Eurobarometer: EU citizens gaining trust in biotech, except GM food

Compared to earlier surveys on EU citizens’ opinion on biotech and life sciences, the 2005 survey shows that Europeans are more informed with regard to biotech but consider GM food as “a risk to society”.

Eurobarometer surveys on biotechnology and life sciences are being conducted every three years. In comparison to earlier surveys, the Eurobarometer 2005 survey shows that EU citizens are, in general, more optimistic about technology. However, whereas “there is widespread support for medical (red) and industrial (white) biotechnologies” there is “general opposition to agricultural (green) biotechnologies in all but a few countries,” concludes the report. Europeans see genetically modified (GM) food as “not being useful, as morally unacceptable and as a risk for society”. 

The survey shows large support for the development of nanotechnology, pharmacogenetics and gene therapy, which most Europeans consider as “useful to society and morally acceptable”. The claim that European public opinion is a constraint to technological innovation and contributes to the technological gap between the United States and Europe, is therefore, according to the report, invalid. 

Comparing public opinions on both sides of the Atlantic, the report says there is a striking difference between the American and European public opinions on GM food and nanotechnologies. Europeans fiercely oppose GM food and largely support advances in nanotechnology, whereas in the US the opposite holds true.

Read more with Euractiv

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