1. 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

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

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

4. 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

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

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

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

8. Preliminary Results Current Consumer Awareness of GM Foods

10. Preliminary Results Current Consumers’ Attitudes toward GM Foods

11. Preliminary Results Consumers’ Acceptance Based on General Information

12. Preliminary Results Table1 Consumers’ Acceptance to Specific GM Foods Pest-resistanceNutrition-improvingMedical function number % % % Will buy 158 32.92 228 47.50 229 47.71 Will not buy 183 38.13 128 26.67 149 31.04 Follow majority 40 8.33 34 7.08 24 5.00 Do not know 99 20.63 90 18.75 78 16.25 total 480100.00 480100.00 480100.00

13. 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 18-29 26.73 50.50 47.52 32.67 45.54 32.67 Age30-49 33.52 34.09 44.32 25.57 44.32 27.84 50 older 37.23 28.72 47.87 21.28 48.94 27.66 Gendermale 36.36 29.41 51.34 22.99 45.99 31.02 female 29.51 44.26 40.98 29.51 45.90 32.79 j. high 40.20 39.22 53.92 25.49 53.92 29.41 Edus. high 32.43 33.78 41.22 27.03 45.95 29.73 college 27.27 38.84 45.45 26.45 38.84 36.36

14. Preliminary Results The Number of Media Reports on GM Foods

15. Preliminary Results Table3 Negative Reports on GM Foods In Selected Newspaper Beijing DailyBeijing EveningJiefang DailyXinmin evening 1995 0 0 0 0 1996 0 1 0 0 1997 0 0 0 1 1998 0 0 0 2 1999 3 4 0 2 2000 0 5 1 3 2001 2 5 2 4

16. 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.

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