| Genetically modified (GM) food has become a contested issue in recent years. Proponents believe that GM food production would provide solutions to environmental problems while feeding the world. Opponents raise concerns about ecological impacts of producing GM crops, the health safety of eating GM food, and related ethical issues. GM food became available in US supermarkets in the early 1990s. Surveys and opinion polls have clarified the public's awareness of, knowledge about, and attitudes toward GM food. The present study tries to expand the understanding of public responses to these novel foods. Data were drawn from a 2001 nationwide telephone survey, which, by design, gathered 2,000 usable questionnaires.;Max Weber's rationalization and Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens' reflexive modernization perspectives are used to help explain the social milieu wherein individuals form their perceptions of and responses to GM food. Individual perceptions are formed against the backdrop of late modern life, a social universe that is deeply permeated by expert systems. This universe is characterized by countless opportunities and incalculable uncertainties.;Multiple regression (hierarchical/stepwise) and polytomous logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess willingness to buy GM food. The results suggested that males, individuals who had higher levels of perceived knowledge about GM food, those who perceived consumer benefits from buying GM food, and those who perceived environmental benefits from the production of GM plants would be more likely than their counterparts to be willing to buy GM food. Individuals would also be more likely to be willing to buy GM food if they trusted that business and industry would protect the public from the risks of new technologies, felt confident that government agencies were capable of ensuring the safety of GM food, and they believed that producing food from GM plants was morally acceptable. Individuals who suspected that eating GM food might pose some risks to consumers, those who thought that the rate of scientific and technological change was too fast, and those who believed that foods produced from GM plants should be labeled would be less likely to be willing to buy them. |
