Attitudes to Plant Breeding Technologies

Growing food for an expanding world population when the climate is changing is becoming increasingly challenging. Since the dawn of agriculture, humans have been selecting and manipulating plants to increase, among other things, the total yield, colour and flavour, and disease resistance of crops. Many types of breeding and plant development are now available. They use methods that range from the relatively simple (e.g., sexual crosses) to the advanced (e.g., laboratory-based gene editing). Despite the variety of methods in current use, the current debates are often on the pros and cons of genetically modified (GM) crops. As evidence of this, most public attitudes to food technology have been examined in relation to transgenic food (aka GM crops). This research shows that public attitudes to GM crops are often negative (e.g., Lefebvre, Cook, & Griffiths, 2019; Magnusson & Koivisto Hursti, 2002). It is unclear, however, whether people are aware of the many ways in which food is developed, and that many currently consumed foods are the products of applied technologies. More importantly, it is not yet known whether or how this knowledge would influence people’s opinions or their purchasing decisions. This study aims to investigate whether people would be more positive to laboratory manipulated food development once they learn about the range of interventions used to bring them the foods that they currently eat and enjoy. To this end, a longitudinal study will be conducted where participants will first be presented with information about various forms of plant breeding (e.g., sexual crosses, GM crops). They will then be asked to rate their willingness to purchase food developed through these different methods. One week later, participants will be asked whether they eat certain food crops. They will then be informed about the technologies that have been used in the development of those crops. Finally, the participants will then again rate their willingness to eat foods developed with various technologies. We hypothesise that at time 1, participants’ attitudes to plants/food will be increasingly negative the more they perceive the breeding as an undesirable intervention (H1).We also hypothesise that at time 2, once participants learn that they are already eating and enjoying foods that are highly manipulated, compared to time 1, their attitudes to these foods will become less negative (H2); that breeding technologies will be perceived as more beneficial (H3); less risky (H4); and they will show greater willingness to purchase highly technologically manipulated products.在气候变化的背景下，为不断增长的全球人口种植粮食正变得日益棘手。自农业诞生以来，人类便一直在对植物进行选育与改造，以期提升作物的总产量、色泽、风味以及抗病性等多项性状。当前已有多种作物育种与植物改良技术可供使用，其技术跨度从相对简易的手段（如有性杂交（sexual crosses））到高端的实验室基因编辑（gene editing）技术不等。尽管当前可用的育种手段多种多样，但当下的公共讨论往往聚焦于转基因（genetically modified, GM）作物的利弊。这一点的佐证是，现有针对食品技术的公众态度研究大多围绕转基因食品（即转基因作物）展开。相关研究表明，公众对转基因作物的态度往往偏向负面（如Lefebvre、Cook与Griffiths，2019；Magnusson与Koivisto Hursti，2002）。但目前尚不清楚公众是否了解食品研发的多种路径，也不确定多数日常食用的食品均为应用技术的产物。更重要的是，目前仍未明确这类认知是否会，以及会如何影响公众的观点与购买决策。本研究旨在探究：当公众了解到日常食用的美味食品均通过各类育种干预手段培育而来后，是否会对实验室改造的食品研发技术持有更积极的态度。为此，本研究将开展一项纵向研究（longitudinal study）：首先向被试呈现各类植物育种技术的相关信息（如有性杂交（sexual crosses）、转基因（genetically modified, GM）作物），随后请被试对通过上述不同技术培育的食品的购买意愿进行评分。一周后，研究者将询问被试日常食用的特定农作物品类，之后向被试披露这些农作物所采用的研发技术。最后请被试再次对通过各类技术培育的食品的食用意愿进行评分。我们提出如下假设：在实验第一阶段，被试对植物/食品的态度会随其将育种技术视为不受欢迎的干预手段的程度加深而愈发负面（假设1）。此外我们还提出以下假设：相较于第一阶段，在实验第二阶段，当被试得知自己日常食用且喜爱的食品已经过高度技术改造后，他们对这类食品的负面态度会有所缓解（假设2）；育种技术会被感知为更具益处（假设3）、风险更低（假设4）；且被试对高度技术改造食品的购买意愿会有所提升。