Two-thirds of Russians unwilling to eat GM-food
May 18, 2005
RIA Novosti

According to a poll conducted by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), about two-thirds of Russians say they are not ready to eat foodstuffs comprising genetically-modified (GM) ingredients.

Almost half of them (45%) flatly reject GM food, with 23% being unlikely to consume them. Only 3% showed willingness to eat such foods and 4% said they did not care altogether. 21% said they did not know what GM foodstuffs were.

Well-off respondents proved to be more likely to be unwilling to consume GM food than those regarding their financial standing as poor. The higher the educational level of the respondents is, the more often they say they will not eat GM foodstuffs. 95% of the respondents well-versed in the subject would not like to use GM food.

76% of VTsIOM-polled experts called for banning the growing of GM organisms in Russia until they are cleared as incapable of posing health and environmental hazard. 63% of them are all for the ban, with another 13% of them being "more likely to favor it than not". 16% of the experts polled were against banning the growing of genetically-modified organisms, including 10% "definitely against" of doing so.

VTsIOM conducted the nationwide survey on April 30 - May 1 by interviewing respondents at their places of residence. 1,600 were polled in 100 settlements in 40 regions, territories and republics throughout Russia. The statistic error does not exceed 3.4%.

The expert poll was conducted by VTsIOM on April 26 - May 4. 200 persons in four target groups were polled, including farmers, agriculture personnel; foodstuff shop managers; doctors; elected officials, health-care and agriculture officials. The respondents were interviewed by telephone in eight regions of the country.