What do consumer surveys and experiments reveal and conceal about consumer preferences for genetically modified foods?

GM Crops Food. 2013 Jul-Dec;4(3):158-65. doi: 10.4161/gmcr.26322. Epub 2013 Sep 10.

Abstract

Assessing consumer perceptions and willingness to pay for genetically modified (GM) foods has been one of the most active areas of empirical research in agricultural economics. Researchers over the past 15 years have delivered well over 100 estimates of consumers' willingness to pay for GM foods using surveys and experimental methods. In this review, we explore a number of unresolved issues related to three questions that are critical when considering the sum of the individual contributions that constitute the evidence on consumer preferences for GM foods.

Keywords: GM foods; GM labeling; WTP for GM foods; consumer preferences; consumer valuation; experimental auctions; surveys.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • California
  • Consumer Behavior*
  • Data Collection*
  • Food, Genetically Modified* / economics
  • Humans
  • Uncertainty