Title: Sentiments and acts towards genetically modified foods

Authors: Nicholas Kalaitzandonakes, Leonie A. Marks, Steven S. Vickner

Addresses: Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia, 125A Mumford Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. ' Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia, 125D Mumford Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. ' Department of Economics, Utah State University, 3530 Old Main Hill, Business Building, Room 612, Logan, UT 84322, USA

Abstract: Hundreds of studies have elicited consumer stated preferences towards genetically modified foods at various countries around the world. Customarily, consumer stated preferences have been viewed as adequate proxies of potential response towards such products. As we have argued here, however, there are theoretical and methodological reasons as to why stated and revealed consumer preference could diverge. In this study, we provide empirical evidence of consumer revealed preferences towards branded processed products containing ingredients labelled as genetically modified. Our empirical results allow insights into the behaviour of a population of knowledgeable, informed, high-income consumers over a long period of time, across multiple products and suggest that in the Netherlands a majority of consumers did not shift away from genetically modified foods even in the presence of alternatives.

Keywords: genetically modified foods; GM foods; agricultural biotechnology; consumer acceptance; consumer behaviour; consumer preferences; Europe; the Netherlands.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBT.2005.006452

International Journal of Biotechnology, 2005 Vol.7 No.1/2/3, pp.161 - 177

Published online: 10 Mar 2005 *

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