SEARCHCROSS-SECTIONALpublic health, agriculture

cross-sectional·public health, agriculture, food science, epidemiology·PMC10468379

Costa Rican consumer perceptions of gene-editing

Heliyon · 4 authors, 4 centres

AI SUMMARY

FIDELITY 100%

This summary was generated by AI from a single paper. It has not been reviewed by a clinician and is not clinical advice. Verify against the source before acting on it.

AGENT 01 · STRUCTURED SUMMARY

TRACE TO SOURCE

“

TL;DR

Multiple regressions using age, gender, education level, and subjective economic situation as independent variables yielded no statistically significant relationships.

Full summary

749 CHARS

Multiple regressions using age, gender, education level, and subjective economic situation as independent variables yielded no statistically significant relationships. K-means cluster analysis categorized respondents into negative, neutral, and positive attitude groups regarding consumption of gene-edited foods. Results indicate that Costa Rican consumers are open to consuming gene-edited rice and supportive of gene editing for human and animal health applications, but are not open to using gene editing to 'design' human traits. Consumers were more accepting of gene editing applied to health issues than to agriculture. A noted limitation is that only rice—a staple crop—was presented; results might differ for other crops such as vegetables.

STUDY TYPE

cross-sectional

SPECIALTY

public health

SUMMARISED BY

AI pipeline

FIDELITY CHECK

100% · A

ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10468379

Costa Rican consumer perceptions of gene-editing

Heliyon

READ THE FULL PAPER

ABSTRACT

Costa Rica's rice production, a large determinant of the country's food security, is being negatively impacted by frequently increasing periods of intense drought. Costa Rican scientists have applied CRISPR/Cas9 to develop drought resistant rice varieties they believe the country's rice producers could benefit from. However, would Costa Ricans consume gene edited rice or products derived from this crop? A three-part, 26-question survey administered in-person to 1096 Costa Ricans uncovers their attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions of gene editing technology and crops. Multiple regressions were built where the independent variables were age, gender, education level, and subjective economic situation. No statistically significant relationships were found in the regression coefficients. Moreover, the k-means procedure (cluster analysis) was used to categorize respondents according to their attitudes on the consumption of gene-edited foods: negative, neutral, and positive. Results show that overall, Costa Rican consumers are open to the application of gene editing in agriculture and would consider consuming products derived from the application of the technology. They are also open to gene editing technology being used to address human and animal health issues. However, Costa Rican consumers are not open to gene editing being used to “design” human traits. This study adds evidence to the emerging literature on the acceptance of gene-edited food. It also highlights the importance of informing societies of just how vulnerable agriculture, and therefore food security, is to the increasingly adverse effects of climate change.

CITATION EXPORT

Diego Maximiliano Macall, Johnny Madrigal-Pana, Stuart J. Smyth et al.. Costa Rican consumer perceptions of gene-editing. Heliyon. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19173

AUTHORS

4 · 4 CENTRES

Diego Maximiliano Macall, Johnny Madrigal-Pana, Stuart J. Smyth, Andrés Gatica Arias

aSostenipra 2021SGR 00734, Institut Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA-UAB), MdM Unit of Excellence (CEX2019-000940-M), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
bUniversity of Costa Rica, Statistics School, San José, Costa Rica
cDepartment of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Saskatchewan, 51 Campus Drive Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A8, Canada
dUniversity of Costa Rica, Biology School, San José, Costa Rica