ABSTRACT
Food is business. Those who produce and sell it—seed companies, farmers, shops and restaurants—are inevitably major players in the Genetically Modified (GM) debate, with those whose profits are the biggest tending to have the most to say. This chapter looks at the pronouncements of supermarkets and biotech seed companies. For while the biotech companies are almost by definition pro-GM, the supermarkets are more exible, prepared to be blown, pollen-like, in whatever direction the winds may take them. The strongest winds directing their policy are the obvious ones: profit, supply, demand and legislation. In some countries, this does not create any particular problem as far as GM is concerned. There are pressures from both consumers and suppliers. Even for 'GM free' supermarkets like Iceland, which have sided against the new technology and banned all GM produce from their shelves, the task is by no means straightforward.
