Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
market in the United States is still small compared to the widespread
marketing of non-GE goods in the EU. For example, the four largest retail
chains in the UK
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all indicate on their websites that their own-brand products
do not include biotech ingredients (Tesco website, 2011; ASDA website,
2011; Sainsbury's website, 2013; Wm Morrison website, 2013). They also
have tried developing brands of meat from animals fed non-GE feed, but some
of the chains have been unable to source enough feed to maintain production
(Tesco Food News, 2013; Wm Morrison website, 2013). In contrast, of the
four largest U.S. grocery retail chains,
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two make no mention of GE foods on
their websites or corporate responsibility reports, one indicates that non-GE
ingredients are not yet defined, and one will make one of its inhouse product
lines non-GE in the coming year (Walmart, 2013a; Walmart, 2013b; Kroger,
2013a, Kroger, 2013b; Publix website, 2013; Safeway/Vons website, 2013).
Thus, U.S. supermarkets do not perceive the same advantage from marketing
non-GE goods that the UK retailers do.
Further evidence comes from new product introductions in the United
States. Of the 7,637 new food or food supplement products introduced
between February 12, 2010, and February 11, 2011, as documented by the
Datamonitor database, 2.6 percent advertise
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that they do not include GE
ingredients, 8 percent advertise that they are organic, and another 2.8 percent
indicate that they at least have some organic or non-GE ingredients
(Datamonitor, 2010-2011). Organic acreage of corn and soy, two potential
sources of verified non-GE ingredients for U.S. food producers, remain a small
share of the total acreage, with organic soy constituting 0.17 percent of total
U.S. production and organic corn constituting 0.26 percent of total U.S.
production in 2011 (USDA-ERS, 2013). Whether patterns of consumer
approval have changed over time is not clear. International Food Information
Council (FIC) polls seem to indicate that the percentage with favorable
opinions of GE foods in the United States fell between 2003 and 2008, but it
has recently risen somewhat. In terms of the more rigorous studies cited in this
report, even in the United States and in the United Kingdom, for which we cite
several studies from different time periods, the temporal patterns are not clear
enough to draw definite conclusions.
C
ONCLUSION
A large majority of U.S. farmers have adopted GE seeds for corn,
soybeans, and cotton since their commercial introduction over 15 years ago.
