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Consumers’ Considerations of Agro-biotechnology

Explore how consumers view agro-biotechnology, including benefits like improved nutrition and concerns about safety testing and environmental impact. This comprehensive guide covers various biotech foods/products and the viewpoints of critics, media, scientists, and regulators.

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Consumers’ Considerations of Agro-biotechnology

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  1. Consumers’ Considerations of Agro-biotechnology Julie Garden-Robinson, PhD, LRD Food and Nutrition Specialist

  2. Outline • Influences on consumer knowledge and attitudes • Critics • Media • Scientists/regulators • Consumer survey results

  3. Some Foods/Products Modified through Biotechnology • Cotton/oil • Soybeans • Corn/syrup, oil • Potatoes/chips, fries, starch • Tomatoes • Zucchini • Peppers • Cow’s milk

  4. Biotech Foods/Products • Papaya • Sugar beets/sugar • Flax • Chymosin/Rennet (used in cheesemaking) • Aspartame (via protein altered with bacteria)

  5. Possible Benefits of Biotechnology • Improved nutrition • Beta-carotene and lycopene-rich tomato varieties • Removed allergens • Allergenic protein removed from rice • Reduced fat absorption • Higher-starch potatoes with lower oil absorption

  6. Benefits cont… • Altered fat content • Oils with altered fatty acid content • Vaccines • Bananas with hepatitis B vaccine • No refrigeration required so easier to store than traditional hepatitis B vaccines

  7. What Do the Critics of Biotechnology Say?

  8. What Do the Critics Say? • Safety testing? • Side effects? • Toxins? • Allergic reactions? • Actual freshness/nutritional value vs. appearance? • Trace back?

  9. What Do the Critics Say? • Will cross-pollination lead to contamination of “genetically natural crops”? • Will this lead to antibiotic resistant bacteria? • Since GE crops manufacture pesticides, does this mean there are more pesticides in our food supply?

  10. Media Influence • TV • Newspapers • Radio • Magazines • Internet • Etc

  11. Protester Sign

  12. “The fair question is, if the EPA missed the monarch butterfly, what else did it miss?” • Margaret Mellon, Environmental Scientist, Union of Concerned Scientists

  13. “Genetic engineering is about scientists altering the 'recipes' for making life - the genes which you find in all living things. Doing this is very clever and could be very useful. But it's all happening much too fast and nobody knows what the effects of making and eating such living things will be. Many kinds of life could be damaged… Another View

  14. “And suppose people eat 'genetic' food for many years? Will they be harmed by it? Nobody knows for sure. So why the rush?” http://www.oneworld.org/penguin/genetics/home.html

  15. Committee recommends labeling, stricter controls on biotech food Washington (AP) A committee formed by the United States and the European Union recommended tighter controls Monday on genetically engineered foods, including mandatory labeling of products that contain biotech ingredients. Agricultural biotechnology holds the potential to provide new tools for farmers in developing countries to increase yields, produce crops resistant to drought, salinity, pests and diseases, and produce new crop products of greater nutritional value," said the 20-member panel, which included scientists, farmers, consumer advocates and industry officials. But it also said new biotech products should not be allowed on the market until they have gone through a mandatory government approval process.

  16. “It is only natural that we cringe at the artificial… it’s no real wonder that many people are feeling uncomfortable about the recent proliferation of genetically engineered crops.”K.C. Cole, LA Times

  17. Increasing Consumer Awareness • Monsanto’s Attempt in Britain • Ran pro-GMO advertisements • Ads were criticized as patronizing • Public resistance to GMOs in Britain increased after the campaign • “It has become a Monsanto-hate thing… it isn’t anti-American; it is anti-overzealous corporations.” John Vidal, editor, Guardian

  18. What Does the Scientific/Regulatory Community Say?

  19. American Medical Association • “policy of the AMA to endorse or implement programs that will convince the public and government officials that genetic manipulation is not inherently hazardous and that the health and economic benefits of recombinant DNA technology greatly exceed any risk posed to society…” Policy Position H-480.985

  20. Food and Drug Administration • “… (these new foods) will be every bit as safe as the foods now on store shelves. All foods, whether traditionally bred or genetically engineered, must meet the provisions of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.” FDA Consumer, 1998

  21. American Dietetic Association, 1994 • “Biotechnology techniques have the potential to be useful in enhancing the quality, nutritional value, and variety of food available for human consumption and in increasing the efficiency of food production, food processing, food distribution and waste management.”

  22. Institute of Food Technologists • “More than a decade of safety evaluation and introduction of genetically engineered plants has provided evidence and assurance that the risks to the environment posed by genetically engineered plants are no different from those of plants genetically modified using other methods.”

  23. James Watson, PhD, Nobel Laureate and co-discoverer of DNA • “I have absolutely no anxiety… I am worried about a lot of things but not about modified food. To argue that you don’t know what is going to occur is true about everything in life. People wouldn’t get married, have children, do anything…” Daily Telegraph, U.K. – Feb. 25, 1999.

  24. What Do Consumers Say?

  25. U.S. Consumer Attitudes toward Biotechnology • 1000 telephone interviews • Conducted in March 1997, February 1999 and May 2000 • Wirthlin Group Quorum Surveys • http://ificinfo.health.org/

  26. On a 10-point scale, how informed are you about biotechnology? (2001) • 0 = not at all informed • 10 - 3% • 9 - 2% • 8 - 7% • 7 - 6% • 6 - 6%

  27. Rating knowledge (cont.) • 5 - 15% • 4 - 9% • 3 - 15% • 2 - 9% • 1 - 15%

  28. Awareness of Foods Produced through Biotechnology (2000) • Vegetables – 45% • Tomatoes – 27% • Corn – 18% • Fruits – 17% • Meats – 16%

  29. What are you concerned about when it comes to food safety? • Packaging – 27% • Food handling/preparation – 23% • Other – 19% • Disease/contamination – 16% • Chemicals/pesticides in food – 10% • Altered/engineered food – 2% • Nothing – 9%

  30. Biotechnology • Political and social issue • Benefits and risks • More acceptable in changing plants than changing animals • Consumers need more exposure to biotechnology issues and practices to be able to evaluate and make decisions

  31. “I think somebody should come up with a way to breed a very large shrimp. That way, you could ride him, then, after you camped at night, you eat him. How about it, science? Jack Handey

  32. Where Do We Go from Here?

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