Processed Food Losing Market Share to Fresh and Organic Alternatives

[SecularMotion]

Major packaged-food companies lost $4 billion in market share alone last year, as shoppers swerved to fresh and organic alternatives. Can the supermarket giants win you back?

Try this simple test. Say the following out loud: Artificial colors and flavors. Pesticides. Preservatives. High-fructose corn syrup. Growth hormones. Antibiotics. Gluten. Genetically modified organisms.

If any one of these terms raised a hair on the back of your neck, left a sour taste in your mouth, or made your lips purse with disdain, you are part of Big Food’s multibillion-dollar problem. In fact, you may even belong to a growing consumer class that has some of the world’s biggest and best-known companies scrambling to change their businesses.

And here’s one number to capture that skepticism: An analysis by Moskow found that the top 25 U.S. food and beverage companies have lost an equivalent of $18 billion in market share since 2009. “I would think of them like melting icebergs,” he says. “Every year they become a little less relevant.

http://www.cryptogon.com/?p=46817

[djean111]

1. When I look at a grocery circular now, It is amazing to me how little actual food, and how much

processed crap, there is. I don't buy anything in a box or can, not because I am making a point, but because I don't want to, doesn't even sound good. Has nothing to do with GMOs or organic, just reading the lists of chemicals - yes I know some are benign and necessary as preservatives - puts me off.

[TeeYiYi]

3. I keep a few...

...cans of soup and tuna, just in case there's a nuclear holocaust; and by 'a few', I mean three or four cans of soup, a couple cans of chili and five or six cans of tuna.

I realize I'm pretty much screwed in an 'end of the world' scenario.

TYY

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Yep..that's how changes happen..

First we become aware, then we start noticing, then we change our behavior.
I stopped shopping in the middle aisles years ago...the mostly real food is all around the edges of most markets.

Then we stopped buying commercial beef, and got local grass fed instead.

Then we started eating in season, and saving the roasts and stuff for winter.

We are having local sweet corn, squash, tomatoes, and watermelon this week.
Yummers.

The food companies are seeing the changes, and several big ones have announced they are getting rid of artificial food colors.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. good

[msongs]

4. not to worry, the TPP may well make all that healthy stuff illegal nt

[G_j]

5. wish you were joking but...

[GreatGazoo]

6. Great stuff. here is a link to the orginal story

(without black helicopters):

http://fortune.com/2015/05/21/the-war-on-big-food/?src=longreads

[djean111]

10. Thanks. First they rofl at you, then they condescendingly swarm your OPs, then you win.

So to speak.

[olddots]

8. at this rate grocery stores could become grocery stores again

For about 50 years actual food has been scarce in " super " markets ,big business fails in big ways .

[JonLP24]

9. Really?

Wow. Impressive because there is a monopoly in conventional farms today -- meaning the stand source of the food play. Like over 90% of the food produced here comes from a handful of company farms. Monsanto and the like.

[fasttense]

11. And I got me some of that $4 billion

I'm an organic farmer. My spouse and I run a small, very small, 14 acre farm in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. I think it is the most beautiful place on earth. When people come to visit, they can't keep from looking out the windows, all the time.

And we take very good care of it. We use No pesticides, No petroleum based or artificial fertilizers. Our sheep and chickens are never fed ground up animals or feces, they get no antibiotics or hormones of any kind. They are pasture raised, fat and happy. I really don't think any corporation can reproduce what we do.

Someone here on DU made me aware of lichen's unique ability to identify non-poluted areas. It only grows in places that are free of pollution. It grows everywhere on our farm. We have all three types growing. We didn't use to have it. When we first moved here, there was only one type growing in a small area.

Our biggest problem is raising and growing enough for all our customers. We may have to start hiring some full time help. One of the best parts is knowing that every dollar I make is one less dollar for a corporate farm.

[Gregorian]

12. Wonderful

I'd love to do that. I've actally been trying to buy a farm, but can't seem to sell, nor find anything.

Sounds like a great job.

[Tree-Hugger]

13. Sounds wonderful

I wish your family and your farm continued success.

I didn't know that about lichen. Very interesting.

[Cha]

14. They lost me for decades.. I support Organic Farmers.

[marions ghost]

15. good

--more people are rejecting unhealthy engineered food substance.

There will be profound benefits to them and to society.