can find it. They have also started offering a variety of organic produce, coffees and teas. Andy, the owner, met with us for over two hours recently to discuss GMOs, mandatory labeling and our GMO-Free Portland mission. We first met him in Salem a few months ago when he gave a heart-felt, persuasive testimony at the capitol in support of bills designed to help family farms and small-scale food producers. You can find Harmony J.A.C.K. online at harmonyjackfarms.com, or you can call them direct at 503-767-2174. If you make arrangements in advance, you can even take a tour of the farm to see the happy animals (you can see pictures on their Facebook page that's connected to ours). Scio is located in the lush green hills of the Willamette Valley south of the beautiful, blue North Santiam River. Try to go on a bright day and bring your camera.

http://harmonyjackfarms.com

New Seasons

This is our favorite place to shop. The best stores, in order, are Happy Valley, Cedar Hills (Beaverton), and Concordia (NE Portland). The store in Happy Valley is worth the trip (near Clackamas / SE Portland). But in general, the meat and fish managers and staff know what is non-GMO versus natural, and they research anything you ask about if they don't know. For beef, buy Pacific Village or frozen Organic Valley. Pacific Village also has an organic chicken fryer. NS has wild-caught fish so they aren't fed GMO-corn in baskets they live their whole lives in. The produce department is fresh and huge with a lot of organics and exotic non-GMO selections. The on-site baked bread is organic with a few exceptions that are still non-GMO. The rare NS bread item is not organic because, for example, olives are not available as organic as far as we know, but pure olives are non-GMO. So when we asked, we found that their Olive Ciabatta (yum!) is non-GMO. But the donuts, cakes, bagels, and several other things are not made in the on-site bakery and are GMO. The deli uses the bakery bread. The hamburger is Pacific Village. The salmon is wild-caught. They have organic condiments and if they don't they will go grab a bottle for you to use! You can also request sandwich fillings that are in the deli counter but not the restaurant deli so there may be an organic cheese available. Be careful on toppings- ask when in doubt. Remember some foods may not be GMO but there are all the preservatives, sugars, vinegars, etc. to think of. One word of caution: the cases in the deli have a lot of "natural" meats that are GMO fed yet we have twice heard from staff that they are not. We love the bright cheery restaurant and the friendly staff. Did you know that if you bring cans in to recycle they will do it while you shop and have your refund at the cash register? Or you can pick out a drink and chips from the store, sit down with your fresh hot hamburger by your grocery cart and then pay for it all together when you finish shopping? Wow. (If you take your own recycling for granted because you've been doing it so long and everyone you know has too, look at this! a 1-click zoom-pic) And finally, the regular grocery is full of non-GMO, organic, Fair-trade, local, renewable, recycled, and charity-driven items!!! Look at the "community" tab for more info on their values, on:
www.newseasonsmarket.com

Fred Meyer

Fred Meyer stores vary a lot but they typically have a large natural foods section with about 4-6 mini-aisles and a special fridge & freezer section next to it. This area is usually located by produce. It includes many GMO items, as well as organic and non-GMO food- but this area is where we do 90% of the shopping for groceries in the store. They have a bulk ingredients section with organic flours, dried fruit, granola, beans, pasta, etc. This specialty frozen foods section has a good selection of Amy's products (a meatless company that prints "non-GMO" on the packages, PJ's burritos which feature some organic varieties, and many others. Just about anything that is made by Organic Valley and its sister company Organic Prairie (who have a good information and activism email list we receive) is found in Fred Meyer. Whatever dairy product you want is usually made by Organic Valley and often next to a generous in-store coupon. The drink area is packed with varieties of Santa Cruz Organics sodas and juices. The meat department consistently has organic ground beef, several cuts and whole fryer organic chicken. They also have a great seafood section. We have had wild-caught sashimi-grade tuna, wild-caught salmon and many other good fishes, along with muscles, shrimp, clams and scallops that may be farmed but are not GM foods. They have a good organic produce section and lots of "clean 15" foods. For those not familiar with the "dirty dozen and clean fifteen" food lists, please see our links page. They carry Dave's Killer Bread, Nature Bake and Gabriel's bagels (ingredients are okay except the cheese in that variety). They also feature many Newman's Own (the Organic line) products. There are things scattered throughout the store that are "whole foods" that do not have GMO ingredients - for those who already know what ingredients are safe. We have found that often, the smaller the brand, the less complicated and the shorter the ingredients label. The specialty area staff like produce, meats and fish seem to be savvy to our needs but like anywhere else, don't trust anyone unless you know enough to know if they know! (Incidentally, this is why we say "GMO" so we weed out talking to those that don't know the term.) Happy Shopping!
www.fredmeyer.com

People's Food Cooperative

There's weird, and then there's Portland-weird. A lot of our featured stores and restaurants are Portland-weird because its about "integrity as identity." Portlanders choose their ethics passionately and personally- not from the television. You will see we support non-cookie cutter things such as farmers markets, public radio, and cooperatives. Be sure that with all we talk about in regard to values and ethics on this site including supporting local businesses and the coop model, People's is exemplary. Besides that, you really feel you're at a "market." There's something wonderful about shopping at a market! Lets take a tour. On Wednesdays there is a sizable farmers market on the property, and the atmosphere is like a country fair of vitality. Find organics, raw foods, local, sustainable farming, bargains and yumminess. While you're outside with your doggie, order an invincibility mixture at the aluminum juicing trailer. Inside are more organic and often local fruits and veges, a meatless selection of deli items and special bulk items like peanut butter and salsa (not together- you'd have to mix them yourself.) I actually found Weleda salt toothpaste ( The only toothpaste I can have that is minty instead of mint-seaweedy), amidst all this unique stuff like saffron threads, bulk eco-detergents, every bulk pasta or grain you can think of, and things like Nature's Path Organic Buckwheat Wildberry Waffles. I don't eat much soy, but they have non-GMO vanilla soy drink mix (add milk / substitute) that's great for when you don't feel like eating but need food. I spelled those two out because it is how you will get to know this store: if you shop at People's Food Coop, you're going to find a few things that you will have to keep coming back for. As you check out, notice the magazines. You won't find any prey-on-desperation rags or soap opera recaps. I'm not sure what all is there- because I went into kind of a trance from staring at it. Next thing I know, my groceries were being scanned martial arts-style. If you join the coop, besides getting to be an owner, you can reserve the public room upstairs, or get free Yoga classes. Bring your own bags (click here if you leave them in your car habitually like I did) and plenty of reusable containers for spices, honey and other sweeteners, laundry detergent, peanut butter, salsa, bulk flours, nuts, etc. Stock up on groceries at People's- or go because its something really enjoyable to do. www.peoples.coop

Limbo, Inc.

Update: Limbo closed its doors July 3, 2010. We are saddened to see the wall of herbs go away. There is good news however. A couple of the people that helped manage Limbo are in the process of opening a new herb store in the SE area. Watch this space for details. http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/06/limbo_one_of_the_first_organic.html

Need some color in your food? How about some color in your wallet?! This is one of the challenges for people like us and sometimes we can't just go to the local farmers' market or join a CSA half-hour before dinner! Limbo, Inc. has two big things going on: Produce, and bulk herbs/spices/teas. We'd shopped there a handful of times and went in to see how many organics and "clean-fifteen" items they had. The answer is a LOT. The other thing they have is an amazing "Wall of Herbs"- 700 bulk herbs, spices and teas lining both sides of a tall hallway. People (Like Josh here) post pictures online of it like a landmark. Remember the virtual weapons room in The Matrix? This would be the virtual herb, spice, and tea room. Limbo has a slogan: "Feed the People." We talked to Ellen, one of the owners. She explained that their prices fluctuate and to go in with a list but be ready to take advantage because in the real world produce market prices go up and down. When they go down, Limbo will absolutely pass that on to you because that is their mission. The"Limbo Deals" we saw in one visit: small cantaloupes for a dollar, (sold out) lettuce boxes 2/$1, 3 small eggplants/$1, medium-large mangoes $1.50 (my favorite), and more. The other way they "feed the people" is to offer "dollar bags" of produce that "needs work" or isn't bin quality anymore like ripe bananas or lettuce with a brown base to cut away. They put sometimes $15-worth in one bag. They truly want people to have access to nutritious food. Feed the People! They Twitter what deals are going on all the time too. Find them at www.twitter.com/limbomadness

Uwajimaya

Portland area fans of gourmet Asian cuisine have long been aware of this Asian supermarket on Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy. Can meals consisting of tofu, soy sauce and MSG possibly hope to be GMO-Free? A recent visit reveals that, yes indeed, we can shop GMO-Free here. We made an entire document (at the end of this paragraph) of what is there and what to look for or avoid. But here is a list of foods you may or may not know are offered that you can have if you have your non-GMO eyes. California white rice, organic tofu, uncooked wheat noodles. Milk & soymilk from Organic Valley plus organic eggs. Ice cream, greens, exotic produce and edemame. Safe and responsible fresh (alive even) seafood, but no meats. Cooking staples like broths & Spectrum oils, so many non-GMO soy sauces -but is the soy contaminated? This is a good thing to email us about - this whole contamination uncertainty factor. We don't have it down ourselves completely but don't get frustrated- just talk to us a little. Be careful with the sake because rice is really having problems over there- you want rice grown here which we're not sure is the case with the American brand(s) of sake yet. Try emailing (our Blackberry pager) for us to look something up for you while you shop. They have no definitely non-GMO candy or snacks that I saw. Sorry Pocky fans! Tell the manager if you wanted meat or snacks that you need non-GMO food. There are amazing cookware and book sections. If you can't read Japanese books, perhaps the book on learning Japanese and then the books? :) If you are a fan of Asian-style cooking and are pursuing a GMO-Free lifestyle, it will be well worth your time to head over to the West Side of town to purchase many of your ingredients. They offer great prices on many staple items, especially if you buy in larger quantities. Organic products are available in almost every category in a wider variety of styles and brands than in almost any other store in town, and they have exciting new things to try, from spices, to fishes to that weird looking… um… fruit?

Ernie's Uwajimaya detailed shopping guide

www.uwajimaya.com

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NOTE: Trader Joe's is removed for good reason!
They say they have non-GMO store brand, but they are not including the food that animals eat for any animal products unless they are certified Organic. That's not what their website says. Per http://www.traderjoes.com/about/customer-updates.asp, On 1/22/11 this text was captured from the above page:

"3. Trader Joe's Products are Sourced from Non-GMO Ingredients Our customers can be assured that all products in Trader Joe's private label are sourced from non-genetically modified ingredients. Our efforts began in 2001, when we determined that, given a choice, our customers would prefer to eat foods and beverages made without the use of genetically engineered ingredients. Our process has been to identify any product containing ingredients that could potentially be derived from genetically engineered crops and work with our suppliers to replace offending ingredients with acceptable alternatives."

What they falsely claim they are doing when offering a non-GMO store brand isn't easy- as anyone that has ever tried to hunt down non-GMO deli meat or beef will know. Many suppliers will not be able to tell them correctly- in fact, we caught one brand claiming to be non-GMO except for unavoidable contamination that actually did nothing of the sort and was exploiting this harm being done to us and all of nature when in reality it wasn't gene flow contamination but the fact that only a few farmers were using non-GMO feed and the meat is never separated so it is all, in fact, GMO. Perhaps Trader Joe's is guessing non-GMO couldn't possibly include animal feed. Tell that to Pure Country Pork which has the Non-GMO Project seal and does use non-GMO feed. You can't feed GMO feed to animals that give us Organic products, so we don't think anyone would assume you can feed it to animals and get non-GMO animal products? And what about fairness to stores that earn our trust? Whole Foods is enrolled in (and in fact, one of the founders of) the Non-GMO Project, which means, by contract, they are in process of making every product in their whole store line get the certification seal, passing genetic testing with no less than 99.1% accuracy. Trader Joe's is taking non-GMO customers they and other stores deserve by tricking us- and degrading standards just like the so-called "Organic Feed Lots."

If this is more outrage than typical of the store directory, perhaps its because its so personal.We asked a staff member at the Customer Service counter if our Trader Joe's cheese doodles were made from cheese with cows receiving only non-GMO feed. She said, of course, because non-GMO is their store-brand policy- its on the website. She was right about that. We went over it step by step to make sure she understood the question and she did- she assumed her store was telling the truth. So we ate their brand for a few months, but it just felt wrong so we asked to have it confirmed by their central office. They told us that they do not look for animal products from animals that receive only non-GMO feed- acting like it was a detail or impossible. Animal products from animals fed GMO feed have been shown to be materially different. They contain new proteins and chemicals or have levels of them that have never been evaluated for safety. Changes at the cellular level caused by ingesting GMOs makes those animal products GMO. The moment Trader Joe's enrolls in the Non-GMO project or shows some other change of policy that is sincere, we would like to know so we can put this all behind us. We do not chide brands often- the only exception is when there is blatant deception that successfully tricks non-GMO eaters into eating GMOs which we take very seriously- especially when they made us eat GMOs and recommend their brand.

Mini-stops! Places to go for that "one thing" that's so hard to find!

Get a mocha at New Cascadia Traditional Bakery- (who are 100% gluten free!)

We're not talking about non-GMO anything here right now except Mochas so this is our first Mini-stop. But, the bakery itself has our utmost gratitude and respect for what they do- offer a safe baked goods source for people with Celiac disease or otherwise avoiding gluten. We feel a sense of kinship.

Mochas are nearly impossible to find for we no-GMO's. If you like coffee, better learn to drink it black. UNLESS you come to New Cascadia Traditional in SE Portland. They use Portland's Stumptown direct-trade coffee (see below about them), Holy Kakow Fair Trade organic chocolate syrup, and for milk, have them use their Living Harvest hempmilk (non-GMO). It was a first for me. It made the mocha taste "roasty"- almost like a chocolate malt. This was the best mocha I have ever had, I kid you not.
www.newcascadiatraditional.com

Stumptown Coffee Roasters

All pure coffee is non-GMO, so why is Stumptown here? Its another case of kinship, and being part of a bigger movement: ethical food. While looking into the mochas at New Cascadia Traditional, I had to make sure the blend used was fairly traded or I was not going to do the blip at all. We personally do NOT buy exploitative coffee. (That became 100% after watching the movie "Black Gold"). I spoke with an employee who told me that the business was centered around values- especially being good to people. When you go non-GMO you find yourself in the realm of buying for other ethics. It just happens. Because although here we stress the health aspect in avoiding eating GMO's, what they do to the environment, and all the cases of bribery and bullying around the world is a travesty. So people who care about non-GMO often care about other environmental / ethical matters. Pretty soon, one's whole "shopping circle" has changed and then look out! You've learned too much to go back. It is not necessary to compromise on values- and when you go-for-it, you get connected so it gets easy. And then- your values become the target demographic. We in Portland, are a shop-by-values city now more than ever - on the rise, and here to stay. Just like supporting organics supports non-GMO foods, so does supporting ethical trading and sustainability. Ask an employee, "I've heard you really care about the farmers you trade with" and see what they say- but make sure to refill your coffee first because there's a lot to tell. They (and this includes lots of employees) go to the farms in Indonesia, Africa and Latin America all the time and make sure the farms are healthy from the beans to the land to the people- and instead of cutting costs, they invest in these farms to make them better- for everyone. http://buystumptowncoffee.com