The Analysis On The Western Region Farmers’ Cognitive Attitude Towards Genetically Modified Food

In recent years, with the public awareness of food safety being emphasized, people’s attitude towards Genetically modified food (G.M. food) is turning out significant to the industrialization of the transgenic technology.This paper based on the research data of household livelihood and social change survey in western China and aimed to delineate peasants’ (who are both producers and consumers) attitude towards G.M. food and its influencing factors. Firstly, I depict the basic situation and difference of citizen and peasant’s will to purchase G.M. food, their cognition, perception of risk of G.M. food. Secondly, under the control of individual variables, explore the influencing factors on peasant’s will to purchase G.M. food, their cognition, perception of risk of G.M. food through four aspects, that is cultural capital, economic capital, social mobility and production habit. The research reveals that there are differences between the citizen and peasant’s attitude towards G.M. food. Comparing to the citizen’s attitude towards G.M. food, the peasant’s attitude towards G.M. food is more ambiguous and easier to change. Secondly, the factors influencing peasant’s cognition and perception of risk on G.M. food are education, agricultural training, working place and income. The factors that influence peasant’s will to purchase G.M. food are education, agricultural training, income and having his own seed. Also, it is worth noting that cultural capital has bidirectional impacts on peasant’s attitude towards G.M. food. On the one hand, the perception of risk on G.M. food will decrease as the education increases. On the other hand, the agricultural training will strengthen peasant’s perception of risk on G.M. food. Besides, the research also find that peasant’s production habit will influence his attitude towards G.M. food. The peasant who choose to obtain his own seeds, will reject the G.M. food. Finally, based on the analysis above, I discuss the G.M. food’s industrialization dilemma, the relationship between peasant and G.M. food and the prospects of further relative study. We should connect peasant’s production habit and consuming habit, when we study peasant’s attitude towards G.M. food. Besides, in order to explain the bidirectional effects of cultural capital, the further study should clarify cultural capital’s mechanism on peasant’s attitude towards G.M. food. Finally, through the interviews, we can further explore the reason why G.M. crops and food in our China is out of control, and why the peasant have different behavior in consumption and production.