CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS

The last part of the questionnaire contained the demographic information such as age, sex,
race, income, education, religion, and occupation, etc. (A copy of questionnaire is available upon
request).

Variables

In the logistic model, the dependent variable is a binary variable having one if the
respondent chose the non-GM food and zero, otherwise. Note that in the case of salmon, our
survey collected data on the ranking of the three types of salmon i.e., GM salmon, non-GM but
fed with GM feed, and non-GM fed with non-GM feed. However, in the regression model, we
simply estimated the probability of choosing non-GM vs. GM salmon. We grouped GM salmon
and non-GM salmon but fed with GM feed together as GM salmon in the analysis. An extension
of the model dealing with three separate choices in a multinomial Logit model would be
desirable for future research.

From the survey data, various explanatory variables can be grouped into six categories:
“Knowledge and Awareness”, “Attitude”, “Perception”, “Labeling”, “Demographic”, and
“Price”. Variable definitions and the sample means used in the econometric model are presented
in Table 2. Since the models for vegetable oil and corn flakes are based on a slightly different
sample size than the model for salmon, different descriptive statistics are shown. It is interesting
to note that only 58% of the respondents considered themselves as either “very well” or
“somewhat” informed about GMOs or GM foods. Furthermore, a majority of the respondents
thought GM foods are “somewhat risky” to human health (53%), while only 19% replied
“extremely or very safe.”

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