Abstract
BackgroundThe broadness of biotechnology serves to connect different types of modern plant breeding techniques with the potential to improve global food security. However, the topic goes beyond the specific example consumers’ associate with the term—genetic modification. As a result, it is often unclear if consumers really know what they claim to understand and the efforts to clarify the science and reasoning behind the use of these practices is often obscured.MethodsTwo online surveys of 500 Canadians were conducted in 2017.ResultsThree-quarters of Canadians have high levels of trust in those who provide information about food, yet two-thirds believe that modern plant breeding technologies are unnatural.ConclusionsCanadians lack basic knowledge about modern plant breeding practices and technologies and possess high levels of uncertainty regarding the potential for benefits or externalities to develop from the commercialization of new genome editing plant breeding technologies.
Highlights
The safety of the food that is consumed has continually increased over time, due to combinations of improved plant breeding, regulations on chemical uses and testing for toxins (Smyth et al 2015)
In a survey commissioned by Health Canada (The Strategic Council 2016), 66% of Canadians were confident that the food system was strong and rigorous, protecting consumers from harmful or unsafe food products
The objective of this article is to identify what knowledge and perspectives consumers have about food security and existing plant breeding technologies, as well as new technologies that are just beginning to be applied to plant breeding, such as gene editing
Summary
The safety of the food that is consumed has continually increased over time, due to combinations of improved plant breeding, regulations on chemical uses and testing for toxins (Smyth et al 2015). As a result of false information, there is a lack of knowledge about food, its production and how it reaches store shelves (Sutherland et al 2020) Between 2012 and 2016, US$850 million was spent by anti-biotechnology advocacy groups to campaign against GM crops (Genetic Literacy Project 2020) This partially contributes to the wide gap between scientist opinions and consumer opinions on the safety of both genetically modified (GM) foods and pesticide use (Pew Research Center 2015). It has been suggested that high schools could benefit the most from funding the integration of science curriculum into agriculture programs, and possibly vice versa (Myers and Washburn 2008), or commencing agricultural education programs, which has proven effective at increasing students’ knowledge in urban schools (Jean-Philippe et al 2017) Both these strategies to inform younger Canadians could increase the positive perception of the industry and biotechnology
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