CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS

Survey Questionnaire

In the first part of the questionnaire, consumer knowledge and awareness of
biotechnology and GM foods are being elicited. Next, respondents were asked about their
attitudes and acceptance toward GM foods, as well as other GM food-related issues such as
environmental concern and pesticide usage. For most of these questions, five options for
response are typically given along with an option of “Do not know”. For example, in the
question, “To what extent do you feel that GM foods are risky, or safe, for human health?,” the
respondent was given the choices of “Extremely risky”, “Very risky”, “Somewhat
risky/Somewhat safe”, “Very safe”, “Extremely Safe”, and “Do not know”. Thirdly, respondents
were asked about their support for GM food labeling and type of labeling.

Afterward, a CV scenario was presented along with the food products and price
combinations. Surveyed respondents were first asked about their consumption habit and
frequency of the food product. Then, they were asked to select or rank among the food products
according to different GM-contents, given the prices. In designing the price matrix, we assumed
that GM food products are cheaper than their non-GM counterparts. Therefore, we specified the
prices of GM food products by taking a discount of those of non-GM food products, which were
based on the market prices. The discount ranged from 10% to 25%. Table 1 presents the four
price scenarios used in the survey. Note that the market prices observed in Columbus, Ohio at the
time of survey were used as the base prices. In two versions, these base prices were changed
slightly to provide more variations in prices. Even though this range of the differences between
the GM and non-GM products seems reasonable, the specific price variations chosen are
somewhat subjective.

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