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.     

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.     

Research Note: Adolescents' perceptions of food chemical risks

A questionnaire measuring attitude towards four categories of food chemicals (colourings, flavourings, pesticides and fertilizers), level of concern for the environment, dietary habits and reasons for food choice was administered to 932 high school students aged 12-15 years during regular classroom periods. Students also indicated whether they could recall classroom teaching on 15 food and health related issues. Scores were derived representing self-reported frequency of eating (a) foods that were high in fat, or (b) fresh fruits and vegetables. Along with a measure of environmental concern, these were entered as covariates in the analysis of attitudes towards the different classes of additives. Age and gender had little effect on these attitudes. However, more positive attitudes towards both colourings and flavourings were associated with more frequent consumption of 'fat' foods and less frequent consumption of 'fresh' foods. Those with higher 'fat' diets also evaluated the use of pesticides more positively, whereas those expressing greater environmental concern were more opposed to flavourings, fertilizers and (marginally) pesticides. With regard to reasons for food choice, those with higher 'fat' and lower 'fresh' diets appeared to place more weight on pleasure than on nutritional information, whereas those higher on environmental concern paid more attention to labelling and food value. Older students were more able to choose their own diet, but attended less to the health value of the foods they chose, and expressed less trust in food labelling and government control. These findings suggest that judgements of risk are guided by evaluative associations, derived partly from more general attitudes and previous behaviour.