A Study Of Consumer Behavior Towards Genetically Modified Organizations: Based On Experimental Methods

Genetic technology is one of the breakthroughs in science and technology in the recent ten years. And genetically modified food (GMO) is even the product that has been in the market for only several years. Consumers do not have much knowledge about GMO. From the literature review, we find that consumers are cautious to GMO and they are worried about the safety issue of GMO. So they are willing to buy GMO at a much lower price that that of traditional food. Different countries and regions have different attitudes towards GMO. This research aims at analyzing the attitude of Chinese consumers towards genetically modified foods and factors influencing such attitude, on which foundation actual implication of such attitude will be explored to provide a scientific basis for policy decision-making on China's development of agricultural biotechnology.In order to achieve the above goal, four specific objectives of this study are identified. They are: 1) what factors will affect consumer's attidute towards GMO; 2) consumer behavior rule; 3) the policy efficiency and; 4) which is the optional policy for China. To achieve this goal, we use experimental methods in our study. We design experiments---auction---to obtain consumers willingness-to-pay.The above research implies that, despite the relatively high acceptance and purchase will regarding GM foods among Chinese consumers, future development of this food still faces huge challenges. As such, we recommend that the government, while ensuring safety management of biotechnology, should also reinforce popularization and publicity of GM technology, so as to improve public awareness of GM technology; The media should at all time keep a rigorous scientific attitude towards the publicity of GM foods, so as to avoid any possible negative consequences brought to the development of GM technology due to media over reportage; Prioritization of technological investment and development should balance the demands for consumption and for production to create a better market environment for future commercial production of GM crops in China.In addition, this paper studied the effects of different labeling policy. Through studying consumer's welfare, we find that"volunteer labeling policy"is the optional labeling policy. However, the economics environment in China did not allow this policy to become true. As a results, we suggest that policy maker in the government would have to try their best to establish the appropriate conditions in which"volunteer labeling policy"would survive.