Monday, October 27, 2008

Who's comfortable with genetically modified foods?





The General Social Survey asked 900 people their view about eating foods that have been genetically modified (GM). Results are shown in the graphs. People with extreme political views are move likely to refuse to eat this kind of food, as are the less educated and less intelligent.

From what I have read, GM foods are perfectly safe. These findings surprise me a bit: My impression was that whiterpeople types and a lot of Europeans are opposed to this practice, and while there are a lot of extreme liberals who won't eat GM food according to the top graph, the overall pattern shows that smart, educated people tend to be more comfortable with it.

5 comments:

  1. http://scienceblogs.com/gnxp/2008/07/women_rich_dont_like_genetical.php

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gentleman/Ms,

    I wish safety assessment was that simple as advocated by you, simply by taking opinion of public, who continue to trust business driven media or opinion makers.
    I would only add that despite claims by a group of scientic community having supported the cause of GM foods , there are no explicit methods that can assure safety of GM foods or recombinant products . The biology of DNA, but for its structure, is far from being understood. To translocate or manipulate this most profound possession (The DNA molecule) which is responsible for storing and faithfully transmitting the genetic heritage (information) of every species to the respective progeny may be easy but the consequent effects are not and can not be free from health risks which are unknown and demand higher scientific inputs to devise reliable technology for their detection. Whether the economic considerations of the interested powerful industry globALLY WOULD ever come forwrd to support such a scientific mission seems to be a wishful thinking at the present world scenarion.
    Pawan s Chauhan (Dr.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. It could also be a red state / blue state thing -- smart educated people in Kansas are OK with them, while their counterparts in California might not be.

    If you live with a hardcore Whiterperson, you'll find out that they break the rules a lot when their peers aren't judging them. I had a 29 y.o. whiterperson housemate, and she would frequently get stuff from McDonalds, eat microwave popcorn (and not even organic whole foods popcorn!), and heat up a big plate of chips and melted cheese in the microwave.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well,
    I guess Im close to extreme conservative (?) then.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81rp%C3%A1d_Pusztai

    or link and thats just for starters.

    Only goes to show (in my worldview) that intelligence isnt everything.

    ReplyDelete

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