Consumer Reactions to Farming Vary in Survey

January 12, 2000

Consumers are open-minded about biotechnology, especially if it delivers more taste, nutrition and product. But they're not sufficiently informed to have strong opinions on biotech, irradiation, use of animal antibiotics and hormones, according to a survey conducted for Philip Morris and the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The survey indicated that both consumers and farmers are willing to accept biotechnology, particularly when they see its direct benefits. While 37% of consumers say they've heard more about the benefits than drawbacks of biotechnology, their support increases to 57% if biotechnology improves the taste of foods; to 65% if it improves nutrition; to 69% if it increases food production, and to 75% if it reduces pesticide use.

However, the largest group of consumers said they haven't heard enough about either the benefits or drawbacks of several farming or food production practices to have formed an opinion: 41% on biotechnology, 41% on irradiation, 31% on the use of antibiotics to treat animal diseases and 28% on using hormones to increase milk production.

Consumers still are not comfortable with the use of pesticides in food production and will accept higher prices (57%), a smaller food selection (68%), seasonal availability (72%) and biotechnology (73%) as trade-offs for not using chemicals in food production.

"It's clear that the agricultural industry has not done a good job educating consumers about the benefits of pesticide use," said AFBF President Dean Kleckner. "It's important that we don't make the same mistake with biotechnology and other new farming practices."

Seventy-one percent of farmers and 67% of consumers agree that the agricultural industry is doing only a "fair" or "poor" job of explaining the benefits and drawbacks of farming techniques to the public.