GM Foods: A Nanjing Case Study of Chinese Consumers ’ Awareness and Potential Attitudes Funing Zhong and Yulian Ding College of Economics & Trade Nanjing Agricultural University

Outline of Presentation  Research Problem and Significance  Hypotheses and Objectives  Research Design  Preliminary Results  Research Work Remaining

Problem and Significance  Debate on Biosafety Issues and Its Influence On Government Regulations  Consumers’ Attitudes — A Decisive Factor  Policy Implications

Hypotheses  Consumers’ attitudes might be influenced by original attitude, information acquired and demographic characteristics  Media reports might be more sensitive to negative events and attitudes in reporting GM foods may be different among media reports  There might be a linkage between consumers’ attitudes and media reports in the long run

Objectives  Consumers’ Awareness of GM Foods  Consumers’ Potential Attitudes and the Influencing Factors  Media Reports on GM Foods

Research Design Consumer AttitudeMedia Reports Original Attitude Demographic Characteristics Information Acquired Sensitive Events Difference between Media Reports Policy Implications

Approach  Consumers’ Attitudes （ Social Experiment) —Information Supplied —Sampling Procedure —Survey Time  Media Reports —Selection of Newspapers —Identification of Media Attitudes

Preliminary Results Current Consumer Awareness of GM Foods

Preliminary Results Current Consumers’ Attitudes toward GM Foods

Preliminary Results Consumers’ Acceptance Based on General Information

Preliminary Results Table1 Consumers’ Acceptance to Specific GM Foods Pest-resistanceNutrition-improvingMedical function number % % % Will buy Will not buy Follow majority Do not know total

Preliminary Results Table2 Influence of Demographic Characters on Consumers’ Attitudes (%) Pest-resistanceNutrition-improving Medical function Will buy Not buyWill buy Not buy Will buy Not buy Age older Gendermale female j. high Edus. high college

Preliminary Results The Number of Media Reports on GM Foods

Preliminary Results Table3 Negative Reports on GM Foods In Selected Newspaper Beijing DailyBeijing EveningJiefang DailyXinmin evening

Conclusions  The majority of Chinese consumers have little knowledge of GM foods,and most consumers have not made up their minds on GM foods.  GM foods with special benefits to consumers are more acceptable than pest-resistant ones.  Consumers who are younger, female, or had higher education tend to be more reluctant to accept GM foods, while older, male, and less-educated consumers are less suspicious.  Both the frequency of media reports and the number of negative articles have increased significantly since 1998.

Research Work Remaining  Subsequent Surveys on Both Consumers and Media Reports  Consumers’ Willingness to Pay  Enlarging Research Scale