Indeed, while it is unresolved whether pesticide residue in food is harmful, a recent poll by the Hartman Group found that 53 percent of consumers were concerned.

Harvey Hartman, chief executive of the Hartman Group, a Seattle consulting firm, said consumers might be likely to respond to health claims for certain foods or beverages, but soda was not one of them.

Surveys by his company, the Hartman Group, found last fall that 90 percent of American consumers were either buying organic products or considering doing so, up from 60 percent two years earlier.

Michelle Barry of the market research firm the Hartman Group told me, "Water is not really critically considered" - not even the object itself, it seems.

Harvey Hartman, chief executive of the Hartman Group, a food consulting and market research firm, said ConAgra remained too focused on "industrial food" that did not reflect changing tastes.

Harvey Hartman, chief executive of the Hartman Group, a consulting firm in Seattle, said that shoppers looked for different experiences at different stores, cutting the plain vanilla supermarket out of the loop.

Citing research by the Hartman Group, a health-and-wellness research and consulting firm, Brenda Porter writes that "African-Americans are 24 percent more likely to be core organic consumers than members of the general population."

"Activia is unique," said Michelle Barry, senior vice president for consumer insights and trends at the Hartman Group, a market research firm.

Along with produce it is one of the first organic products a consumer will buy, according to the Hartman Group, a research firm in Bellevue, Wash.

"Supermarkets are facing an identity crisis," said Harvey Hartman, chief executive of the Hartman Group, a consulting firm in Seattle.