Scientists use modern biotechnology
(biochemical manipulation of genes or DNA) to develop new varieties
of foods and agricultural products, commonly called biotech foods.
Large shares of common crops, such as corn and soybeans, are grown
from bioengineered seed. Many processed foods on U.S. supermarket
shelves contain biotech ingredients.
Labeling of biotech foods has been a contentious
issue in the U.S. and between the U.S. and its trading partners.
Proponents
of mandatory biotech food labeling argue that consumers have a
right to know how their food has been produced. Opponents argue
that such labeling will confuse and, in many cases, unnecessarily
alarm consumers. In the U.S., when biotechnology introduces a known
allergen or substantially changes a food’s nutritional content
or composition, Federal regulations require that the label indicate
this change. So far, no biotech foods on the market have required
labeling.
In 2001, ERS and university researchers held experimental
auctions to gauge consumers’ willingness to pay for food items
with and without biotech labels. In the absence of sales data,
experimental
auctions more closely simulate purchasing behavior and better gauge
consumer preferences than surveys of consumer attitudes. Auction
participants could bid on and purchase three different food products—potatoes,
vegetable oil, and corn tortilla chips—with and without a
label indicating that the food contained biotech ingredients. None
of the foods had biotech-enhanced attributes or traits that could
be detected without sophisticated testing technologies, if at all.
Before
the bidding, each participant received one of six information
packets containing statements about biotechnology gathered from
a variety of sources. Information played a powerful role in shaping
how the participants responded to biotech foods. They reacted
not
just to the information itself, but also to whether the information
came from biotech firms, an environmental advocacy group, or
independent third-party sources.
Participants who received only
pro-biotech information actually put a slight average premium
of 2 percent on the biotech-labeled
foods relative to foods without biotech labels for two of the
three products. Participants who received only anti-biotech information
discounted the biotech-labeled foods by an average of 36 percent.
Those who received both pro- and anti-biotech information discounted
the biotech-labeled foods by an average of 23 percent. Interestingly,
participants placed a greater weight on negative information
than
on positive information, a result consistent with other studies.
The ERS study also looked at the role of science-based information
on consumer attitudes towards biotech foods.
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