Want more proof that Monsanto’s demise is imminent? In a recently published Nielsen study of 30,000 consumers, 80 percent of respondents said they would pay more for foods that indicate a degree of healthfulness, such as those labeled ‘Non-GMO.’ Do we really need more proof that people are turning their backs on biotech-altered poison crops?
This doesn’t mean that people actually trust the ‘Non-GMO’ food label, and unless it has been verified, they shouldn’t. Even brands like Cheerios have stated that their product doesn’t contain GMO, but how can we be certain? Furthermore, foods like Xochitl tortilla chips were marketed as GMO-free, but were found to contain GM corn through an investigation by Consumer Reports.
Even though 61 percent of food buyers said they thought it was ‘very’ or ‘moderately’ important to purchase foods with a non-GMO label, exceeded only perhaps by the importance of avoiding foods with high-fructose corn syrup, most of them reported not knowing which labels to trust since there are multiple ways that companies claim non-GMO status on their food packaging.
Organic product sales were tremendous last year, and are expected to continue with their stratospheric rise. Sales of non-GMO products exceeded $10 billion last year, according to Nielsen. Certified Non-GMO label sales grew by over $8 billion last year, and are also expected to continue their upward trend. The Nutrition Business Journal released a report stating that organic food sales in the US were expected to reach $35 billion this year.
Obviously, these numbers beg the question – why are biotech companies trying so hard to grow genetically modified food that no one wants to buy? According to Investopedia, the simple concept of supply and demand is turned on its head.
“Supply and demand is perhaps one of the most fundamental concepts of economics and it is the backbone of a market economy. Demand refers to how much (quantity) of a product or service is desired by buyers. The quantity demanded is the amount of a product people are willing to buy at a certain price; the relationship between price and quantity demanded is known as the demand relationship. Supply represents how much the market can offer. The quantity supplied refers to the amount of a certain good producers are willing to supply when receiving a certain price. The correlation between price and how much of a good or service is supplied to the market is known as the supply relationship. Price, therefore, is a reflection of supply and demand.”