Consumer Perspectives on GMOs

This week’s Potato Expo has been an informative and exciting event for those in attendance. One of the break out session speakers was Dr. Shelley Balanko, Senior Vice President of Business Development with The Hartman Group and she shared some interesting insights and research about consumers who consider themselves to be GMO-adverse.
Balanko: “Forty percent of the general U.S. population is GMO-adverse which means they are deliberately avoiding or reducing GMOs in their daily diet. And another important nugget is 64 percent of the general U.S. population is interested in understanding what ingredients are in their food and beverages. So 64 percent of the population what’s to know what is in their food and GMOs rank fourth in the top five of ingredients that they want to know about.”
Dr. Balanko says ag producers and food processors need to understand consumers’ strong desire and need for transparency in their food.
Balanko: “They need to be aware that what is underlying the interest in GMO is a great interest in transparency. The consumer just needs to be invited into a conversation because more importantly consumers are looking for information for what is in their food, why it is being produced the way it is, how it is being produced, by whom because that is about establishing trust.”
She says non-GMOs must be looked in the context of other food purity markers — like high fructose corn syrup, and no artificial ingredients that have been a focus in recent years.
Balanko: So if you look historically, we’re not that certain that non-GMO is going to have long term traction as more and more consumers learn about the overlap of organic and non-gmo. Perhaps organic will remain a salient purity marker and non-gmo will lose its luster.”