Genetically Modified Foods: Recent Developments: Industrial Production

Though often overlooked by casual observers, there is a complex institutional ecology involved in the production and distribution of food within the United States. In basic outline, the food production and distribution chain begins when firms (such as Monsanto, Dupont, or Syngenta) sell their crop seeds to farmers, who plant and grow them. Farmers, in turn, sell their crops to grain elevators or handlers (such as Archer Daniels Midland or Cargill), who sell the grain to food processors; food and grain processors (such as ConAgra Foods and Nabisco) transform grain into a range of products from bread to cooking oil to snack foods. Processors then sell these goods to food retailers (such as WalMart, Kroger, Costco, or Safeway). It is from these retail outlets that most people in the United States obtain their food. Consequently, the final consumers of GM foods are not the direct customers of the agricultural biotechnology firms. Because American regulators treat GM foods as equivalent to those produced through conventional means, food manufacturers rarely handle them differently. As such, the commodity chain of industry-related firms is the same for GM and non-GM crops.