DTN AgDayta reports:
Don't confuse us with the facts. That's the takeaway of a University of Florida study on how consumers form opinions on food. The online survey was designed by Brandon McFadden, a UF professor of food and economic resources. More than 1,000 people responded to the survey, which asked questions that revealed both the respondent's opinions on genetically modified food (GM) and their actual understanding of the science behind it.
The results painted a discouraging picture of consumers' knowledge of how ingredients are produced, according to a UF press release. For example, 80{2fba0047518ad2e639da733ea78e24abf77cec06f485a26b152e17f2a77aa67a} of the respondents supported mandatory labeling of food containing DNA. Respondents' opinions were also unstable; after answering questions about the safety of GMOs, some appeared to alter their positions when asked corresponding questions about scientific data on GMOs, McFadden noted in the release. In other words, when asked about scientific facts, consumers began to doubt their own opinions.
The results led McFadden to conclude that consumers do not know as much about the facts of genetically modified food and crops as they think they do.
You can find his study here: http://bit.ly/…and the UF press release here: http://bit.ly/
