Over the last decade, American consumers fueled a fast-growing market for organic food and U.S. farmers flocked to genetically engineered (GE) varieties of several major U.S. crops. The potential for GE crop production to impose costs on organic production, via accidental pollination and other mechanisms, underscores the problem of coexistence between GE and organic crops. Here we review evidence that consumer demand has led to markets for products differentiated on some basis of GE status, and that maintaining the integrity of those differentiated product markets relies on interventions such as physical distancing or product segregation. Further, at present, the costs required to support the coexistence of all markets is borne disproportionately by producers and consumers of organic food in the United States.
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