Public Acceptance of GM Plants - Animal Nutrition with Transgenic Plants - page 221

the political agenda. In some regions of the
world, the regulatory systems were com-
pletely overhauled to regain the trust of the
population (which was assumed to have
been lost). In other countries, PR campaigns
were launched to bring biotechnology closer
to the public, assuming that the public
rejected biotechnology and that this, in
turn, would be a great risk for the future of
the economy. In yet other countries,
agriculture ministers adopted radical posi-
tions, even banning the cultivation of
certain transgenic crop varieties (probably
assuming that this would swing a great
number of votes). Was it really worth it?

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15.8 Conclusions

A dispassionate look at the results of the
numerous opinion surveys and consumer
studies conducted in the last two decades
suggests that, in the eyes of most 'publics' -
consumers, citizens, food manufacturers,
retailers - gene technology has never really
been an issue of particularly high import-
ance. On average, their attitudes tend to be
neutral. And even at times when con-
troversies between stakeholders escalated,
for example in the EU in the second half of
the 1990s, only relatively minor changes
could be observed in the attitudes of the
general public. A 'crisis of coni dence' it
certainly was not. We believe that this is an
important lesson to remember: although
heated arguments may be exchanged
between stakeholders, and the points of
disagreement may seem all-important at the
time, they are still likely to be ignored by
almost everybody who is not concerned
professionally with GM crops. We would like
to close with an appeal to reason: things
should always be kept in perspective.

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