Research across several countries shows that while perceptions of GM foods vary all consumers, including Americans, are willing to pay substantial premiums to avoid GM foods. These premiums may exceed 50% of the discounted prices of GM foods. In addition, American consumers showed strong support for mandatory labeling of GM foods.
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Consumer Acceptance and Willingness to Pay for Genetically Modified Vegetable Oil and Salmon: A Multiple-Country Assessment Wen S. Chern, Kyrre Rickertsen, Nobuhiro Tsuboi, and Tsu-Tan Fu The Ohio State University; Agricultural University of Norway; University of Tsukuba, Japan; Academia Sinica, Taiwan

SUMMARY: The objective of this paper is to estimate the consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for selected genetically modified (GM) foods in Japan, Norway, Taiwan, and the United States. Our survey results reveal that there are notable differences in the attitude and perception of GM foods across these countries.

Consumers are willing to pay substantial premiums for non-GM foods (vegetable oil and salmon) in order to avoid GM counterparts. These premiums may exceed 50% of the discounted prices of GM foods.

Key words: consumer acceptance, genetically modified foods, stated preference, survey, willingness to pay, WTP.

EXCERPT: The surveys show that the Norwegian consumers were more concerned about GM foods than the American consumers. However, consumers in both countries showed strong support for mandatory labeling of GM foods and, in the case of salmon, were willing to pay for substantial premiums to avoid both GM-fed and GM salmon.

FULL TEXT here: http://www.agbioforum.org/v5n3/v5n3a05-chern.htm