The debate around genetically modified food and crops has proved to be complex and far-reaching, involving diverse stakeholder groups and many issues. Although the extent of global uptake of GM crops has been substantial (23 countries and 114.65 million hectares by 2007), it is significant that four countries are responsible for 86% of all GM plantings, and that a number of key food markets (for example the EU and Japan) remain largely "GM-free‟. This suggests that there is reluctance on the part of many countries to embrace GM technology. There are likely many reasons for this, but one significant issue is that of the perception of the risks associated with the technology. There is a distinction between risk that exists in the world and that can be measured (objective risk) and risk that is perceived by an individual to exist and that is constructed by them based on their values and preferences. When technical measurement of actual risks is not possible, peoples‟ own perceptions of risks become important. This thesis aims to investigate the topic of risk perceptions associated with GM food and crops. Different stakeholder groups have been targeted, and a range of methodologies from a variety of disciplines have been employed to investigate what factors can be shown to influence risk perception. A range of factors were identified from existing literature, as having potential impact on risk perceptions. A number of these were investigated, some of which were found to have some influence on levels of risk perception. Results demonstrate that factors influencing peoples‟ perceptions of risk relating to GM food and crops, include the uncertainty associated with the technology, and trust in regulators, policy makers and others with control over the future development of the technology. Other factors found to be important to levels of risk perception held by different stakeholder groups, were a range of socio-demographic and cultural variables, the relationship between perceived risks and benefits, the equity of impacts, and the influence of third parties. There are a number of implications for the development of the GM debate arising from the findings. First, as there are socio-demographic and cultural factors linked to the perceptions of risk associated with GM technologies in food and agriculture, it is important to recognise that different people will react differently to the technology. Specifically, results from this thesis show that it may be that men, those who are more highly educated, those with a less ecocentric worldview, and those living in urban areas, are likely to respond more favourably to targeted promotional campaigns. As regards the farming community, results show that the first farming adopters are likely to be those who are both owners and tenants, not in an urban fringe location, potato growers, and not barley growers. Second, this thesis provides evidence that third parties are particularly important to farmers, thus it is crucial to recognise that there is potentially a long chain of action and reaction amongst many different stakeholders and actors impacting on farmers' levels of risk perception, and hence willingness to adopt the technology. Third, results from this research demonstrate that the linked issues of the relationship between risks and benefits, and the equity of (positive and negative) impacts, require that all stakeholders are content that they will receive a share of the benefits (if any) to be derived from the technology, and that neither they nor any other group of stakeholders are unduly impacted by the risks or negative impacts (if any) of the technology. Important here is the recognition that perceptions are as important as actual impacts. Fourth, the issue of trust has been shown by the results obtained by this research to be extremely important to peoples' perceptions of risk. It can be concluded that trust is of wider social and political importance that relates to the need to ensure greater democratisation of decision-making in order to re-establish trust in authorities. In the case of GM food this may require a rethinking of the EU legislation relating to the technology. This also relates to point below about the delivery of messages and education. Information sources must be trusted by those at whom the messages are aimed. More importantly though, if people are to trust decision making processes, there needs to be stakeholder involvement at an early stage of decision making, that allows some impact on decisions taken. In the case of the GM debate it may indeed be too late as decisions about the technology, its applications, the regulatory processes and its inclusion within the food chain are well established. Perhaps the best that can be hoped for is that lessons will be learnt and applied to future technology developments of relevance to the food chain, such as, nano-technology. Finally, this thesis has shown that uncertainty is central to peoples' perceptions of risk. This could be addressed through a combination of additional research into what is uncertain to people, the impacts and implications of the technology, more effective dissemination of existing knowledge, and impartially delivered messages and education strategies from trusted sources that address the concerns that people have about the technology. Importantly however there must be an acknowledgement that uncertainty is not restricted to "knowledge deficit‟ but encompasses the scientific uncertainties inherent within the technology, and is framed by the social and cultural values of those whose views are considered. This thesis uniquely targeted diverse groups and employed a combination of different methods from a variety of disciplines. By doing this the study has increased understanding of the views of two groups (campaigners and farmers) who are crucial to the uptake of the technology, and who are seldom researched in the area of attitudes to GM technologies. The diversity of groups, methods and disciplines brought together in this thesis is important because the issue of GM has proved to be complex and far-reaching, and previous discussions of risk perceptions have been complex and disjointed. All groups investigated here are stakeholders in the process, and as such their views and concerns relating to risk perceptions of GM technologies ought to be taken into consideration.

According to Millar (1996), the gulf between science and society is growing. Technologies are tools cultures develop to solve society's problems. The rapid dispersion of science and technology across cultural borders through trade, technology transfer and exchange, increasingly requires people in different cultures to make choices about accepting or rejecting artifacts of science and technology such as genetically modified (GM) foods, which originate primarily from the United States. These issues challenge policy makers and scientists to account for the affects of different cultural perspectives on controversial scientific issues. Given the controversy across cultures over acceptance or rejection of genetically modified (GM) foods, GM foods are an excellent example with which to begin to reveal how culture impacts public perceptions of the risk and benefits of science and technology in different societies. This research will: 1. Define public awareness and understanding of science, specifically GM foods; 2. Examine culture's impact on knowledge, including different cultural approaches to research; and 3. Compare recent findings of a bi-national public opinion survey on GM comparing in South Korea and the United States. The proposed research outlines two research questions: 1) How and in what ways do South Koreans and Americans differ in their opinions about GMOs? This question is important for gathering current points of contrast about how the two cultures may differ; and 2) What role does culture play on opinion formation about GM foods? Through grounded theory, the researcher will investigate how cultural differences help explain opinion on public perceptions of GM foods. Is it possible to identify common cultural factors that impact public perceptions of GM foods between South Koreans and Americans? The study will utilize both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Higher education is a major producer of new science and technology. The study is significant for higher education administrators who must understand cultural factors impacting science internationally and globalization of the academic enterprise.

Darbo tikslas: Įvertinti KTU Cheminės technologijos fakulteto studentų žinias ir požiūrį apie genetiškai modifikuotą maistą, jo ženklinimą. Darbo uždaviniai: 1. Nustatyti KTU Cheminės technologijos fakulteto studentų informavimo šaltinius apie genetiškai modifikuotą maistą ir jo ženklinimą. 2. Ištirti KTU Cheminės technologijos fakulteto studentų žinias ir požiūrį apie genetiškai modifikuotą maistą ir jo ženklinimą. 3. Parengti rekomendacijas siekiant pagerinti genetiškai modifikuoto maisto ir jo ženklinimo informuotumą. Tyrimo metodika: Tyrimo objektas: Žinios ir požiūris apie genetiškai modifikuotą maistą ir jo ženklinimą. Tyrimo metodai: Mokslinės literatūros analizė, teisinių dokumentų analizė, anketinė apklausa. Tyrimo metu buvo išplatinta 120, atsako dažnis - 80,83 proc. Statistinės analizės metodai: Apklausos rezultatai buvo analizuojami naudojant Microsoft office Excel 2007 ir kompiuterinį SPSS 13.0 versijos statistinį duomenų analizės paketą. Statistinis duomenų reikšmingumas buvo tikrinamas pagal chi kvadrato kriterijų ir laisvės laipsnių skaičių. Požymius analizuojant kito rodiklio atžvilgiu skirtumai laikyti statistiškai reikšmingais, kai reikšmingumo lygmuo p<0,05. Rezultatai: Dauguma respondentų dažniausiai gauna informaciją apie genetiškai modifikuotą maistą ir jo ženklinimą internete (15,5 proc. moterų ir 11,3 proc. vyrų), 30,9 proc. moterų ir 35,1 proc. vyrų žino šiek tiek, tačiau norėtų būti daugiau informuojamas,-a. Didžioji dalis apklaustųjų mano, jog... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Aim of study: to evaluate student‘s knowledge and attitude to genetically modified food and its labeling in KTU faculty of chemical technology. Objectives: 1. To survey the repositories of genetically modified food and his labeling. 2. To survey the knowledge and attitude to genetically modified food and its labeling. 3. To prepare recomendations to increase privity of genetically modified food and its labeling. Methods: Object of the research - knowledge and attitude to genetically modified food and its labeling. The questionnaire was compiled after making an analysis of the latest Lithuanian and foreign scientific literature and legislation. There were totally 120 students of KTU faculty of chemical tecnology interviewed using the anonymous questionnaire (response rate 80,83 percentage). Data analysis was performed using the statistical data analysis package SPSS (version 13.00) (the chi-squared test, df) and Microsoft office Excel 2007. Differences between the indices were considered statistically significant for p-values less than 0.05. Results: The most of respondents get information about genetically modified food and its labeling commonly in internet (15.5 percentage women and 11.3 percentage men), 30.9 percentage women and 35.1 men know a little bit, but they want to get more information. In addition to this, respondents think, that genetically modified food is harmful (33.7 percentage women and 32.3 percentage men) because of lack information about its safety (33.6... [to full text]

As economies develop, novel products are created and markets for these products arise. Genetically modified food (GMF) is an example of such a novel product and provides economists with the opportunity to investigate an infant market. Of particular interest with GMF is the impact of consumer reactions on the market. The response of consumers to GMF and their willingness to pay for it has emerged as an important factor in the development of this technology. This research investigates these consumer responses. Prior research suggests that two aspects of consumer behaviour may be relevant for the GMF market. First, consumers may react differently to different types of GMF, so that some products are potentially more economically viable. Secondly, some consumers appear to prefer not having GMF at all. Consumer behaviour is often framed according to neoclassical economic theory. Consumer preferences over goods and the attributes of those goods are generally held to have certain properties. The aspects of consumers’ reactions to GMF noted above, however, may be in conflict with two properties of preferences in neoclassical theory. First, preferences over food attributes are not separable, but may interact with each other. Secondly, some consumers may have preferences regarding GMF that are not continuous. As a result, aggregate impacts of introducing GMF may be difficult to measure, which raises a third issue for investigation, aggregation. Finally, an alternative model of consumer behaviour is bounded rationality, which theorises that choices may be discontinuous as a result of specific protocols. It also suggests that consumers seek to make good-enough choices, rather than attempting to maximise their satisfaction. Thus, optimisation or maximisation is the fourth issue considered in this thesis. In order to investigate these properties of consumers’ preferences, a choice experiment survey was developed. The strength of a choice experiment for examining these issues is its focus on the impact of each product attribute on a respondent’s choices. Thus, it may be possible to identify potentially discontinuous choice patterns and to identify choices affected by interactions between GM technology and other food attributes. Results from a neoclassical analysis of the survey data suggest that some consumers consider the type of benefit created with GM technology in making their choices. In addition, one-quarter to one-half of respondents may have had discontinuous preferences with respect to GMF. Reactions to GMF appear related to respondents’ attitudes, but not to socio-economic or demographic descriptors. As a result, aggregate measures of the impact of GMF may not fully account for consumers’ responses. A boundedly rational model also has reasonable goodness of fit, and may provide a different perspective on consumer behaviour. It is hoped that the results of this research provide a better understanding of consumer behaviour regarding GMF and, by extension, of the process of consumer adoption of novel products. It is further hoped that this attempt to incorporate choice protocols into discrete choice analysis will provide a useful example for further research.

Rural areas of New Mexico still exhibit post-colonial political patterns. In terms of its agricultural profile, subsistence farming has only recently (in the past generation) begun to give way to highly specialized, big-business farming interests. Older Hispanic and Pueblo communities struggle to maintain their farming traditions in the face of external economic factors. Now, with the increasing use of genetically-modified seeds on major farm operations and the ongoing development of a transgenic chile seed, a heritage crop, these populations are grappling with intellectual property issues and ecological implications that technological manipulation of native seeds bring. Other growers across the state also have serious concerns about their ability to grow crops from non-genetically modified seeds, as consumers have shown a preference for organic, non-genetically modified foods. Using the guiding analytical tools of Latour and Callon's Actor Network Theory (ANT), I assess the dynamics of power and influence among all agricultural stakeholders to find how a network of disparate elements can achieve “compromise among materially diverse elements” (Rutland and Aylett 2008). This work outlines a framework based on deliberative democratic principles to begin a participatory process that builds upon the disconnected agricultural network of New Mexico. A deliberative process enfranchises previously neglected stakeholders to develop an agricultural policy that deals with genetically engineered crops in a way that reflects the values and goals of the public. / text

Darbo tikslas. Įvertinti darbuotojų požiūrį į genetiškai modifikuotų maisto produktų ir maisto priedų vartojimą. Darbo uždaviniai: 1. Nustatyti darbuotojų požiūrį į genetiškai modifikuotus maisto produktus. 2. Nustatyti darbuotojų požiūrį į maisto priedus. 3. Įvertinti pagrindinius veiksnius sąlygojančius maisto produktų pasirinkimą. Tyrimo metodika. Tyrimo metu buvo išdalinta 190 anketų. Gauta užpildyta 160 anketų. Atsakymo į anketos klausimus dažnis – 84,2 proc. Apklausos duomenys analizuoti naudojant SPSS 15.0 „for Windows“ programinį paketą bei MS Exel lenteles. Hipotezės tikrintos taikant df ir χ² testus, nustačius reikšmingumo lygį p<0,05. Rezultatai. Didesnė dalis apklaustųjų neigiamai vertina GM maisto produktus, taip nurodė 56,9 proc. 56,2 proc. moterų ir 70,0 proc. vyrų, mano, kad GM maisto produktai yra kenksmingi. GM maisto produktus vartoja 20,0 proc. apklaustųjų moterų ir 30,0 proc. vyrų. Maisto priedus neigiamai vertina 35,0 proc. apklaustųjų, tačiau 91,9 proc. respondentų perka maisto produktus, kurių sudėtyje yra maisto priedų. Informacijos apie maisto priedus, darbo vietoje norėtų gauti 50,5 proc. moterų ir 60,0 proc. vyrų. Kad maisto priedai yra kenksmingi ir gali turėti neigiamą poveikį žmogaus sveikatai, mano 56,1 proc. respondentų. Išvados. 1. Genetiškai modifikuotus maisto produktus vartoja įvairaus amžiaus, išsilavinimo ir skirtingas pajamas gaunantys respondentai. Vyresni respondentai dažniau GM maisto produktus vertina neigiamai: iki 35 metų - 44... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The aim of the work. To assess the employees’ attitude to the consumption of the genetically modified products and food additives. The goals of the work. 1. To determine the approach of the employees to the genetically modified products. 2. To determine the approach of the employees to food additives. 3. To assess the main factors which determine the choice of the food products. The methodology of the research. 190 questionnaires were distributed during the research. 160 questionnaires were completed. The data of the survey were analyzed by using the software package SPSS 15.0 “for Windows”. Hypotheses were checked by applying for the df and χ2 tests, and the appointed significance level is p<0,05. The results. 56,9 % of the respondents negatively assesses genetically modified products. 56,2 % of the questioned women and 70,0 % of the questioned men think that GM food is harmful. GM food is used by the 20,0 % of the questioned women and the 30,0 % of the questioned men. The food additives are assessed negatively by the 35,0 % of respondents, but 91,9 % of the questioned buy the products with the additives. 50,5 % of women and 60,0 % of men would like to get the information about the food additives at their workplace. 56,1 % of the respondents think that food additives are harmful and could have a negative influence on the person’s health. Conclusions: 1. Genetically modified productsare used by the respondents of different age, education and having the... [to full text]

Master of Science - Agricultural Education and Communication / Department of Communications and Agricultural Education / Jason D. Ellis / Genetically modified crops have been beneficial to farmers in terms of saved time, money, and energy while increasing yields and often times reducing pesticide dependency. These benefits outweigh the increased costs, allowing genetically modified crops to become one of the fastest adopted farm technologies in history. Despite overwhelming approval of genetically modified crops among farmers, consumers have been hesitant to consume genetically modified food. Consumers see genetically modified food as a risk without immediate reward. Millennial consumers are a powerful population segment that rivals or overtakes other population segments in terms of size, influence, and purchasing abilities. Yet, they are often lumped into one homogenous group by marketers when they are a diverse group comprised of unique segments. The purpose of this study was to better understand how millennial consumers find and process risk information about genetically modified food so that agricultural communicators can better strategize communication efforts. Applying the Situational Theory of Publics and the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model, this study went one step further by differentiating between Supportive and Non-supportive publics. The research objectives of this study are as follows: 1) Identify the individual characteristics of both Supportive and Non-supportive millennial publics of genetically modified food; 2) Examine relevant channel beliefs of Supportive and Non-supportive millennial publics of genetically modified food; 3) Identify and describe the information gap of Supportive and Non-supportive millennial publics of genetically modified food; 4) Define the perceived information gathering capacity of Supportive and Non-supportive millennial publics of genetically modified food; and 5) Characterize the information seeking and processing behavior of Supportive and Non-supportive millennial publics of genetically modified food. An Internet survey was distributed to individuals between the ages of 18 and 36 within the United States. The majority of Non-supportive publics had a high level of issue involvement and the majority of Supportive publics had a low level of issue involvement. Meaning, the majority of Non-supportive publics are more active about the issue than Supportive publics. Age was found to be correlated with systematic processing and information avoidance with older millennials more likely to systematically process information and less likely to avoid information. Additionally, this study found that regardless of knowledge level, wealthier individuals who do not support genetically modified food are more likely to be actively involved in the issue and wealthier individuals who support the technology are more likely to be passive about the issue. The majority of millennial publics in all eight groups reported a knowledge deficit to some degree. The research also found that heuristic processing was negatively correlated to systematic processing and higher levels of information avoidance were negatively correlated with lower levels of active information seeking. Non-supportive Active publics (high issue involvement/high knowledge) were found to have the highest mean active information seeking and systematic processing scores and lowest mean heuristic processing and information avoidance scores; supporting past findings that knowledge does not always equate to support and that communication practitioners may have trouble changing the opinion of a large portion of Non-supportive publics.

Genetically modified (GM) food could be a solution to secure the world’s food supply, whichis in jeopardy due to the ongoing climate crisis. Thus, it is of great importance that consumerswould be willing to consume this type of food. To examine which factors influence consumerbehavior toward GM food, an extension of the theory of planned behavior was applied anddecisive factors were evaluated. The derived hypotheses and the respective influencing factorsare based on the research of Prati et al. (2012) as well as the questions that were used in theonline questionnaire. Through this online questionnaire with 117 participants, the hypotheseswere tested and factors that influence the intention of consumers to consume geneticallymodified food were identified. It was found that the following factors are relevant: Perceivedbenefits, Subjective norm, and Attitude. Of these, the factor Perceived benefits has the greatestinfluence on intention. Factors that do not play a role are Perceived control and, contrary toexpectations, Perceived risks.Another factor that was tested beyond the scope of the theory was the relevance of thenationality of participants on their intention to consume genetically modified food. However,it was found that nationality does not influence the intention. Concluding, the findings revealthat consumers can be especially influenced by their perception of benefits.

As economies develop, novel products are created and markets for these products arise. Genetically modified food (GMF) is an example of such a novel product and provides economists with the opportunity to investigate an infant market. Of particular interest with GMF is the impact of consumer reactions on the market. The response of consumers to GMF and their willingness to pay for it has emerged as an important factor in the development of this technology. This research investigates these consumer responses. Prior research suggests that two aspects of consumer behaviour may be relevant for the GMF market. First, consumers may react differently to different types of GMF, so that some products are potentially more economically viable. Secondly, some consumers appear to prefer not having GMF at all. Consumer behaviour is often framed according to neoclassical economic theory. Consumer preferences over goods and the attributes of those goods are generally held to have certain properties. The aspects of consumers' reactions to GMF noted above, however, may be in conflict with two properties of preferences in neoclassical theory. First, preferences over food attributes are not separable, but may interact with each other. Secondly, some consumers may have preferences regarding GMF that are not continuous. As a result, aggregate impacts of introducing GMF may be difficult to measure, which raises a third issue for investigation, aggregation. Finally, an alternative model of consumer behaviour is bounded rationality, which theorises that choices may be discontinuous as a result of specific protocols. It also suggests that consumers seek to make good-enough choices, rather than attempting to maximise their satisfaction. Thus, optimisation or maximisation is the fourth issue considered in this thesis. In order to investigate these properties of consumers' preferences, a choice experiment survey was developed. The strength of a choice experiment for examining these issues is its focus on the impact of each product attribute on a respondent's choices. Thus, it may be possible to identify potentially discontinuous choice patterns and to identify choices affected by interactions between GM technology and other food attributes. Results from a neoclassical analysis of the survey data suggest that some consumers consider the type of benefit created with GM technology in making their choices. In addition, one-quarter to one-half of respondents may have had discontinuous preferences with respect to GMF. Reactions to GMF appear related to respondents' attitudes, but not to socio-economic or demographic descriptors. As a result, aggregate measures of the impact of GMF may not fully account for consumers' responses. A boundedly rational model also has reasonable goodness of fit, and may provide a different perspective on consumer behaviour. It is hoped that the results of this research provide a better understanding of consumer behaviour regarding GMF and, by extension, of the process of consumer adoption of novel products. It is further hoped that this attempt to incorporate choice protocols into discrete choice analysis will provide a useful example for further research.

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