Knowing what your customers think of you is important when you’re selling a product.
One of the most wide-ranging samples of consumer opinion on health concerns in agriculture and food comes from a two-year study of online discussions by consumers, using modern artificial intelligence methods.
Prepared for the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity the survey of opinions of over 250,000 Canadians during two years showed Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) topped the list of food concerns followed by pesticides, hormones and antibiotics.
The concern about GMOs is highlighted when compared to how many people actively talked about NAFTA and cannabis during the two-year period ended January 2019.
NAFTA drew interest in 10.5 million conversations with eight million talking about cannabis.
GMOs, by comparison, were the subject of 2.13 million conversations online.
A November 2018 documentary on GMOs spiked conversations from 50,000 a month to 560,000, showing the influence of media exposure.
During the two years two million consumers talked about organic foods, 1.08 million discussed pesticides with 953,000 on hormones and 737,000 on antibiotics.
Between 65 and 85 per cent support freeing all food of GMOs with 70 to 75 per cent support for hormone free food.
Between 75 and 80 per cent of conversations wanted pesticide-free foods with 80 to 85 per cent support for antibiotic free food.
Supporters of GMO free foods say it would be better for health and the environment while opponents say labelling is misleading.
Supporters of hormone-free food say Canadian standards for milk and beef are better than in the U.S. while hormone supporters say hormone free is a marketing gimmick.
Antibiotic free supporters worry over health benefits from hormones while hormone use supporters suggest meat quality is better if animals are healthy from use of the drugs.
Pesticide free support focuses on less risk to health, especially cancer and bee population improvements. Pesticide supporters say invasive plants and bugs compromise agriculture.
Farmers are associated most with food concerns: GMOs, 41 per cent; hormones, 59 per cent; antibiotics, 55 per cent; and pesticides, 59 per cent.
In GMOs, 26 per cent associate them with government and 22 per cent associate corporations with GMOs.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
