Abstract
Public acceptance of genetically modified (GM) foods has to be adequately addressed in order for their potential economic and social benefits to be realized. The objective of this paper is to assess the attitude of the Malaysian public toward GM foods (GM soybean and GM palm oil) and GM medicine (GM insulin). A survey was carried out using self-constructed multidimensional instrument measuring attitudes towards GM products. The respondents (n = 1017) were stratified according to stakeholders' groups in the Klang Valley region. Results of the survey show that the overall attitude of the Malaysian stakeholders towards GM products was cautious. Although they acknowledged the presence of moderate perceived benefits associated with GM products surveyed and were moderately encouraging of them, they were also moderately concerned about the risks and moral aspects of the three GM products as well as moderately accepting the risks. Attitudes towards GM products among the stakeholders were found to vary not according to the type of all GM applications but rather depend on the intricate relationships between the attitudinal factors and the type of gene transfers involved. Analyses of variance showed significant differences in the six dimensions of attitude towards GM products across stakeholders' groups.
Highlights
There has been significant advancement in modern biotechnology worldwide in the past ten years
The biology students scored the highest weighted average in terms of familiarity with the three genetically modified (GM) products and post hoc tests showed that their rating of GM insulin differed significantly from majority of other stakeholders except for the producers (Table 4)
Using a single question whether the respondents have heard about biotechnology, Gaskell et al [9] reported that 50% of the Europeans claimed that they were familiar with GM foods but only 27% have heard about pharmacogenetics in 2005
Summary
There has been significant advancement in modern biotechnology worldwide in the past ten years. Current biotechnology products mostly focus on the commercialization of biopharmaceuticals [1] followed by genetically modified (GM) crops [2]. Following the approval of recombinant human insulin for marketing in the United States in 1982 [3], the pharmaceutical industry has since grown rapidly and, by the year 2009, 200 biopharmaceuticals have been approved for marketing [1]. According to James [2], GM crops are the fastest-adopted crop technology in the history of modern agriculture with an unprecedented 87-fold increase between 1996 and 2010. James [2] was cautiously optimistic that GM crops can meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goals of food security and poverty alleviation
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