More than Half of Americans Would Avoid GM Food

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More than Half of Americans Would Avoid GM Food

 

 

NEW YORK, July 16 (AFP) - While a third of Americans already try to avoid buying

food that has been genetically modified (GM), or treated with antibiotics or

hormones, 55 percent, would avoid buying GM food if it were so labelled,

according to a survey conducted by ABC News.

The poll also found that 62 percent of women, who do most food shopping in the

US, would avoid such food.

Mandatory labelling, which the food industry opposes, is favored by 92 percent

of Americans for genetically modified food and 85 percent for food from farm

animals that have been fed hormones or antibiotics, it found.

On the other side, 51 percent of those polled said they favor food specifically

labelled not genetically modified, and 46 percent said the same for food labeled

as from from hormones and antibiotics.

Nonetheless, concerns over the safety of GM food appear to have abated, with 46

percent believing it is unsafe compared with 52 percent in a similar poll two

years ago, according to the ABC poll.

Of those women polled, 54 percent believed GM food is unsafe, while 56 percent

of men said the opposite. In 2001, 62 percent of women polled thought

bio-engineered foods were unsafe.

While at least one-third of US crops are bio-engineered, including two-thirds of

all soybeans, nine in 10 adults surveyed thought that food eaten in the US is

generally safe.

Residents in agriculture-heavy midwestern US, known as the farm belt, have a

slightly more favorable view of GM food, with 53 percent of those polled in that

area saying it is safe, compared with 39 percent in the Northeast.

According to the poll, people who attended college are also more likely to say

altered foods are safe.

The ABC News poll was conducted by telephone in early July among a random

national sample of 1,024 adults.

GM food is at the center of a bitter US-EU trade rift. The US also wants to use

GM food as a way to ease world hunger.

Last month, a United Nations food safety committee called for stricter safety

evaluations of GM food as part of more than 50 new food quality standards.

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