Perceptions of the risks and benefits of genetically-modified foods and their influence on willingness to consume

There has been debate in the literature as to whether: (1) the risks and benefits of genetically-modified (GM) food and agriculture are considered and determined by individuals separately or whether they are jointly determined by attitudes; (2) consumer acceptance is determined by individuals weighing up their risk and benefit perceptions in a rational, even-handed manner, or if benefit perceptions are more important than risk perceptions, and (3) certain types of risk and benefit are more important than others. Against this background, this paper assesses the categories of risks and benefits and their relative importance in determining willingness to consume. A survey was carried out to collect data on the categories of risks and benefits in the US, UK and France, and the relative importance of selected perceived risk and benefit dimensions was estimated. The findings show: risk and benefit perceptions are negatively correlated, but not perfectly and, given that regressions we performed support the proposition that benefits are more important than risks in determining willingness to consume, a strong case can be made for measuring risks and benefits separately. Almost 2/3 of consumers perceive medium to high potential benefits from GM, though the proportion is slightly lower in the UK and down to 40% in France. Nevertheless, this suggests a much higher level of support for the technology than is normally assumed. From the study, benefits are more important for consumers' willingness to consume than perceived risks, and slightly more interviewees scored above than below the mean on willingness to consume GM food.     

Managing Food Chain Risks: Integrating Technical and Stakeholder Perspectives on Uncertainty

We explore ways for expressing and communicating uncertainties about food risks and the options for including views from different stakeholders, including members of the public, in risk assessment and risk management. Uncertainty is not only a major consideration of technical risk assessments but also needs to be understood within the two‐way interaction with various stakeholders, ranging from specialist risk managers to members of the public. We consider techniques for integration of technical risk assessment methodologies, including measures of the uncertainties, with social science inputs on participation processes, consumer behaviour and effective risk communication. We use case studies representing different types of risk – chemical contamination, and microbial contamination – to focus the discussion. The paper reviews the approach of ongoing interdisciplinary research which is exploring ways of communicating risks and involving members of the public and other stakeholders in defining the interfaces and processes needed.     

Communicating Food-Safety Risks to Key Stakeholders

In recent years, the public has become increasingly concerned about the safety of the food they eat. Anxieties are augmented each time there is a food crisis, with each new disease and resultant food safety concern adding to the perception that our food is no longer safe. Bridging the gap between the scientist/veterinarian, economist, farmer and consumer requires effective communication strategies. This article uses the example of paratuberculosis (Johne's disease) in cattle to illustrate the difficulties of communicating food-safety risks when considerable uncertainty exists. Scientific data linking this disease to Crohn's disease in humans is contradictory and far from conclusive. We show how the Codex Alimentarius system can be used as a template for communicating risk in such situations. This is a four-stage process that addresses public perceptions of the risk and the public's related information requirements. One aim is to give peoples' concerns as much emphasis as the risk statistics in an open and honest debate. The example highlights the difficulty of deciding when and how best to instigate the process. However, positive collaboration between epidemiologists, public health specialists, economists, food marketers and policy-makers to work in conjunction with consumers of both food and animal health products and services is essential for a satisfactory outcome.     

Consumer Perception of Food Safety Related Risk

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine what factors cause consumer risk perception during periods of food safety concern. A survey of 195 respondents was carried out to explore the nature of consumer perception of food safety related risk using multi-dimensional analysis and how this perception was affected. Multiple regression analysis was adopted to assess the effect of risk characteristics on consumer risk perception in terms of perceived health, psychological, financial, time and taste risks. All five regression models were highly significant. Characteristics of risk, such as severity of consequences, concern about safety, involuntary exposure to risk, harmful to the environment, information, exaggerated report and adequate regulations were found to be important for predicting consumer perception of microbiological risk in chicken. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Risk and risk management in organic and conventional cash crop farming in Norway

This study presents empirical insight into organic and conventional cash crop farmers' perceptions of risk and risk management strategies, and identifies socio-economic variables linked to these perceptions. The data originate from a questionnaire survey of farmers in Norway. The results indicate that organic farmers perceived themselves to be less risk averse than conventional farmers. For both groups, crop prices and yield variability were the two top rated sources of risk, followed by institutional risks. The two groups evaluated risk management strategies quite similarly; favoured strategies were good liquidity and to prevent and reduce crop diseases and pests. The farmers' evaluation of sources of risk and choice of risk strategies depended on various socio-economic variables. The importance of institutional risks implies that policy makers should be cautious about changing policy capriciously and they should consider strategic policy initiatives that give farmers more long-term reliability.     

Public Attitudes toward Agrobiotechnology: The Mediating Role of Risk Perceptions on the Impact of Trust, Awareness, and Outrage

Using Fishbein's multiattribute and mediation models as conceptual frameworks, we propose that the impact of trust, awareness, sense of outrage, and socio-demographic variables on attitudes toward agrobiotechnology are mediated by risk perceptions. The proposition was validated using large survey data collected in the United States and United Kingdom. Results show that trust, sense of outrage, and socio-demographic factors play an important role in shaping public attitudes about agrobitoechnology, largely via their links to risk perceptions. Moreover, risk perceptions exert a greater effect on public attitudes toward agrobiotechnology than benefit perceptions. Finally, the attitudes of U.K. consumers were more susceptible to negative attributes when compared with U.S. consumers.     

退耕还林工程风险管理机制研究

通过定性识别和分析退耕还林工程实施过程中存在各种风险的研究认为,退耕还林工程的规划设计、植被选择与林种配置、农户粮食安全、农户经济收入增长、地方政府治理、林权政策有效性、财政资金保障等实施环节均存在现实的不确定性,将有可能影响工程后续管理的有效性,进而制约工程稳步规模推进和成果的巩固。在系统评价工程风险因素的基础上,提出建立退耕还林工程风险管理机制的具体措施。     

Factors Impacting Food Safety Risk Perceptions

We developed and applied a model of consumer risk perceptions of beef food safety to better understand the underlying drivers of consumer demand for food safety. We show how consumer demographics, country‐of‐residence, as well as reliance on, and trust in, alternative food safety information sources affect risk perceptions of consumers in Canada, Japan and the United States. Consumers in all three countries have risk perceptions shaped by their level of reliance on observable and credence attribute information. Risk perceptions of consumers in each country are significantly higher for those less trusting of doctors. Moreover, personal and indirect food safety experiences substantially affect risk perceptions. These results are useful to decision‐makers in developing more efficient supply chain management strategies and public policies aimed at building or sustaining consumer confidence in food safety.     

Consumer trust, risk and food safety: A review

Consumers' attitudes to trust and risk are key issues in food safety research and attention needs to be focused on clearly defining a framework for analysing consumer behaviour in these terms. In order to achieve this, a detailed review of the recent literature surrounding risk, trust and the relationship between the two must be conducted. This paper aims to collate the current social sciences literature in the fields of food safety, trust and risk. It provides an insight into the economic and other modelling procedures available to measure consumers' attitudes to risk and trust in food safety and specifically notes the need for future research to concentrate on examining risk and trust as inter-related variables rather than two distinct, mutually exclusive concepts. A framework is proposed which it is hoped will assist in devising more effective research to support risk communication to consumers.     

Perceptions about land use

Although there are only a limited number of rigorous research papers focussed specifically on land use perceptions, there is an extensive literature on: environmental attitudes in general and urban growth in particular, as well as on the land use perceptions of farmers and on public perceptions about the use of land for the production of food and raw materials. A number of key themes emerge. First, the urban public are resistant to urban growth and have an ingrained and deep attachment to ‘traditional’ and romanticised visions of rural land use. Second, farmers, the main managers of land use, have proved resistant to concepts of multifunctional land use. Third, there is a perception gap between the practice of food production as a damaging land use exercise and consumer ignorance about the realities of how food and other raw materials are produced. However, consumers support the ideas of farmers being paid to use their land in a more environmentally friendly way. Fourth, there is a value-action gap between people's perceptions of the land use damage they are doing and their lack of willingness to actually change their behaviours. The drivers behind these perceptions are likely to change as carbon reduction policies begin to impact. So the paper concludes with a discussion about future perceptions and possible behavioural change.     

Production Risks and Food Security under Alternative Technology Choices in Malawi: Application of a Multinomial Endogenous Switching Regression

Employing nationally representative data, we investigate the impact of Sustainable Intensification Practices (SIPs) on farm households’ food security, downside risk and the cost of risk in Malawi. The analysis relies on a flexible moment‐based specification of a stochastic production function in a multinomial endogenous switching regression framework to correct for the selection bias stemming both from observed and unobserved heterogeneity. A quantile moment approach is used to estimate the cost of risk. After controlling for the effects of unobserved heterogeneity and several observable variables on maize production and downside risk functions, estimation results show that the adoption of SIPs increases food security and reduces downside risk exposure and the cost of risk. We estimate greater food security and larger reduction in downside risk from simultaneous adoption of both crop diversification (maize–legume intercropping and rotations) and minimum tillage, suggesting that there are complementary benefits from these practices. We find most of the cost of risk comes from exposure to downside risk. Our findings imply that in dealing with production risks development agents should encourage the adoption of agronomic and resource‐management practices along with other risk mitigation and food security improving strategies.     

Consumers’ Response to Genetically Modified Ingredients in Processed Food in an Emerging Economy

Genetically modified (GM) foods are available in many countries including post–Soviet Union countries. However, empirical evidence on consumer acceptance for this region is scarce. In this study, we investigate consumers’ willingness to purchase a processed food containing GM ingredients. For this purpose, a consumer survey was conducted in 2015 in Tajikistan. In many aspects, our results confirm previous empirical findings showing that women are more skeptical toward GM food and a higher level of respondents’ education and the presence of minors in households are negatively correlated with their willingness to purchase a processed food containing GM ingredients. Moreover, a higher risk perception of GM food is negatively associated with the probability to purchase and consume such foods. However, our results indicate that risk perceptions of GM food seem to be relatively low in comparison to other studies with 41.5% of Tajik respondents connecting no risks with GM food. This result is surprising given the existing knowledge about post–Soviet Union consumers who are usually assumed to reject GM food due to their strong focus on naturalness.     

Household behavior with respect to meat consumption in the presence of BSE and CWD

In this study, Canadian household meat consumption behavior in exotic (deer and elk meat) and traditional meats (beef, pork, chicken, turkey, bison, and seafood) is examined. This research introduces some differences in public response to transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) risks across consumer segments from different sources of meat supply, including hunted meat. The analysis uses a combination of survey and household meat purchase data that include a balanced household panel of 2,393 households per year across time. A two-step estimation procedure is used with a probit model in the first step (consume or not) and a doublelog–translog two-stage demand system in the second step (level of consumption). It is assumed and tested that household sociodemographics, consumers’ risk perceptions/attitudes, and media coverage of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and chronic wasting disease (CWD) are underlying demand shifters in consumers’ daily meat purchase decision. The results suggest that households who obtain venison from hunting show the highest confidence in venison safety. Exotic meat preferences negatively affect traditional meat consumption in the daily diets of households who purchase traditional meats from stores and obtain venison from hunting. In response to the media coverage of BSE and CWD, exotic meat eaters are less sensitive to animal disease media information than the general population.     

Farmers’ perceptions and management of risk in rice/shrimp farming systems in South-West Coastal Bangladesh

Farmers in Bangladesh face considerable risk due to fluctuations in biophysical and economic conditions, but the response to these risks is poorly understood. In particular, there is a need to better understand the endogenous management of risk in the rice/shrimp farming systems that have emerged in the inner coastal zone of Bangladesh. This paper draws on a case study of a typical rice/shrimp farming village in Khulna District to explore: (a) farmers’ perceptions of risks and their management responses, (b) risk-return trade-offs within small-, medium-, and large-farm households, and (c) the role of other farm and non-farm activities in mitigating risks to household livelihoods. Farm-level data were collected through a reconnaissance survey, a village census, household case studies, and a sample survey of 73 households. Representative farm budgets were constructed for the three farm-size classes. The key performance indicators calculated were gross margin (GM), net income (NI), and GM per workday of family labour. The riskiness of the rice/shrimp system was assessed for each farm type using farmers’ estimates of low, normal, and high yields and prices to specify triangular distributions. Cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) for GM, NI, and GM per workday were generated. A whole-farm economic analysis was also conducted to assess the relative contributions of different sources of income for each farm type. With access to saline water for shrimp farming in the dry season and fresh water for rice in the wet season, farmers have developed and progressively adapted an alternating rice/shrimp farming system that has minimised the trade-offs between the two crops and provides a good return to household and village resources for all farm types. The system is subject to significant production and market risks, especially the shrimp component. However, farmers have clearly perceived these risks and ameliorated them through a range of production, marketing, and management strategies. With these risk management practices, the rice/shrimp cropping system is economically viable, given the current variation in yields and prices. The greater risk associated with the shrimp component was offset by the renewed stability of the rice component over the past decade, and the risks of the whole cropping system were offset by other farm and non-farm sources of livelihood. Development interventions need to work with farmers to provide further options (suitable rice varieties, solutions to shrimp disease, improved village and transport infrastructure) if this resilience is to be maintained.     

风险分析体系在食品安全管理中的应用效果

全球经济一体化发展程度的加深使食品国际贸易得到了迅速发展,传统饮食上的地域限制逐渐被打破,在此发展背景下,影响食品行业的不安全因素也在不断增多.近年来,随着物质生活水平的不断提升,人们对食品安全的关注程度也在不断加深,在确保公平贸易、促进经济平稳高速发展的同时,做到有效规避风险、确保公众健康安全,是对食品安全的基本要求...     

Risk Perceptions, Risk Preference, and Acceptance of Risky Food

Consumers' risk preferences are often overlooked in studies of consumer demand for risky food. We find that risk preferences elicited through context-less lottery choices are significantly related to consumers' stated preferences for genetically modified (GM) food. These results suggest risk preferences elicited in the laboratory are not artificial in the sense that they appear to be related to the same risk preferences that govern other individual decisions such as food choice. Consistent with theoretical expectations, risk perceptions and risk preferences were found to be significant determinants of acceptance of GM food, which has important implications for explaining consumer behavior.     

浅议企业风险与风险管理

企业在市场经济活动中要面临来自各方面的风险，尤其是加入WTO后短暂的过渡期内，企业面临的挑战大于机遇，即由相对稳定的国内市场转向国际的全球市场。种种经营风险直接威胁着企业的生存与发展。针对种种风险，提出严格按照风险管理程序加强企业风险分析和风险管理，确定风险分析的财务定位，提高财务管理水平，增强财务管理对风险的抗衡，合理规避风险。     

基于模糊一致矩阵分析的水利水电工程建设社会稳定风险评估

选用模糊一致矩阵的数学分析工具,以B水电站为例,分析水利水电工程建设征地和移民安置过程中存在的社会稳定风险,测算各风险类型以及具体风险因素在影响社会稳定中的重要性程度,研究发现,风险发生的原因主要在移民和政府管理部门,风险类型权重最高的是移民补偿补助风险,风险因素权重最高的是移民的信访渠道风险。最后,提出设计单位在规划设计时必须保障移民的切身利益,同时考虑政府管理部门在配合工程建设中的潜在风险,做好科学规划,保证工程顺利实施。     

食品抽样工作的风险与防控措施研究

食品抽样工作作为保证食品安全的重要环节,与食品质量和人们的生命健康安全有着直接的联系.受外在因素的影响,目前在食品抽样过程中仍存在着许多风险,严重影响了抽样工作的落实效果.基于此,本文围绕食品抽样检验工作现状,对常见的风险问题进行分析,并提出相应的防控措施,以期能有效降低抽样风险点,保证食品的安全.     

商品林投资风险的类型、成因与对策分析

在综述国内外学者对商品林投资风险类型及其成因研究成果的基础上,从风险管理角度出发,分析了商品林投资中可能产生的风险类型,主要有自然风险、经济风险、技术风险、政策风险。深入探讨这4种风险形成的原因,并提出有针对性的风险管理对策,即运用多样化经营、产业化经营、合同管理、套期保值、森林保险、专用基金等手段和方法防范和化解商品林投资风险。