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[Brandon McFadden, an assistant professor of food and resource economics at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences] and his colleague, Jayson Lusk, an agricultural economics professor at Oklahoma State University, wanted to know what data supported consumers’ beliefs about genetically modified food and gain a better understanding of preferences for a mandatory label.Consumer polls are often cited in policy debates about genetically modified food labeling. This is especially true when discussing whether food that is genetically modified should carry mandatory labels,
Researchers used an online survey of 1,004 participants that asked questions to measure consumers’ knowledge of genetically modified food and organisms.
The results led McFadden to conclude that consumers do not know as much about the facts of genetically modified food and crops as they think they do.
Of those sampled, 84 percent supported a mandatory label for food containing genetically modified ingredients. However, 80 percent also supported a mandatory label for food containing DNA, which would result in labeling almost all food.
Read full, original post: UF/IFAS study finds consumer knowledge gap on genetically modified food