Survey of public attitudes towards precision breeding

Abstract

The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill is currently going through Parliament. Although this bill is ‘England only’ and food and feed safety and hygiene is a devolved issue, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) will introduce a separate regulatory framework for precision bred organisms (PBOs), should the Bill become law. The FSA will also work with stakeholders in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure consumers’ interests are protected in relation to PBOs. The FSA / Food Standard Scotland (FSS) is science and evidence led. In August 2022, the FSA and FSS commissioned Ipsos UK to conduct a two-phase social research project on precision breeding. Phase One, now complete, involved a survey of 4,177 UK residents with robust samples in each UK nation to allow comparisons between and within nations. Phase Two, scheduled to start in September 2022 and report in early 2023, will comprise a series of Citizens’ Forums in England, Wales and Northern Ireland(footnote 1). The overall aims of this project are to: explore consumer attitudes towards precision breeding gather consumer views on the FSA’s proposed regulatory framework understand consumer information needs inform how to communicate with consumers about precision breeding. This document presents interim findings for this project, reporting descriptive data from Phase One. Phase One’s core aims were to provide a snapshot of consumers’ awareness and self-assessed knowledge of precision breeding, its perceived acceptability, risks and benefits, and consumer appetite for information about this production method. These data show that awareness of precision breeding is very low, something which should be borne in mind when considering these findings. While these data reveal that there is a general openness to trying precision bred foods across the UK, with more people anticipating benefits than disbenefits from the use of precision breeding, there is a large degree of uncertainty about what impact precision bred foods may have on the different parts of the food system. This is reflected in the relatively large proportions of people taking a neutral stance or indicating they do not know enough to answer survey questions and in the strong appetite expressed for information about precision breeding to be provided. The next phase of this project will be essential for the FSA’s ability to interpret these findings’ implications, and to understand what is informing consumers’ views. The purpose of Phase One has always been to let the FSA know ‘what’ consumers think about precision breeding; Phase Two’s purpose is to build our understanding ‘why’ they think it. This will allow the FSA to develop a more nuanced understanding of consumers’ needs and incorporate this into the design of the future regulatory framework and any engagement with consumers on precision breeding. FSS will be carrying out further research in Scotland.