Responding Public Demand for Assurance of Genetically Modified Crops: Case from Japan

Genetically modified (GM) crops provide a classic example of risk characterised with uncertainty and ambiguity. This article analyses the risk management of GM crops in Japan as a case and investigates how the Japanese government has responded to the growing public demand for safety assurance of new agricultural and food varieties. It argues that, while the government realised the need to respond to public reluctance in consuming GM food by adopting more resilient and discursive management, it has faced a dilemma to incorporate the new type of approach into conventional risk assessment. This tension was reflected in the process and policy outputs of the consensus conference on GM crops, which was ambiguously placed in the risk management process. This article shows the dynamics of opting for policies to manage scientifically uncertain risks in particular socio‐political and institutional contexts. Such understanding can suggest ways towards enhanced policy debates.     

Optimism and the perceptions of new risks

While many risks, especially new ones, are not objectively quantifiable, individuals still form perceptions of risks using incomplete or unclear evidence about the true nature of those risks. In the case of well known risks, such as smoking, individuals perceive risks to be smaller for themselves than others, exhibiting ‘optimism bias’. Although existing evidence supports optimism bias occurring in the case of risks about which individuals are familiar, evidence does not yet exist to suggest that optimism bias applies for new risks. This paper addresses this question by examining the gap in perceptions of risks individuals have for themselves versus society and the environment, conceptualised as social and/or environmental optimism biases. We draw upon the 2002 UEA‐MORI Risk Survey to examine the existence of optimism bias and its effects on risk perceptions and acceptance regarding five science and technology‐related topics: climate change, mobile phones, radioactive waste, GM food and genetic testing. Our findings provide evidence of social and environmental optimism bias following similar patterns and optimism bias appearing greater for those risks bringing sizeable benefit to individuals (e.g. mobile phone radiation) rather than those more acutely affecting society or the environment (e.g. GM food or climate change). Social optimism bias is found to reduce risk perceptions for risks that have received large amounts of media attention, namely, climate change and GM food. On the other hand, optimism bias appears to increase risk perceptions about genetic testing.     

Ireland: contested precaution and challenged institutions

Irish policy on GMOs has generally cited precaution as its basis, although the official responses to marketing applications demonstrate a generally favourable attitude towards the technology. The official policy assumes that the current safety regulation can ensure that products reaching the market are safe, and that consumers can make their own ethical and political choices regarding GMOs, facilitated by full labelling of such products and ingredients. This view has been made more explicit with recent official statements. A national consultation process resulted in a report which strongly favours GM technology, but the whole process has been questioned by critics of GM crops. Many disagreements remain, particularly around the range of issues open to discussion. Many actors and organisations opposed to GMOs argue that the debate has been too narrowly focused on scientific aspects of health and environmental protection; they attempt to widen the scope to include other aspects, such as political and ethical concerns. This effort challenges the mediating institutions and their capacity to regulate an issue which involves uncertainty.     

Germany: ‘élite precaution’ alongside continued public opposition

Germany is the EU member state with the most difficult situation (besides Austria) for marketing genetically modified (GM) crops and food. At the same time, it shows the least administrative effort to respond to the reasons for this situation – public suspicion and protest. Regulators advocate specific precaution-related measures, including marketstage monitoring; these measures, however, do not relate to the primary demands of critics and opponents. The administration’s claim to prioritize scientific evidence over politics constructs the administration and the public as two separate worlds without real mediation. This conflicts with the ever-growing demands for public participation. Participation in a broader sense, however, is not dependent on formal opportunities. In this conflict, NGOs bring up issues of democracy, transparency and precaution through public mobilization. This strategy results in an anticipated consumer boycott and thereby a commercial blockage of GM products. These dynamics can be analysed as ‘reflexive modernization’, which implies greater public aversion to externally imposed risks. The politico-administrative system responds with a legalistic–scientistic approach in order to increase safety but without participatory measures to overcome predictive uncertainty and value conflicts. Environmental and consumer protest has led the technology providers to revise their political strategies in the biotechnology conflict. Thus, in Germany reflexive modernization takes place without reflexive politics.     

Genetic engineering,genetic modification,or agricultural biotechnology: does the term matter?

The risk perception and communication literature appears to use terms such as genetic engineering (GE), genetic modification (GM), and agricultural biotechnology (agbiotech) almost interchangeably. The present research therefore seeks to compare the effect of these three terms on consumers’ cognitive, affective and behavioral component of attitude. The variables under investigation are consumers’ perceptions of risk, benefits, personal control over technology, support and promotion of the development of technology, dread, labeling, and purchase intentions. The study draws on the equivalency framing literature in conducting two question wording experiments whereby participants are randomly assigned to receive a version that uses just one of the three different terms. The first experiment found that the framing effect of food technology as either GE or GM may be contingent on source of information. When the technology was framed as GE and the information source was a consumer organization, respondents reported higher perceived personal control over the technology compared to when the information source was government, newspaper, or no source. Therefore, framing food as GE may be a somewhat beneficial for those who seek to promote the technology while framing the technology as GM might help those who oppose the technology. The second experiment found that using the terms agbiotech and GE were associated with higher perceived benefits, positive feelings, and purchase intention compared to GM. The ‘agbiotech’ term garnered the most relative support for the technology. Implications are discussed.     

The use of multi‐level modelling in risk research. A secondary analysis of a study of public perceptions of genetically modified food

Many studies have examined the relationship between various individual variables and people's perceptions of genetically modified (GM) food. A problem with this type of research is that contextual factors are completely ignored. This article explores the use of multi‐level modelling in the field of risk research, by re‐analysing a recent British study of public perceptions of GM food. As the study employed a multi‐stage sampling strategy, it could be used to examine simultaneously the individual and spatial variation in trust and the acceptability of GM food. While the geographical variation in acceptability was largely due to compositional differences between the sampling points, a geographical variation in trust remained after controlling for individual differences. The analysis demonstrated that city‐dwellers commonly have more trust in the regulation of GM food than other respondents. Next to being associated with a number of socio‐demographic variables, both acceptability and trust were related strongly to voting intention. Moreover, the results suggest that there is a link between vulnerable groups, feelings of exclusion, and (dis)trust. The article is concluded by arguing that multi‐level modelling provides new opportunities for simultaneously examining the individual and contextual basis of public perceptions of controversial risk issues.     

Media risk communication – what was said by whom and how was it interpreted

The purpose of this paper is to provide some insight into the level and type of media coverage that food risks received and consider the translation of press releases into media articles. Past scientific messages dealing with two food risks (Salmonella and Genetically Modified (GM) potatoes) were collected from various Irish media sources over a defined period. In addition, press releases and helpline data were collected. All data pieces were subsequently coded. Based on the audit it is clear that island of Ireland journalists are generally balanced with regard to their reporting on Salmonella. In most cases where press releases could be linked to the newspaper articles, the press release was represented fairly accurately. This brings into clear focus the need by those issuing press releases to be very clear on the meaning of their message. Journalists are using the press releases as the basis for articles therefore vague terms and overemphasis on a particular finding can result in what may appear as a sensational article. In the case of GMs more sensational hooks were used to draw attention to the articles. Thus communicators need to be aware of the characteristics of the risk they are communicating about when designing and delivering a risk message.     

The food problem and the evolution of international income levels

In most poor countries, large fractions of land, labor, and other productive resources are devoted to producing food for subsistence needs. We show that a model incorporating the “food problem” can provide new and useful insights into the evolution of international income levels. In particular, we find that the food problem can explain why some countries started to realize increases in per capita output more than 250 years later in history than others. We also show that the food problem has important implications for growth miracles and the speed at which a country converges to its balanced growth path.     

Genetically modified plants and the precautionary principle

The European regulation of genetically modified plants is a particular example of technological risk management that has become an essential part of the management of change. The role of regulators in this management process, when there are demands for regulatory action concerning unquantified (and sometimes unquantifiable) technological risks – with regulation under conditions of uncertainty – is explored. Where the retrospective evidence concerning a postulated risk scenario is sparse, the precautionary principle (PP) may be invoked. The origins of the European regulatory system, which applied until 17 October 2002 (Directive 90/220), why this has been revised (Directive 2001/18) and the probable impact of this revision are described. This is illustrated with risk assessments that have accompanied submissions for marketing approval for genetically modified plants under Directive 90/220. Some of the problems associated with the PP and the regulation of GM plants are discussed.     

Poxvirus‐vectored Vaccines Call for Application of the Precautionary Principle

Genetically engineered viruses (GEVs) used as live vaccines are, and will increasingly become, important for prevention of disease in human as well as animal populations. Poxviruses have a number of attractive theoretical and practical advantages as gene expressing vaccine vectors: their large genomes render construction of multivalent vaccines feasible, the vaccines are easy to produce, the virus particles are very thermostable, and inoculation is followed by long‐lasting, protective immune responses. On the other hand, administration and environmental release of GEVs may represent potential unintended harms to human, animal and ecosystem health. We will argue that a strict application of risk‐cost/benefit analyses do not cope appropriately with the current lack of scientific understanding and the complexity of ecosystems that will become GEV recipients, and fail to take into account the deeper ethical groundings that shape the scientific and public opinions. To avoid serious, unintended ecological effects of GEVs, it may be necessary to elaborate the ethical basis for protecting health and the environment. The Precautionary Principle (PP) may provide a basis for adequate consideration of ecological and ethical issues of vital importance to protection of health and environment from unforeseen adverse effects of poxvirus‐vectored vaccines. To operationalise the PP, we suggest that there is a need to identify and systematise lack of scientific understanding, and to acknowledge uncertainty by initiating research with a broad focus involving interdisciplinary research. In this paper we present three main issues related to the employment of the PP: i) identification of scientific uncertainty and its ethical significance in risk assessment and risk management processes, ii) the need for broad risk assessment as a response to scientific uncertainty, and iii) the need for transparency and public involvement to enhance the debate about normative standards concerning acceptability of benefits, risks and uncertainty with regard to GEV use and release.     

Determinants of stakeholders’ attitudes towards a new technology: nanotechnology applications for food,water, energy and medicine

Stakeholder risk and benefit perceptions and attitudes towards a technology matter for the societal response to these technologies. This is especially the case for technological innovations where the public has no direct experience with the technology and its applications. In such cases, expert views are the main source for public opinion formation. Stakeholder risk and benefit perception, and their effect on attitudes towards a new technology (nanotechnology) and its applications were examined in two studies. In a survey, the effect of risk and benefit perception on attitudes to nanotechnology in specific application domains (energy, water, food and medicine) was examined. While risk and benefit perception predicted much of the variance in attitude, experts were more positive about medicine applications and more negative about food applications than could be explained through risk and benefit perception. In the second study, expert focus groups were asked for reasons why food and medicine were seen as more negative and positive than based on the risk and benefit perceptions as measured in the survey. For medicine, the urgency and unique potential of nanotechnology was seen as a reason as why this domain was liked more. For food, the high level of uncertainty about risk assessment and about exposure of consumers and the lack of urgency in applying nanotechnology to food was seen as a reason this domain was liked less. In addition, experts voiced concern about potential negative public response to food applications as reasons for their negative attitude. These results thus suggest that both risk and benefit perception consist of multiple dimensions that require further exploration.     

Communication about a communication technology

As genetically modified (GM) products approach the market stage, the UK government and agro-food industry have faced a suspicious or hostile public. Since 1998 many retail chains have undertaken to exclude any GM-derived ingredients from their own-brand lines. This commercial blockage has intensified pressures for greater precaution, even for a moratorium on cultivating GM crops. Political protest has led to strategies for precautionary commercialization. Government and industry have cooperated to plan a ‘managed development’ of GM crops. Across the agricultural supply chain, industry has devised voluntary guidelines to ensure segregation of GM crops and to limit the spread of GM herbicide-tolerance. In particular UK regulators seek to test the risk that broad-spectrum herbicide sprays could damage wildlife habitats; they have broadened the advisory expertise accordingly. These measures open up the precautionary content to further debate, at both national and EU levels. Market-stage precautions establish a means to test claims that GM crops are environmentally-friendly products. By translating public concerns into broader risk-assessment criteria, the UK procedure involves critics in potentially influencing standards of scientific evidence and environmental harm. This social process has become a prerequisite for legitimizing commercial use.     

Extrapolating understanding of food risk perceptions to emerging food safety cases

Important determinants of risk perceptions associated with foods are the extent to which the potential hazards are perceived to have technological or naturally occurring origins, together with the acute vs. chronic dimension in which the potential hazard is presented (acute or chronic). This study presents a case study analysis based on an extensive literature review examining how these hazard characteristics affect people’s risk and benefit perceptions, and associated attitudes and behaviors. The cases include E. coli incidences (outbreaks linked to fresh spinach and fenugreek sprouts), contamination of fish by environmental pollutants, (organochlorine contaminants in farmed salmon), radioactive contamination of food following a nuclear accident (the Fukushima accident in Japan), and GM salmon destined for the human food chain. The analysis of the cases over the acute vs. chronic dimension suggests that longitudinal quantification of the relationship between risk perceptions and impacts is important for both acute and chronic food safety, but this has infrequently been applied to chronic hazards. Technologies applied to food production tend to potentially be associated with higher levels of risk perception, linked to perceptions that the risk is unnatural. However, for some risks (e.g. those involving biological irreversibility), moral or ethical concerns may be more important determinants of consumer responses than risk or benefit perceptions. (Lack of) trust has been highlighted in all of the cases suggesting transparent and honest risk–benefit communications following the occurrence of a food safety incident. Implications for optimizing associated risk communication strategies, additional research linking risk perception, and other quantitative measures, including comparisons in time and space, are suggested.     

Regulation of food safety risks: the case of food irradiation in Japan

As risk analysis becomes more important in the promulgation of international and domestic standards, scientific data and the utilization of this data as a foundation for regulations is fundamental in determining these standards. Over the past 20 years, the scientific understanding of food irradiation technology has increased significantly regarding the impact of the technology on various types of food and the potential applications. As a result, the World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), acting together, announced a standard on the benefits of food irradiation in early 1980s. Despite the consensus amongst international organizations regarding the benefits of food irradiation, individual countries have not been as eager to promote this technology. Japan began an initial investigation into the applications of food irradiation over 30 years ago, yet today prohibits irradiation except for the potato. This paper examines the history of research and regulation on food irradiation in Japan, and how scientific information and other factors have influenced its regulatory policy. These factors, including industry willingness, regulatory structure and perception, are not outside exerting force on the regulations of this technology, but rather are inherently a part of the regulatory process itself, and lead to a 'vicious circle' of rigidity that closes off the opportunity to incorporate new scientific and technical information as it arises.     

中国食物自给率及其影响因素分析:基于营养源视角

基于营养源视角,运用灰色关联方法考量中国食物自给率及其影响因素。结果发现：1961—2013年中国综合食物自给率整体呈下降趋势,2000-2005年呈现明显的倒“U”形变化。从其结构而言,产品间差异较大;就其影响因素而言,生产、消费、贸易环节各主要影响因素的影响效应各有差异。测算显示,根据目前的生产布局,到2020年除谷物、糖料、蔬菜作物的自给率上升外,大豆、油料、肉类自给率将持续下降。     

Population growth and food supply in sub-Saharan Africa

It is argued in this article that sub-Saharan Africa, given its present institutions and endowments of capital and technology, is already dangerously close to overpopulation. The rapid growth of its population projected for the next decades will greatly increase human misery and depress economic development. Specifically, rapid population growth will have disastrous effects on the region's ability to increase exports and provide people with food. There must be a search for new ways in which these effects could be mitigated. In sub-Saharan Africa fertility either continues to be very high or is increasing, in part due to some decline in traditional practices that reduce fertility, such as prolonged breastfeeding. This situation and the expectation of declining mortality imply that African population growth may increase further. Currently, population in sub-Saharan Africa is about half that of India and a third of China. There are 2 main reasons why reduced fertility in the next few decades is unlikely in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole: Africa has low literacy, high infant and child mortality, and low urbanization; and average African fertility rates may even increase for the next 20 years or so. The question that arises is what are the implications of continuing and rapid population growth for the African food supply. The region's cereal production is largely restricted to 4 grains, i.e., millet, sorghum, maize, and rice. The volume of grain production is less, by weight, than 60% of the production of roots and tubers. There are 2 main differences between the output of these crops in sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world: yields/hectare are lower in Africa than in elsewhere; and yields have generally been decreasing or largely constant in Africa. The low productivity has several causes. Today, population pressure has brought diminishing returns to traditional agriculture in much of the Sahel and the savanna, in parts of East Africa, Southern Africa, and parts of the West African forest belt. There is also the absence of the Green Revolution, i.e., the use of new high yielding seeds and new technologies in agriculture that has led to marked increases in yields in most other parts of the world. A totally different and more productive agriculture might evolve if African governments were to fundamentally change their vision. Existing production technology could allow substantial increases in the yields of many crops if some basic changes were made in the policies affecting agriculture. A way to achieve such change would be to make farming profitable. The effect of population growth in diminishing returns to agriculture also lends urgency to the need for family planning. Generally, population policy in Africa badly needs strengthening.     

金融支持新型农业经营主体发展存在的问题与建议

近几年,新型农业经营主体发展迅速,成为“三农”经济发展的主要载体和农村规模化粮食种植的主要形式,同时也是农村土地适度规模化经营和加速农业现代化发展的有效途径。2013年以来,龙井市加大了对农业经营主体的信贷支持力度,使得新型农业经营主体快速发展。截止2014年3月,龙井市各类农业经营主体已达660家,其中家庭农场达130家,比上年增加42家。但是,新型农业经营主体在发展中仍存在一些问题,值得我们关注。     

Transparency in the food aisle: the influence of procedural justice on views about labeling GM foods

Issues of transparency lay at the center of the debate surrounding the labeling of genetically modified (GM) food products in the USA. These issues include not only the argument that consumers should be allowed to make purchasing choices based on full disclosure of product ingredients but also that they should have access to the process that makes decisions about labeling. This study examines the influence of procedural justice on perceived decision legitimacy and decision support regarding GM food labeling decisions. Using a 2 × 2 factorial design, participants recruited from an online Qualtrics panel (N = 450) were randomly assigned to read a fictitious news article about an agricultural company’s decision about whether to label their food products as having GM ingredients. Articles varied by the company’s labeling decision (label versus no label) and whether the company listened to public input prior to making the decision (public input versus no public input). The results showed significant main effects on decision support and perceived legitimacy for articles that mentioned public input. Specifically, when participants read articles stating that the company made its decision after listening to public input, they were more supportive of the decision and perceived the decision as more legitimate. Moreover, this main effect occurred irrespective of whether or not the company’s decision was to label GM foods. Our results confirm the influence of procedural justice perceptions in fostering support and perceived legitimacy for controversial risk-related decisions.     

Critical factors and pathways influencing genetically modified food risk perceptions

This study aims to identify the critical factors and paths that affect the Chinese public’s risk perceptions of genetically modified (GM) foods from an emotional appraisal perspective. Using an experiment conducted with university undergraduate business students in China, we examined the evaluative pathways of the Chinese public by manipulating fairness and controllability appraisals in scenarios constructed about GM foods risk. The experiment was designed around two evaluative pathways – consequentialist and deontological perspectives – focusing on controllability and fairness. This led to a distinct set of emotional responses. It was found that both consequence-based and morality-based emotions caused stronger perceived risks toward GM foods. Understanding these responses provides new insight into how scientists and experts in China might best frame their communications about GM foods.     

Financial guarantors’ executive compensation,charter value and risk-taking

Financial guarantees have been extensively used recently as part of rescue packages to bail out troubled institutions and governments around the world. We propose a new incentive compensation model for studying agency conflict between the shareholders and the manager of a typical financial guarantor. In our model, the manager chooses the guarantor's risk level, with disutility to reduce risk (i.e., reducing the risk of the guarantor incurs a direct cost to the manager). Moral hazard causes the manager to select a level of risk that is higher than the level chosen in an otherwise first-best environment with no conflict of interest between the shareholders and the manager. However, in our proposed framework, charter value plays a self-disciplining role on the manager's appetite for risk, therefore it helps mitigate the extent of the deviation from first best with agency conflict found previously (e.g., 0055, 0015 and 0020). This suggests that researchers should study charter value, managerial compensation and risk decisions within a unified framework and not separately, as all studies have done in the past.