Consumers to Whole Foods: Be afraid.
Be very, very afraid.
The Lapka, an intriguing new iPhone appcessory, is currently ramping up for mass production from the prototype phase and should be available for purchase this December for about 220 US$, just in time for the holidays.
Marketed as a “personal environment monitor”, this little contraption could likely prove an excellent tool at farmer’s markets or while shopping at Whole Foods (you know, “organic” food from China?) where produce is sometimes marked organic when, ahem, it is really not.
One of the four Lapka sensors is an organicity device, which provides the user with a steel probe to check the organic-ness of a particular food.
How?
By measuring the concentration of nitrates which are commonly used in non-organic fertilizers.
Brilliant!
The other 3 Lapka sensors test for humidity/temperature, radiation, and electromagnetic frequencies (EMF).
Environmental readings are presented on the screen in a manner which is easy to understand. For example, instead of presenting radiation readings as parts per million which would not make sense to most people, the reading is instead identified as acceptable or not with gradual color changes to red as the environment becomes less safe.
Environmental snapshots can then be sent to friends who don’t need to have a Lapka themselves to view the information.
After the launch of the personal environment monitor, Lapka’s team plans to potentially expand into other peripherals with medical applications for glucose screening and blood pressure monitoring. A device for vehicle diagnostics and even a fitness tracker are also possible.
This further empowerment of the consumer is sure to give food companies fits as they will have fewer ways in which to deceive people about the so called quality of their products.
Now all we need is a GMO sensor!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Source: iPhone Sensors Test If Your Food Really Is Organic
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{ 75 comments… read them below or add one }
Sounds interesting… though I would not rely on it completely. I, too, would love a GMO detector! How sad that it has come to this!
Neat, but I wouldn’t buy it until it has been independently tested. Or maybe figure out a way to test it on the spot perhaps? Sounds like a homemade science experiment.
This app would be a great contribution to the market. Not only that you would know if its fake or not but you would also see if it has harmful effects on your body. For your GMO concerns, is better to have a detector or a law that prohibits it?
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How’s that possible?
I can’t wait.
most of whole foods produce is conventional in my area… they label the organics as such..
I don’t trust Whole Foods at all. Whose to say that the organics isn’t mislabeled? Organic food from China .. they are still doing it and GMO foods everywhere.
This is so intriguing! Though I still dont quite get how it works. The actual device is boggling my mind. To you puncture the food?
Eep. That’s important to know. I don’t shop there at all, but my MIL does. Do you have any articles I can forward to her?
WF sells food from China. They should be afraid on that alone. lol
Great idea!
Wonderful!!!! This will not only help with organic produce but the radiation monitor will put those airport screening machines to the test – you know the ones they keep telling us that they are safe. Just tuck it in your pocket and enter the screener, when you come out, wa la, proof one way or the other. Mark my words, we are going to hear about the machines over-radiating like crazy after this comes out.
Wait a minute…your saying WF labels conventional foods as organic? I don’t shop there but still
put me down for 2 please.
Yeah, right…now, how is it going to verify that?
I wonder if it tests for chemicals.
This tech stuff is really something anymore! Good and bad.
I wonder if these will be able to test the radiation exposure from so-called Smart Meters in our homes.
I was JUST thinking the same thing, Beth! We are trying so hard to fight against smart meters here in New Hampshire!
Amy Love @ Real Food Whole Health\’s last post: Fresh Bites Friday August 10, 2012
Do you have to put the probe into the food???? The store won’t let you do that I am sure. If you just touch it to the item it would be great.
What about the foods they label as local, are they really local? I think their organic tastes better than some other places.
I don’t trust this?
Hearing about Whole Foods makes me SO sad!! I have very limited options for healthy produce where I live so I make the 30 min drive there to shop…Is Trader Joe’s any better or do they do the same thing??
Erika,
It isn’t that all organic food from Whole Foods is bad, (the meter will be useful) it’s just that food that is imported from China (look for the label QAI – Quality Assurance International) is not monitored well enough. They simply (from what I understand) ask the farmers “was this grown organically” and simply go on the word of the farmers without actually physically checking each farm. I think if it was grown in the USA and has “grown in California” or “Oregon” or certified by a smaller US certification group, it’s probably a better bet…
I will be honest. I get really sick of people criticizing Whole Foods all the time. My husband works for them. On top of treating their employees well and doing an excellent job offering health and wellness benefits………there is an enormous amount of oversight that goes into Organics at their stores……at least the ones my husband has worked in. They have chosen to have external oversight for organics in the stores and to make sure what is labeled organic really is…………just my 2 cents.
I agree! They are at least trying. Without them, I would not be able to afford my local pastured pork, chicken, and beef. My local CSA prices are nearly double from some of the same farms! Frankly, I love that WF sources and supports locally farmed meats from sustainable farms. Same goes for my local health food store. They are always more expensive:(
Yea I agree with you. I trust organic labeling at WF. My SO also works there. As much as they have their issues… I’d trust their organics probably more than most stores. For instance, there is a local chain of co-ops that have dried fruit and label it as organic, and I wonder if it really is, because the prices are very good and they use a generic label. My SO used to work there too and said they used to label things as organic when they really weren’t and it was mad corrupt. Whole Foods, being the national leader in organic yada yada, I don’t think they have a massive conspiracy going on to sell conventional food as organic. Now, their frozen organic stuff from China, maybe more questionable… but why buy the frozen stuff anyway?
The criticism is justified. They market an image that is different from what they actually are. Plain and simple.
Like like like like like like LIKE! Saves me studying a degree in chemistry and setting up a home laboratory
Provocative article Sarah. Thanks for sharing. Would it not be great if we had a such a tool?! Perhaps after reading this blog (hopefully) people will will become more diligent in checking where their food comes from and seeking sources they can trust, but I am sure most of those following your blog are already pretty savvy when it comes to selecting their food.
After shopping with Whole Food for the last few decades, about five years ago I began to get frustrated with how much junk they were bringing into they stores (especially from China) which in turn made me question their trustworthiness. I was especially skeptical when their founder was busted for his unscrupulous behavior in acquiring his main competitors line of markets, Wild Oats. I became a very loud voice in sharing my opinion with them, but it did no good so I began to seek out an alternative to the likes of Whole Food.
Since my eyes were opened and I “stepped out of the Matrix” so to say, I have been seeking food from local farms and CSA sources as well as teaching myself how to garden. I found a cow share for my raw dairy products who makes delivers to my area once a week. My dairy farmer also provides products (meats, hand-crafted cheeses and veggies) from other local farms that are like-minded in how they raise their crops. I also found a beef farmer right in my own town who raises grass fed beef. He has full control from birth up to butchering to insure a quality product and also grows his own grasses for feed. He also offers as little as one steak to a whole cow as well as local delivery. Another new source is a CSA located right across the field from me that put up hoop houses to raise organic veggies year round! You only need to take a closer look to find quality food from souces you can trust. With every step we take in taking back control of what we buy and consume we weaken the power of the industrialized brokers of the inferior commodities we have been calling food here in America.
Thanks for your great news letter and blog!
What a load of rubbish, an app that can do what you need lab for? How can it see the difference between organic nitrogen and artificail, rofl.
It is my firm belief that this is a lie.
Even if it worked the way they claimed, absence or presence of nitrates in food doesn’t prove anything about whether it’s ‘organic’.
I would be interested in some documentation on WF and their alleged mislabeling.
Sarah already addressed the whole Whole Foods thing in another shout out. I’m sure you can find it in her archives .
hhaha!
Why can’t the Chinese farm organically? They invented agriculture as we know it. Sometimes I think its just a mater of people being racists against the Chinese.
I do find it a little insulting. Not everything from China is bad. I mean seriously, if they were, people would be dropping like flies there from the food, which they’re not. Don’t Chinese people in general live longer than Americans in general?
Exactly Cee. We wouldn’t have half the produce we have now if it wasn’t for Chinese farmers cultivating and breeding fruits and vegetables. And we should support the Chinese growing organically.
This device sounds somewhat useful, but what really needs measurement is the orgone (life energy) index of the food. Here’s an example of doing just that:
http://www.orgonelab.org/cart/ylemeter.htm
This could be interesting. As a small scale organic farmer, we do most of our business through the farmers markets. I get so sick of people twisting their words to make their produce sound organic. We are working on organic certification and there is so much more to it then 99.9% of people realize. It’s not just a lack of pesticides or petroleum fertilizers. Or another set of pesticides, as I once thought organic was. The certification process puts a TON of emphasis (at least here in Idaho) on sustainability, integrated pest management plans, soil buidling, I could go on and on. This is why I have to charge more for my produce. The family that sells across from us claims to be pesticide/insecticide free, but they use TONS of Miracle Gro and neem oil (and broad spectrum insecicde that is way overused because it is considered ‘organic’ but in organic farming it is a last resort pesticde because it is detrimental to beneficial insects and does nothing to address the underlying problem of soild infertility, poor crop rotation, ect that caused the outbreak).
I’d love it if there was a devise that could help consumers make smarter choices when buying food, but that devise would have to measure both chemical exposure and nutritional quality to prove it was “Certified Organic”.
As far as Whole Foods goes… you’re buying your food from a major corporation. Expect there to be the potential for a misuse of power. Buy local, its the only true say you have in who you buy from.
Neem oil is bad? I put it in my toothpaste… and take neem powder sometimes… I know bugs don’t like it so I was thinking about using it in an insect repellent.
Or.. you’re just saying using it is a cop out and doesn’t address the issue. Not that the stuff itself is bad.
I fully agree with you Kristine and appreciate the hard work that comes with farming organically.
We also need to protect and strengthen the organic standards. With the organic label now becoming a “trend” because people are becoming aware of its importance, many industrial farming corporation interests are finding all sorts of loopholes and trying to re-word the organic standards so they can state that their transitional products are now organic. The FDA has proven to be an ineffective ally in protecting us from fraud and quality control issues and in some cases actually work against the small organic farmers. We have witnessed the cases of raids on raw milk farmers and the recent mass killing of the pigs at a Michigan heirloom pig farm to name a few. There is the cases where Monsanto purposely hires farmers to plant their franken-seeds (GMO) next to organic farms and when the crops spread naturally into the organic farm fields they sue them for not having permission to grow the patented crops. I have read of an incident where a formerly small organic milk producer was bought up by an industrial milk producer who began using conventionally born and raised calves that they suddenly began to feed organic so they could call their milk products organic. Also, in recent years it has been allowed for boxed food products to be called organic even when it contains under a certain percentage of non-organic ingredients. So it sadly seems that with the government agencies working against the small organic farmers (excessive paper work and constant harassment) and passing laws to accomodate the industrial farms (loosening of organic standards and lack of effective inspections) that the quality assurance of organic label will soon become diluted. I recently read a story where (in more than one area) it has even become illegal to put in a garden in your own back yard no matter how beautiful and asthetically pleasing it may be. There is just something wrong with this picture.
The only way you will know for sure about the freshness and quality of your food is to eat whole food (nothing packaged) that you either grow yourself or find a local farmer that you come to know as growing real organic foods. (Make an appointment to visit the farm and ask questions. It has been my experience that most growers are very busy, but welcome you and are proud to show you around and teach you about their methods of growing their product.) For the freshest food grow your own, buy local right from the farm or join a co-op that grows their own or buys from local farmers.
This should be available for Android users too……. What a great idea!
I ? who is behind this device??? will it justify bad food, etc saying it’s good so they can make more $$$
The WF here in Annapolis, MD, routinely mixes organic with nonorganic. The produce department staff has not been well trained, and when I pointed out the mix up, I just got a shrug and was told that some of the stickers were wrong. Uh, OK. I’m skeptical about the device mentioned in the post, but I sure would encourage other WF shoppers to stay on top of those stocking the produce dept. Obviously, management isn’t providing the appropriate guidance.
Amber, I would like to address your question. First, I would not call people rascist simply because they question and are concerned about quality control when the source has failed to provide safe products time after time. So many pets have died from Chinese-made dog food ingredients, foods and treats. Also, many children’s toys, food, meds, dental items and household items made in China have been found to be tainted. The proof is in the numbers of incidents.
My question to you is why is China sending so many unsafe foods and items to the U.S.? I am sure they are capable and do send many good items, but why is their such a large amount of health-related problems with so many items coming from China? Why does the U.S. governent still allowing these items in without first testing them since they have been proven untrustworthy over and over again? We rarely hear of issues with goods imported from other countries? Why, when tested have these products been found to contain toxic and harmful ingredients that should not be in the products in the first
It has nothing to do with racism, but with effective quality control issues or malicious greed on the part of the manufacturers who CHOOSE to use sub-standard ingredients that have long been discontinued everywhere else and proven hazardous all because it is cheaper so they stand to benefit from increased profits by doing so. Let us stick to the facts of the issue instead of jumping to emotional accusations and assumptions. Facts are facts. I think it is in everyones best interest not to waste Sarah’s blog for personal attacks. I will say nothing else on the racism matter as it does not merit further debate. Sorry Sarah, but it needed said. Just saying . . .
Hi Carol-
It wasn’t a personal attack on Sarah. Do you know how much garbage america sends to china illegally? They are just sending it back to us, I would blame corporate greed and not Chinese farmers. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5274959n
I actually work in organic certification, the export market for organic to China is huge, because of there growing middle class. Let me tell you american farmers are sending pesticide treated food to China. I know this because the Chinese government tests all the food coming into their country. If one of the farmers or producers I work with sends pesticide tainted for to China, it is reported to my company and we have to launch a full investigation. It usually results in finding that an american farmer is trying to pass conventional produce as organic into China.
So I agree we Americans should be doing more testing.
“So I agree we Americans should be doing more testing,”
For sure Amber. I know when I was in Europe the view of food from America was very negative and in some cases importation of American food was even illegal. On the other hand you can sell a pair of Levis for $300 in many parts of the world. Go figure.
It is an up hill battle against corporate greed from both directions, imports and exports. Many of the industrially produced items in China are by American owned corporations. It seems that once they moved their plants over their there was not enough control over the quality and methods of what they produced there and imported back to the U.S. I have no doubt that China does not allow many of the products produced there by U.S. companies to be sold there.
I still do not understand why we cannot get a grip on why so much of what comes from there is tainted. It is just so blatant that the American Government agencies are not doing their job in protecting our food supplies from both within the country and imports from China. Sadly the only assumption once can make is that the politicians are well paid by the lobbyists of corporate America.
The GMO monitor should take precedence over all other monitors. Such devices are available but cost over $5k to buy. A small version (more affordable ) version is what we really need
one answer GROW YOUR OWN or go to farmers market and become friends with farmers and go check them out and the rest hope for the best
This is awesome! And yes, grow your own!
This is INSANE. Of all cell phones, the iPhone is the worst with regard to microwave radiation levels that it emits since each iPhone can act as an antenna for other iPhones in order to forward calls on to the nearest cell tower or relay antenna.
I see mothers all the time in Whole Foods with little babies and children only a foot or two away from that iPhone (and the more insane, ignorant, careless mothers allowing their children to actually hold and/or use it). With these applications, including the one that the anti-GMO campaigner Jeffrey Smith has for moms to download information about the GMOs in foods they might be purchasing, those profiting from this insanity are complicit in the mass murder of our children (and adults) via wireless technologies, along with the executives of all the telecommunications companies.
Tom, I am glad that I am not the only one who found the idea of an EMF sensor on an iPhone to be just about the most ironic thing I had ever heard.
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Ridiculous. Uses a steel probe to measure nitrate levels? I can really see farmers and retailers allowing everyone to stick steel probes in their produce! Grow your own, or source locally from known suppliers.
Cool concept. Maybe one day it’ll just be part of a stock iphone.
This device is real and it’s effective. My cousin works for a company who makes and markets a similar, more sensitive device to the military that can measure all elements and chemicals that an object is composed of. It does so through light technology – there is no probe that needs to be inserted. It’s amazing what the potential capabilities are of this technology.
I can NOT believe that it didn’t pass. I don’t understand.
is this for real?
SO sad!
this could be a good christmas present for my children
And here CA residents were afraid of the price of their food going up! This device is going to be expensive! And yes, I can’t believe it didn’t pass. It just shows that many people are ignorant about their health and how to fix it. Really sad! Frustrating for the rest of us because we pay for their health issues plus our own.
Thank you Sarah! You are such a blessing to my family! Please keep doing what you are doing!!
Exactly Christine. Sigh.
So sorry to hear that Prop 37 didn’t pass. That totally sucks and just reminds me how clueless people are about their health. Allowing large corporations control what they put in their bodies. Sad day in America.
Perfect
Brilliant, I need one. First, I’ll need soneone willing to be Santa!
too bad its not a GMO detector
this is insane!!!
insane cool, that is.
This certainly looks like an interesting little device!
It would be cool if people had a database where they could add the test results of food they have tested…that way everyone could have access.
So does anybody know what the opposing argument was?
The problem with THIS proposition was that it was backed by trial lawyers who would generate frivolous lawsuits. I would love to see a law about truthful labeling but not one that will cost so much to the consumer. People, you need to read the fine print on the proposition not just the title. This is why our country is in so much trouble, no one reads the bills before the are passed into laws.
i love this!
different topic: why is there an ad for chocolate cheerios on your site? yuck! get it off!
My friend’s brother who lives in CA, an intelligent, thinking person, voted no because of the way the bill was written – makes it easy for people to sue, in a sue-happy state. He said he’ll reconsider when it’s written better. Perhaps it was set up not to pass..
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