A start-up in the Bay Area has released a new smartphone app that helps consumers shop. With a quick swipe over a barcode you can see if a product has GMOs, or if the company treats its workers well.
The app is called Open Label. It's sort of Yelp meets Wikipedia for the stuff you buy at a grocery store. Users can add comments about the ethics of a brand. Or even link to articles or recipes. Scott Kennedy is the CEO.
“The fact that there's so many products and there's so many different people who want to know so many different things about those products necessitates a crowd powered open label,” Kennedy says.
There are other apps on the market with a similar goal, like Buycott, Good Guide or CauseCart.
Kennedy says there's momentum to make product labels more transparent.
"It's all coming from one source which is the brand or manufacturer, which is obviously problematic because they're quite frankly interested in selling you something,” he says.
Open Label received initial funding from Google, Facebook and Amazon, but its eventual success hinges on user-generated content.
This story was produced by Capital Public Radio.