GMO Labels May Not Discourage Shoppers
Companies might be afraid to slap a GMO label on their food because they fear fewer people will eat it, but a recent study indicates this may not be the case, depending on demographics.
The research focuses on the relationship between two primary questions: whether respondents are opposed to GMOs in commercially available food products and if they thought products containing GMOs should be labelled.
“When you look at consumer opposition to the use of GM technologies in food and account for the label, we found that overall the label has no direct impact on opposition. And it increased support for GM in some demographic groups,” said Jane Kolodinsky, author of the study and professor and chair of the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics at the University of Vermont. “This was not what I hypothesised based on the reasoning behind the introduction of The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Bill. We didn’t find evidence that the labels will work as a warning.”
Do GMO Labels Discourage? Original Photo here: http://www.foodprocessing.com.au/content/business-solutions/article/study-gmo-labels-not-viewed-as-warnings-404032486
This finding is interesting but just a sample. Also, demographics certainly played a part, although no changes were larger than three percentage points. Opposition to GMOs decreased in certain sectors, such as people with lower levels of education, but increased in men and people in the middle-income category.
We’ll keep our eye out for further findings.
To read more about the study, visit:
http://www.foodprocessing.com.au/content/business-solutions/article/study-gmo-labels-not-viewed-as-warnings-404032486
