What Australians think about biotechnology
One of the most comprehensive surveys of community attitudes towards gene technology in Australia has found an overall acceptance of GMOs but not in food.
The survey was conducted by the research firm Yann, Campbell, Hoare and Wheeler, for the Commonwealth Government's biotechnology co-ordination agency, Biotechnology Australia, in August and September this year. It involved both quantitative and qualitative research on a survey group of 1800 people.
The results showed that about 50 per cent considered biotechnology would improve our way of life over the next 20 years. Twenty per cent thought it would make things worse and just over a quarter of respondents said they had not heard of biotechnology.
A major finding was that there is a relatively low level of understanding of biotechnology and that the public has little knowledge of existing regulatory processes and regulators of biotechnology products.
The survey found an eagerness for balanced information on risks and benefits. Credible sources of information were primarily given as the CSIRO and scientists, and, to a lesser extent, consumer organisations, schools and universities. The media's coverage of biotechnology issues were seen as overly sensationalist.
For most of the uses of biotechnology, the public believes that the benefits from the technology outweigh the risks, however, for many food applications the risks were seen as higher than the benefits.
Specific findings were that the majority of people surveyed would wear clothes made from genetically modified fibre (81 per cent), use genetically modified medicines (64 per cent) or buy genetically modified fruits or vegetables if they tasted better (51 per cent).
Respondents favoured labelling of genetically modified foods but also accepted that overly detailed labelling information might be impractical and costly.
The survey is part of Biotechnology Australia's main tasks to develop and implement a long-term biotechnology public awareness program.