Even Wal-Mart is going organic

The contemporary food revolution will be waged at the cash register rather than the fields.

According to a report by the Institute for Grocery Distribution (UK), shoppers are increasingly prepared to pay a premium for high-quality, organic, free-range or fair trade products.

In the UK, the largest grocery chain, Tesco, is buying into this big O business. Branching out from its tried and true bulk-buy, low-cost strategy, Tesco is rebranding and restocking in an effort to grab a portion of the ethical consumerism market, now worth $25 billion a year in the British Aisles. While this chunk of change only accounts for 4% of total food sales, it is one of the fastest growing markets (increasing at a rate of 7.5% per year as compared to conventional grocery sales which grows at 4.2% per year).

Even Wal-not-so-s-Mart is getting into the business. Considered the biggest retailer in the world, Wal-Mart has decided to invest $570-million of its advertising budget to promote the sale of organic foods.

For more information on the big-O food revolution log on to the Times articles: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2273353,00.html