This study was conducted on housewives, who play an important role in foodstuff purchase and decision making regarding foodstuffs in households, in order to find out the demographics of the subject group, and their awareness of GMO, awareness of GMO sales and purchase experience, knowledge on GMO, awareness of full disclosure of GMO, purchase intention of GMO and demand for information and education regarding GMO. The purpose of this study is to support policy making and provide information through general research on GMO. Data was conducted through paper surveys with housewives living in Daegu as subjects. 300 copies were used in the final analysis. Statistical and data analysis was carried out by SPSSprogram ver.25.
The demography of the subjects were as follows. Most of the subjects were in their 40s (47%) while those older than 60s were uncommon (4.3%). 67% of the subjects graduated from universities whereas 33.0% did not graduate from high school. Housewife was the most popular occupation with 37.3%, followed by professional jobs and office worker. In terms of religion, 57.0% of the subjects did not have a religion and 78.3% of the subject group have children under the age of 18. Most popular monthly income was below 20 million won with 40.7%, whereas the least popular monthly income was over 50 million won with 4.3%.
Seventy seven point three percent has responded that they have heard of GMOs, but the result of testing their knowledge yielded an average score of 2.87, which is lower than the median. When asked whether they know that GMOs are being sold in the market, 89.9% responded that they knew.
Fifty three point two percent of the subject have purchased GMOs before. The score, which shows whether the subjects check for GMOs when purchasing foodstuffs, was 2.92 on average, which is slightly lower than the median. This shows that the subject did not check for GMO mark very avidly. 52.6% of the subjects responded that they do not intend to purchase GMOs, and 68% of such responses was because they think it will be harmful for human health. The most popular reason for purchasing GMO was cheap prices (43.8%) and when asked whether they would purchase GMOs with strengthened specific nutrient elements, the most popular response in each of the questions was positive.
Knowledge on GMOs was only 23.2%, which is low, which is contrary to the score of 2.82, which shows a more negative perception towards GMO. This is to be expected, as higher the knowledge on GMOs is, the more positive the perception on GMO.
More than half of the subjects have either heard of or know about GMO labelling, but 72.8% responded that they haven’t heard of GMO complete labelling. On a test conducted on people who answered that they''ve heard of GMO complete labelling, the subject scored an average of 3.13 points, which is slightly higher than the median. This shows that the subjects have a certain amount of knowledge on GMO. 100% of these people answered that GMO complete labelling policy is needed. When asked why, 59.6% answered that it was to protect the consumer''s right to informed choice. 57.7% of the subjects said that they were willing to pay extra prices for normal foodstuffs due to the introduction of GMO complete labelling policy. 33.3% of the subjects who responded yes said that they can tolerate a rise in price until 20%.
When asked whether it was easy to obtain information on GMOs, the score was 2.14, which is lower than the median. This shows that it is difficult to obtain information on GMO foodstuffs. Percentage of information obtained from TV or newspapers were the highest, with 45.3%. When asked about the trustworthiness of each source of information, the subjects showed above average trust in TV or newspapers, books or magazines, government organizations, family or acquaintances, food specialists and consumer organizations. 67.7% of the subjects wanted to be educated on GMOs, and 37.9% of the subjects wanted to receive information on GMO through TV or newspapers.
The results of this research showed that the majority of the subject has a little knowledge of GMOs. It also showed that more than half of the housewives have purchased GMOs, which is a high rate of purchase in contrast to the highly negative perception towards GMOs. All of the subjects answered that GMO complete food labelling was needed, which shows a demand for introduction of the relevant policy. The most popular reason for not purchasing GMOs was because they felt like it wasn’t good for their health, which shows that GMOs are perceived as unsafe. In addition, the majority responded that they obtain information on GMOs from TV and newspapers and a high percentage of people responded that they want to receive information through the same media. This shows that people tend to select media that are most accessible to them.
Based on the results of this study, the following are responses to and ways to improve perception and purchase of GMOs.
Firstly, majority of the housewives had very little knowledge of GMO. These people showed a considerable lack of knowledge, with some of them only knowing certain keywords and not much else. Therefore, government and related organization should provide more information and possibility for education with regards to GMOs for housewives.
Secondly, more than half of the subjects have purchased GMOs at least once, which is a high percentage when considering the highly negative perception with regards to GMOs. However, the percentage unwilling to purchase GMOs in the future was also high. This may be because the initial high rate of purchase was due to lack of information and knowledge on GMOs leading to a less negative perception. On the other hand, the subjects have a lot more access to information on GMOs through things such as petition for GMO complete labelling policy, which led to an increase in negative perception, which, in turn, led to a lower purchase intention. Therefore, businesses and consumer organizations should provide accurae information on GMOs to allow the consumers to make informed choices when buying foodstuffs.
Thirdly, 100% of the responses agreed to the introduction of GMO complete labelling policy. Not so long ago, presence of GMOs were detected in a specific ramen brand, which led to a rapid decrease in the credibility of the government. As a result, consumers are asking for the introduction of GMO complete labelling policy, but the government is refusing to do so under the premise that when processed, GMO proteins and DNAs are no longer present in the processed product. Therefore, the government must collect opinions from businesses and from individuals to improve the current system of GMO labelling, so that the labelling system can provide a comprehensive range of information about the food.
Fourthly, most of the housewives had a negative perception towards purchase of GMOs. The most popular reason for such perception was because GMOs seem harmful to human health, which shows that such negative perception stems from doubts to the safety of the foodstuffs. Safety of GMOs has been a controversy for a long time and the government is conducting safety tests on GMOs. However, the housewives either don’t seem to know that or don’t seem to trust those tests. Therefore, the government and related institutions must provide information on safety of GMOs based on scientific evidence and objective and accurate data, in order to settle the consumers’ doubts and help their decision making process.
Fifthly, a high percentage of the responses wanted to obtain information on GMOs from TV or newspapers, which may be because these are the most accessible media to the subject. It may also be because such media are effective at making contact with the subjects. Taking into account that the housewives are the real consumers that purchase GMOs, providing them information through GMO specialists or lectures may be a good way of providing information.
Currently, safety of GMOs is being debated. Consumers need more accurate information in order to understand what they are actually eating, and the government needs to support this through securing the safety of GMO and creating a thorough structural procedure. That way, an environment where people can trust what they eat can be created.