IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/iaae09/51029.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

‘GMO-Free’ Labels – Enhancing Transparency or Deceiving Consumers?

Author

Listed:
  • Henseleit, Meike
  • Kubitzki, Sabine

Abstract

Since most consumers particularly in industrialised countries are concerned about the application of genetic engineering in food production, producers in many nations got the opportunity to label products as free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by the introduction of legal regulations. Standards of these regulations for labelling food products ‘GMO-free’ usually relate to product itself, not to the process of production. Therefore, it is quite possible that consumers’ understanding of ‘GMO-free’ differs from what the label actually stands for, especially regarding animal products. We conducted a consumer survey in order to explore potential gaps between their ideas of ‘GMO-free’ food and what the label actually stands for at the example of the German regulation covering the labelling of foods as ‘GMO-free’.

Suggested Citation

  • Henseleit, Meike & Kubitzki, Sabine, 2009. "‘GMO-Free’ Labels – Enhancing Transparency or Deceiving Consumers?," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51029, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:iaae09:51029
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.51029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/51029/files/IAAE_2009_final_Henseleit.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.51029?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lusk, Jayson L. & Rozan, Anne, 2008. "Public Policy and Endogenous Beliefs: The Case of Genetically Modified Food," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 33(2), pages 1-20.
    2. Mittal, Banwari & Lee, Myung-Soo, 1989. "A causal model of consumer involvement," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 363-389, November.
    3. Bansal, Sangeeta & Ramaswami, Bharat, 2007. "The economics of GM food labels: An evaluation of mandatory labeling proposals in India," IFPRI discussion papers 704, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Hallman, William K. & Adelaja, Adesoji O. & Schilling, Brian J. & Lang, John T., 2002. "Public Perceptions Of Genetically Modified Foods: Americans Know Not What They Eat," Research Reports 18176, Rutgers University, Food Policy Institute.
    5. Wachenheim, Cheryl J. & Vanwechel, Tamara, 2004. "The Influence Of Environmental-Impact Information On Consumer Willingness To Pay For Products Labeled As Free Of Genetically Modified Ingredients," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 35(2), pages 1-13, July.
    6. Lusk, Jayson L., 2004. "United States and European Consumer Demand for Genetically Modified Food in an Experimental Market," Purdue Agricultural Economics Report 188880, Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    7. House, Lisa & Lusk, Jayson L. & Jaeger, Sara & Traill, W. Bruce & Moore, Melissa & Valli, Carlotta & Morrow, Bert & Yee, Wallace M.S., 2004. "Objective And Subjective Knowledge: Impacts On Consumer Demand For Genetically Modified Foods In The United States And The European Union," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20125, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kubitzki, S. & Henseleit, M. & Herrmann, R., 2010. "Informationsgewinn und Markttransparenz durch Labeling? – Eine kritische Würdigung der neuen Lebensmittelkennzeichnung „Ohne Gentechnik“," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 45, March.
    2. Jin, Hyun Joung & Han, Dae Hee, 2014. "Interaction between message framing and consumers’ prior subjective knowledge regarding food safety issues," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 95-102.
    3. Andrew Knight, 2007. "Intervening Effects of Knowledge, Morality, Trust, and Benefits on Support for Animal and Plant Biotechnology Applications," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(6), pages 1553-1563, December.
    4. Kaneko, Naoya & Chern, Wen S., 2006. "Identification of Consumer Segments and Its Implication on the Willingness-to-Pay Distribution: The Case of Demand for Non-Genetically Modified Vegetable Oil in the United States," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21194, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    5. Costa-Font, Montserrat & Gil, José M. & Traill, W. Bruce, 2008. "Consumer acceptance, valuation of and attitudes towards genetically modified food: Review and implications for food policy," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 99-111, April.
    6. Jane Kolodinsky & Sean Morris & Orest Pazuniak, 2019. "How consumers use mandatory genetic engineering (GE) labels: evidence from Vermont," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(1), pages 117-125, March.
    7. Damien Rousselière & Samira Rousselière, 2010. "On the impact of trust on consumer willingness to purchase GM food:Evidence from a European survey," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 91(1), pages 5-26.
    8. Hyun Joo Kwon & Mira Ahn & Jiyun Kang, 2021. "The Effects of Knowledge Types on Consumer Decision Making for Non-Toxic Housing Materials and Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-14, October.
    9. Fockaert, Lysander & Mathijs, Erik & Vranken, Liesbet, 2021. "Local Support for Agri-Environmental Measures and the Role of Knowledge and Environmental Attitudes," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315153, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Hasan Fehmi Topal & Dexter V. L. Hunt & Christopher D. F. Rogers, 2021. "Exploring Urban Sustainability Understanding and Behaviour: A Systematic Review towards a Conceptual Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-33, January.
    11. Salazar-Ordóñez, M. & Rodríguez-Entrena, M. & Becerra-Alonso, D., 2014. "Willingness to purchase Genetically Modified food: an analysis applying artificial Neural Networks," 2014 International Congress, August 26-29, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia 182937, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Hyun Joung Jin & Dae Hee Han, 2019. "College Students’ Experience of a Food Safety Class and Their Responses to the MSG Issue," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-13, August.
    13. Donoghue, Suné & Wilken-Jonker, Ina & Steffens, Francois E. & Kirsten, Johann F., 2021. "South African consumers' willingness to pay a premium for Karoo Lamb: The influence of subjective and objective knowledge, label information and demographics," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    14. Linda Ferrari, 2022. "Farmers' attitude toward CRISPR/Cas9: The case of blast resistant rice," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(1), pages 175-194, January.
    15. Omid M. Ghoochani & Mansour Ghanian & Masoud Baradaran & Erfan Alimirzaei & Hossein Azadi, 2018. "Behavioral intentions toward genetically modified crops in Southwest Iran: a multi-stakeholder analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 233-253, February.
    16. Van Asselt, Joanna & Nian, Yefan & Soh, Moonwon & Gao, Zhifeng & Morgan, Stephen N, 2020. "Do Plastic Warning Labels Reduce Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Plastic Packaging?," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304503, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Simone Carr-Cornish & Lygia Romanach, 2014. "Differences in Public Perceptions of Geothermal Energy Technology in Australia," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-21, March.
    18. Maria Teresa Trentinaglia De Daverio & Teresina Mancuso & Massimo Peri & Lucia Baldi, 2020. "How Does Consumers’ Care for Origin Shape Their Behavioural Gap for Environmentally Friendly Products?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.
    19. Magdi Du Preez & Daleen Van der Merwe & Louise Wyma & Susanna Maria Ellis, 2021. "Assessing Knowledge and Use Practices of Plastic Food Packaging among Young Adults in South Africa: Concerns about Chemicals and Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-19, October.
    20. Martinez-Poveda, Africa & Molla-Bauza, Margarita Brugarolas & del Campo Gomis, Francisco Jose & Martinez, Laura Martinez-Carrasco, 2009. "Consumer-perceived risk model for the introduction of genetically modified food in Spain," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 519-528, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:iaae09:51029. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.