A new report on consumer beliefs by the Pew Research Center found that a lot of Americans aren’t swayed by scientific findings that GMOs are safe to eat, that food beliefs are generally non-partisan, and that plenty of Americans are generally skeptical about science.
Thirty-nine percent of the survey participants said they believe GMO foods are not as healthy as non-GMO foods. “However, there’s essentially no scientific evidence to support that belief — a conclusion confirmed most recently by a National Academy of Sciences report,” says NPR. Almost half of respondents, though, said that they care about the issue of GMOs “not too much” or “not at all”
The lack of trust in science stems from a belief that “research findings are influenced in equal measure by the following factors: the best available scientific evidence; desire to help their industries; and desire to advance their careers. In the view of the public, all of those factors are more important to scientists than concern for the public interest,” says NPR, citing data from the Pew survey.
Interestingly, how participants felt about GMOs didn’t correspond to their politics. Thirty-nine percent of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats said GMOs are worse for human health. Republicans were slightly less likely (50 percent versus 60 percent, respectively) to believe that organic foods are better for you. Cary Funk, the Pew Research Center’s associate director of research on science and society, explains that food issues are less politically split than climate change, where liberal Democrats are far more likely to blame human involvement than Republicans.
“The survey also didn’t find any major differences between men and women, or between rich and poor, when it came to views about GMOs or about the healthy qualities of organic food. The wealthy, however, were more likely actually to buy organic food regularly,” says NPR.