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July 17, 2003
While a third of
Americans already try to avoid buying food that has been
genetically modified (GM), or treated with antibiotics or
hormones, 55 percent, would avoid buying GM food if it were so
labeled, according to a survey conducted by
ABC News.
The poll also found that 62 percent of women, who do most food
shopping in the US, would avoid such food.
Mandatory labeling, which the food industry opposes, is favored
by 92 percent of Americans for genetically modified food and 85
percent for food from farm animals that have been fed hormones
or antibiotics, it found. On the other side, 51 percent of those
polled said they favor food specifically labeled not genetically
modified, and 46 percent said the same for food labeled as from
hormones and antibiotics.
Nonetheless, concerns over the safety of GM food appear to have
abated, with 46 percent believing it is unsafe compared with 52
percent in a similar poll two years ago, according to the ABC
poll.
Of those women polled, 54 percent believed GM food is unsafe,
while 56 percent of men said the opposite. In 2001, 62 percent
of women polled thought bio-engineered foods were unsafe.
While at least one-third of US crops are bio-engineered,
including two-thirds of all soybeans, nine in 10 adults surveyed
thought that food eaten in the US is generally safe.
Residents in agriculture-heavy midwestern US, known as the farm
belt, have a slightly more favorable view of GM food, with 53
percent of those polled in that area saying it is safe, compared
with 39 percent in the Northeast.
According to the poll, people who attended college are also more
likely to say altered foods are safe.
The ABC News poll was conducted by telephone in early July among
a random national sample of 1,024 adults.
GM food is at the center of a bitter US-EU trade rift. The US
also wants to use GM food as a way to ease world hunger.
Last month, a United Nations food safety committee called for
stricter safety evaluations of GM food as part of more than 50
new food quality standards. |
