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Buycott App Helps Manage Your Non-GMO Food Purchases

Written by Jolene Borrelli
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The Buycott app lets you vote with your dollar.

With modern day food production being managed en masse by multi-million dollar conglomerates, it's difficult to keep track of who owns what. Each producer a subsidiary of a larger company, it's no longer enough to stop at the back of the box. You may think you know what Kraft or General Mills are up to but do you really?

A new app called Buycott is about to change what we know about our food, poised to give consumers an in-depth look into how wealthy companies, and the individuals that own them, control our lives.

26-year-old programmer, Ivan Pardo, is the face behind the Buycott app. With "Redefining Buying Power" as their motto, Pardo and his team of experts are hard at work to help ethically minded consumers shop better.

In fact, the app has proved so popular in recent weeks that Pardo has had a hard time keeping up with the exploding amount of downloads and user traffic, a positive sign for food activists.

For food advocates against genetically modified and engineered products, it’s an exceptional development.

The app is simple to use and works by scanning barcodes using iPhone's built in camera (not to worry, an Android version is coming soon).

After downloading the app for free from iTunes, users are invited to join various campaigns. The app will then use that particular campaign as a filter for the information it provides, displaying the corporate family tree of the product in question to its top most echelons and revealing on the next swipe whether or not you are actively boycotting it.

While the idea of developing an app to facilitate conscious shopping is revolutionary in itself, what makes Buycott so amazing is the ability for activists to coalesce their values into a larger platform through one piece of technology. With campaigns ranging from ecological responsibility to sustainable food initiatives, the app's use as an outlet for social justice is only limited to the imagination.

For food advocates against genetically modified and engineered products, it’s an exceptional development.

The app already features three campaigns dedicated to the fight against GMO food: Say No to GMO - Monsanto Products Boycott, Say No to Monsanto, and Demand GMO Labeling.

Demand GMO Labeling is so far the most popular anti-GMO campaign with over 44,000 users. To filter their scan results, the group bases their approval or disapproval of food manufacturers on whether or not they are part of any larger conglomerate that donated more than $150,000 to oppose GMO labeling in California. For a formerly donating company to escape the filter, it must reverse its stance to support mandatory labeling of all GMO products.

The potential for anyone to get involved in the boycott process against GMOs, both as an app user and as a campaign founder, is truly inspirational.

To extend a person's potential impact as a shopper even further, the software is open to contributions, meaning that anyone can submit useful information about corporate links. With the ability to discern between GMO foods and their untainted counterparts at the touch of one's fingers, the power of consumer influence just got a much needed boost.