David Herle speaking to young farmers at the CYFF conference in Winnipeg.

 

 

Canadian consumers generally don't support innovation on the farm according to pollster David Herle of the Gandalf Group.

Herle discussed his findings on public opinion of agriculture at the Canadian Young Farmers Forum Annual Conference in Winnipeg.

"The things that make people most comfortable with farming are traditional practices that yield the most natural food possible," says Herle. "Within that context, when you talk about mutating genes or putting genes together, you raise those issues of dread in people about what are the long-term implications of putting that into our bodies."

"For example, people think wheat works pretty well right now. They're pretty happy with the flour they have, so they have no real understanding to them as to why we would need to start mutating wheat. There's no consumer interest in that," he says. "If you can demonstrate a consumer advantage out of the GMO foods, people will probably look at it with some skepticism, but they'll look at it."

He says the adoption of new technology at the farm level is perceived as industry-driven.

"That's how wheat is perceived. It's the industry that has interest in the GMO, not the consumer. The consumer wants to know what's in it for me. The answer is nothing but risk," he says. "If there's risk, is there any benefit? To whom does the benefit accrue? It's not like I-Pods where every single innovation is going to be better from the consumer perspective."

According to his research, Herle says most consumers don't see a direct relationship between innovation on the farm and prices in the grocery store.

"The relationship between what a consumers pay in the store and farming practices is so distant and so remote for most people. It's a pretty tough connection for people to make that if you're using an innovative practice on the farm, that it's going to result in a cheaper egg, and how much cheaper will it be? And maybe it will be cheaper over a gazillion eggs, but they're only buying a dozen eggs so does it really matter to them?"

 

 

 

Some interesting findings related to Canadians' opinion of food and farming:

-only 1 in 5 Canadians say they are comfortable eating food that contains genetically modified ingredients. The proportion decreases significantly when speaking specifically about women.
-60-70% of Canadians say hormones, pesticides and antibiotics pose a serious risk to their family's health. That's twice as high as concern over H1N1.
-45% of Canadians think "organic" implies "healthy" while 70% believe "local" implies "healthy."

(Based on David Herle's presentation at the CYFF Annual Conference in Winnipeg, February 2011.)



~ Wednesday, February 16, 2011 ~