Does it even pass the ‘organic’ label?
Americans are speaking with their wallets like never before in order to voice our true collective opinion of how corporations and Big Food are working with our food. One critical example of how we are demanding change can be seen where the sale of non-GMO Project Verified foods have more than doubled since 2013.
Verified GMO-free food sales were $3 billion in 2013 and were $8.5 billion in 2014! Not only that, organic food sales overall are projected to grow another 14% by 2018, and this is a modest estimate according to The United States Organic Food Market Forecast & Opportunities.
In 2012, organic food sales topped $81.3 billion, and with new methods of self-sustainability and organic farming, including hydroponics and roof-top arming in urban areas popping up all over the country, we could easily see these numbers double, or even triple.
This is no surprise, as the term ‘non-GMO’ was expected to surpass even ‘organic’ as a buzz word in 2014 when it came to food sales. One study published by Progressive Grocer showed that consumers want Non-GMO now even more than ‘organic.’ This ought to give Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta, and the huge food corporations a run for their suicide-seed money: A staggering 80% of consumers sought out non-GMO products in their survey. The non-GMO issue has emerged as a consumer hot-button.
Even city-dwellers are looking at new ways of making a more gratifying living. One couple, highlighted in the latest issue of Edible magazine, dropped their high powered marketing jobs in the city and moved to a small plot of land in central Texas to start their own organic, hydroponic tomato farm.
In the first year of business, they already have enough restaurants clamoring for their product – grown without pesticides or GMO – to rake in cash for over 80 tons of juicy, red tomatoes that are reminiscent of the kind great grandmothers used to grow in their gardens. They don’t supplement with any lighting in their 6000 foot green house, use only sunlight, and 1/5 of the water it would take to grow the same amount of tomatoes on a conventional farm. They can also grow all year long.
It is actions like these, along with those of consumers, who have boycotted Kellogg’s, Gerber, Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Coca-Cola, and other GM pushing companies, that are making a difference.
To learn more about how your food gets a ‘non-GMO’ label, you can read up here, but in the meantime, keep voting with your dollar. It makes a difference.
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