Sociodemographic and subjective belief reasons for inter-EU differences of attitudes towards genetically modified food

Abstract

'Modern biotechnology is a central issue in the public debate as there are still concerns about possible adverse effects deriving from the use of genetically modified organisms. The public, by influencing decisions on new biotechnology, politically through democratic channels or interest groups, but also as consumers via the market, will constitute the ultimate judge of agricultural biotechnology. The present research paper deals with attitudes towards genetically modified food (GM foods) in the European Union and their change over a given time period, using survey data of the Eurobarometer of 1999 (EB 52.1) and 2002 (EB 58.0). The analysis mainly focuses on the 2002 data trying to explain national differences of attitudes towards GM foods. In a first step, an overview of all European member countries concerning their attitude towards genetically modified (GM) food products in general will be provided. A more detailed approach is applied on selected countries, namely Greece, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. In addition, an effort to explain differences in attitudes towards GM foods through cross-cultural differences will be made using data from the European Social Survey (ESS, 2002).' (author's abstract)|