Comparing Consumer Attitudes towards Genetically Modified Food in Europe

As biotechnology evolves new methods of genetic engineering are now being applied to the production and processing of foods. This paper is trying to explore the attitudes of the European consumers towards genetic modification of food. Using survey data of the EU member countries the proposed research paper is planned to have a threefold output: 1) providing a comparative ranking of the EU member countries in relation to the prevalence of rejection of genetically modified food, 2) uncovering intra-european differences in genetic food engineering rejection as being based on socio-demographic and informational resp. knowledge based differentials between EU countries and 3) specifying the importance of socio-economic and informational determinants of a potential defender of genetically modified food by estimating the partial effects of age, gender, education, income, family status, size of household, knowledge on genetical food engineering and information use behavior in a multivariate model of the attitudes towards genetically modified food. This causal approach will be followed in selected EU countries representing extreme positions in the EU attitude ranking. By these empirical results the paper is trying to reveal intra-EU differentials of consumer attitudes towards genetically modified food, which is a necessary baseline for adequate and efficient policies in order to satisfy consumer needs for quality and security. The results will also prove helpful to the food industry providing differential information for marketing decisions and focusing adjustments in different EU food markets.