Abstract
A wide gap exists between the rapid acceptance of genetically modified (GM) crops for cultivation by farmers in many countries and in the global markets for food and feed, and the often-limited acceptance by consumers. This review contrasts the advances of practical applications of agricultural biotechnology with the divergent paths—also affecting the development of virus resistant transgenic crops—of political and regulatory frameworks for GM crops and food in different parts of the world. These have also shaped the different opinions of consumers. Important factors influencing consumer’s attitudes are the perception of risks and benefits, knowledge and trust, and personal values. Recent political and societal developments show a hardening of the negative environment for agricultural biotechnology in Europe, a growing discussion—including calls for labeling of GM food—in the USA, and a careful development in China towards a possible authorization of GM rice that takes the societal discussions into account. New breeding techniques address some consumers’ concerns with transgenic crops, but it is not clear yet how consumers’ attitudes towards them will develop. Discussions about agriculture would be more productive, if they would focus less on technologies, but on common aims and underlying values.
Highlights
Crops for cultivation by farmers in many countries and in the global markets for food and feed, and the often-limited acceptance by consumers
The authors interpret this difference as a result the social stigma that buying genetically modified (GM) food has in Europe: “What consumers say they will choose in a survey and what they choose in a real-purchase situation may differ substantially when their decision is framed by a socially charged issue such as genetic modification” [38]
Surveys in the European Union (EU) have more often focused on risks and ethical implications of GM food and crops than those from the U.S, guiding the respondents to think more about potentially problematic aspects of technology, which may have played a role in the apparently more skeptical attitude in Europe [42]
Summary
About a decade after the first transgenic plants were created in the laboratory, genetically modified food plants were introduced into the market. Bt maize and Bt cotton, as well as transgenic herbicide tolerant soybeans and oilseed rape were planted. In 2014, genetically modified (GM) crops were grown by 18 million farmers in 28 countries on a total surface of 181.5 million hectares, which correspond to already 13% of the world’s arable surface. This rapid increase makes biotech crops the fastest adopted crop technology of the last decades. Transgenic, papaya ringspot-virus (PRSV) resistant papaya trees were introduced in Hawaii in 1998 after the papaya production was on the verge of collapse because of a devastating outbreak of PRSV infections They were rapidly taken up by the large majority of the papaya farmers in almost 90%. On the papaya cultivation surface in Hawaii, and are credited with saving the Hawaii papaya industry from extinction [4]
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