AgBioForum, vol. 05, no. 3 (2002)
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Item Marketing GM Foods : The Way Forward(AgBioForum, 2002) Phillips, Peter W. B.; Corkindale, DavidGenetically modified (GM) foods represent a significant technical and commercial breakthrough, but they have also revealed a major weakness in product development and commercialization in the global agri-food system. Although the biotechnology industry has developed a number of new technologies and products and marketed them effectively to producers, the biotechnology industry has almost completely ignored the need to market these products to consumers. One facet of the marketing literature suggests that innovative products need to be proactively positioned in the market either as a replacement for what exists or as an addition. The literature suggests that innovations like GM foods must be placed in the market in such a way as to allow consumers to test and compare the new products against existing products. We suggest that although the biotechnology industry did this effectively with producers and for a few output-trait whole foods, it has relied on the concept of substantial equivalence embedded in regulatory regimes to justify ignoring the concerns of consumers for most of the GM foods currently in the market. The industry has been almost universally unwilling to proactively market input-trait GM foods to consumers. This has created a variety of consumer responses, ranging from indifference in much of North America to citizen demands for tighter government regulation and mandatory labeling, to consumer boycotts in the EU and other countries. This paper reviews the relevant marketing literature, examines the few cases where new GM foods have been proactively marketed, and draws the conclusion that it may be necessary to more clearly and fully market GM foods to consumers. This has implications for future introductions of other innovative food products.Item Consumer Acceptance and Willingness to Pay for Genetically Modified Vegetable Oil and Salmon : A Multiple-Country Assessment(AgBioForum, 2002) Chern, Wen S.; Rickertsen, Kyrre; Tsuboi, Nobuhiro; Fu, Tsu-TanThe objective of this paper is to estimate the consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for selected genetically modified (GM) foods in Japan, Norway, Taiwan, and the United States. Our survey results reveal that there are notable differences in the attitude and perception of GM foods across these countries. Consumers are willing to pay substantial premiums for non-GM foods (vegetable oil and salmon) in order to avoid GM counterparts. These premiums may exceed 50% of the discounted prices of GM foods.Item Putting Bounds on Estimating Economywide Impacts from Adopting the Renewable Fuels Standard(AgBioForum, 2002) Vogel, Stephen J.; Hanson, Kenneth, 1951-; Price, J. Michael; Schluter, Gerald E.In this paper, we assess the economywide impacts of adopting the Renewable Fuels Standard by using "land-constrained" and "land-unconstrained" scenarios to establish lower and upper bounds. Adopting the RFS would stimulate between $3.4 billion and $6.9 billion in new output and generate 12,600 to 31,400 jobs.Item US Food Manufacturer Assessment of and Responses to Bioengineered Foods(AgBioForum, 2002) Muth, Mary K.; Mancini, Dominic Joseph; Viator, CatherineFood manufacturers routinely face decisions regarding the choice of ingredients and processes for producing foods. In the case of bioengineered foods, they must choose whether to produce foods not containing bioengineered ingredients and, in the near future, whether to produce foods containing ingredients enhanced through bioengineering. Food manufacturers' decisions regarding the use of bioengineered ingredients are influenced by the nature of the regulatory environment and both demand-side and supply-side considerations. This paper summarizes the current state of the domestic and foreign regulatory environments and results of interviews with food manufacturers about the demand-side and supply-side considerations affecting their decisions.Item Impact of Biotech Grains on Market Structure and Societal Welfare(AgBioForum, 2002) Lence, Sergio H. (Sergio Horacio); Hayes, Dermot JamesWe quantify the economic impact of introducing genetically modified (GM) crops. Short-run results suggest that it might be optimal to maintain the identity of a greater proportion of non-GM grain than is currently demanded by non-GM consumers. Long-run results show that GM crops almost always benefit society, but one scenario is presented where overall welfare falls.