hungry for information: polling americans on their …...4 - hungry for information: polling...
TRANSCRIPT
THE CHICAGO COUNCIL ON GLOBAL AFFAIRS - 1
The Chicago Council’s Science and Our Food project
explores public attitudes on food and the opportu-
nities and risks of leveraging scientific techniques in
food production.
Executive summaryThere is a growing interest in food in the United
States: where it comes from, how it is made, and what
it represents. Expanding markets for organic, local,
and non–genetically modified (GMO) foods mirror
this interest, as do policy debates nationwide on food
labeling and agriculture. In many ways, however, the
issues that dominate the public discourse around food
are not the issues that matter the most to Americans.
According to a new survey by The Chicago Council on
Global Affairs, although Americans do find GMOs, an-
tibiotics, sustainability, and transparency important,
they are most concerned with affordability, nutrition,
and food safety.
> Americans want food producers to prioritize food
safety most of all, followed by nutrition and afford-
ability. When asked which issues Americans believe
food producers prioritize and what issues they
believe those producers should prioritize, percep-
tions fall short of expectations by more than 50 per-
centage points on food safety and nutrition.
> A majority of Americans name affordability and nutrition as very important issues concerning the food they buy, followed by a third of Americans who say buying non-GMO and antibiotic-free food is very important to them.
> Americans trust health professionals, friends and family, farmers, scientists, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) most when it comes to information about their food. They trust documen-taries to a lesser degree and the food industry (gro-cery stores, food companies, food packaging) and media (both social and traditional) least of all.
IntroductionFood has become a hot topic. In America chefs are increasingly revered as celebrities, documentaries on food are some of the most watched on Netflix and television, and magazines and websites from Bon Appetite to Modern Farmer are reaching mainstream audiences like never before. There is a renaissance in America’s interest in food and, more specifically, how food is produced.
This interest is permeating national, state, and local policies. Congress is considering a new law that would curtail the capacity of the states to regulate food labels on GMO foods; the FDA is proposing updates to nutri-tional labels; and the Obama administration has just
GLOBAL AGRICULTURE
Hungry for Information: Polling Americans on Their Trust in the Food System
By Marcus Glassman
October 2015
2 - HUNGRY FOR INFORMATION: POLLING AMERICANS ON THEIR TRUST IN THE FOOD SYSTEM
launched a review of how GMO foods are regulated
governmentwide. As policymakers tackle food issues
and seek to build a food system that engenders high
consumer confidence, it is essential that they under-
stand how the public thinks about their food and what
they consider trusted sources of information.
This survey by The Chicago Council confirms that
Americans care a great deal about how their food is
produced: a full 78 percent of Americans say they are
“very” or “somewhat” interested in how the food they
buy makes its way to their plates. The survey also
reveals that the public holds clear opinions about
which aspects of food they find important, the sources
of information they find trustworthy, and what they
believe food producers should be doing.
Americans prioritize affordability and nutrition.If you follow the dialogue on food in the United States,
it can be difficult to decide what is and what is not
important to Americans. Entire marketing campaigns
angle to promote how food was produced: sustain-
ably, without GMO ingredients, locally grown, from a
family farm, without antibiotics. But according to The
Chicago Council’s polling, these are not Americans’ biggest concerns.
Unequivocally, Americans care most about the affordability and the nutrition of the food they buy. Only three in ten surveyed say they consider non-GMO or antibiotic-free to be very important food traits, and even fewer were concerned about food being organic, from a family farm, or locally produced. These results suggest that the public discourse on these hot-button topics may be more noise than substance.
Although concern and awareness on the methods of production are certainly expanding—and the mar-ket share for people seeking non-GMO and organic food is consequently growing—the focus on these issues by media and marketers may have outpaced the actual concern by consumers. Take, for example,
the unsurprising demographics on those who find nutrition most important: women, those making more than $50,000 per year, and those over 35 years of age. In other words, nutrition is most important to those most likely to be concerned about children and fami-
How interested are you in how the food you buy is produced? (%)How interested are you in how the food you buy is produced?
Not at all interested
Not very interested
Somewhat interested
Very interested
32 46 16 5
Source: 2015 Science and Food Survey
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Figure 1
When it comes to the food you buy, how important is it that the food be... (%)
Somewhat important Very important
Affordable
Nutritious
Not genetically modified
Antibiotic-free
Locally grown
Organically grown
From a family farmFrom a nationally
known brand
33 59
34 57
38 32
43 31
50 20
37 17
44 16
42 11
When it comes to the food you buy, how important is it that the food be:
Source: 2015 Science and Food Survey
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Figure 2
Entire marketing campaigns angle to promote how a food was produced: sustainably, without GMO
ingredients, locally grown, from a family farm, without antibiotics. But according to The Chicago Council’s polling, these are not Americans’ biggest concerns.
Although concern and awareness on the methods of production are certainly expanding, the focus
on these issues by media and marketers may have outpaced the actual concern by consumers.
THE CHICAGO COUNCIL ON GLOBAL AFFAIRS - 3
lies and those who can afford to be at least somewhat selective about the foods they buy. Affordability is most important to those making less than $50,000 per year—an understandable observation. Food attributes such as non-GMO, organic, or local, however, have no such broad-based demographic support and conse-quentiality have a small, albeit growing, market share.
Americans want food producers to prioritize food safety and nutrition.When asked what issues they believe food producers take into account a “great deal,” only one in five Ameri-cans say food safety, followed by affordability and nutrition. When asked what they think food producers should take into account, three-quarters of Americans say food safety and over half say nutrition, transpar-ency, sustainability, and affordability. The disparities between how the public thinks food producers are performing and how they think they should perform are striking. Survey respondents think producers lack focus on food safety and nutrition by more than 50 points, and lack on sustainability, transparency, and affordability by more than 40 points.
These gaps between perceptions and expectations
may well underlie much of today’s popular food move-
ment—which rejects traditional food systems and pro-
ducers—and the rise of marketing campaigns focused
on organic, non-GMO, and local foods.
Surprisingly, while Americans are more dissatisfied
with producer performance in areas like food safety
and nutrition than they are on the issues of trans-
parency and sustainability, few debates have arisen
surrounding that discontent. This suggests a discord
between what Americans prioritize and the current
dialogue on food.
When it comes to food, Americans trust health professionals, peers, and farmers—but not food companies or the media. One of the major factors surrounding the food dia-
logue in the United States is the issue of trust—where
do Americans seek trustworthy information, and
whom do they believe? Americans consider health
professionals the most trustworthy sources of infor-
How much do you think food producers take the following items to account? And how much should they take the following items into account? (% “a great deal”)
Source: 2015 Science and Food Survey The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
How much do you think food producers take the following items into account? And how much do you think food producers should take the following items into account?
Gap
Should take into account a great dealDo take into account a great deal
Food safety
Affordability
Nutrition
Environmental sustainability
Fighting hunger
Transparency in production
7420
57 17
6613
53 9
45 9
51 9
54
40
53
44
36
42
Figure 3
4 - HUNGRY FOR INFORMATION: POLLING AMERICANS ON THEIR TRUST IN THE FOOD SYSTEM
mation, followed closely by their friends and family,
farmers, scientists, and government—specifically the
FDA. A fair number of people trust documentaries, but
a majority distrust the overall food industry—grocery
stores, food packaging labels, and food companies
themselves. People trust media sources least of all,
including print, broadcast, social media, and blogs.
Only 2 percent of Americans consider blogs and social
media “very trustworthy” sources of information.
The biggest divide on the trust question is age.
Those aged 25 to 34 are the most likely to consider
farmers very trustworthy and are the only age group
to also consider scientists very trustworthy. Younger
Americans are also most likely to consider the FDA
very trustworthy, and the most likely to find print and
broadcast media very untrustworthy. These results
highlight an interesting trend in trust: the youngest Americans are the ones that find some of the most fundamental sources of food and science informa-tion—scientists, farmers, the FDA—most trustworthy, while older Americans do not. Given the pivotal role trust plays in communicating about food, these results are telling.
The distrust Americans hold towards food com-panies observed in the survey, coupled with the demonstrated disconnect between the public’s major concerns (nutrition, affordability, food safety) and the focus of the food debate (GMOs, organic, local), high-lights the need for strong, neutral arbiters of informa-tion. Given the results, health professionals may be the best suited to disseminate information about food in a trusted, impartial manner, followed by farmers and scientists in the case of younger generations.
ConclusionThe findings in this survey suggest that the issues that dominate the current food dialogue are out of sync with Americans’ views on food. Contrary to the visi-bility of the debate about GMOs, antibiotics, and local food, the vast majority of Americans value food that is
When you get information about the food you buy, how trustworthy do you find the following sources? (%)
When you get information about the food you buy, how trustworthy do you find the following sources?
Health professionals
Friends and family
Farmers
Scientists
FDA
Documentaries
Grocery stores
Food packaging
Food companies
Blogs and social media
Print and broadcast media,including online
60 25
23
36
47
45
55
60 5
4
4
3
2
62 11
53 19
58 20
59 23
60
Somewhat trustworthy Very trustworthy
Source: 2015 Science and Food Survey The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Figure 4
Health professionals may be the best suited to disseminate information about food in a trusted,
impartial manner, followed by farmers and scientists in the case of younger generations.
THE CHICAGO COUNCIL ON GLOBAL AFFAIRS - 5
above all affordable, safe, and nutritious. Americans view health professionals, farmers, and scientists as trustworthy sources of information about food and nutrition, but they view media sources—traditional and social—most skeptically and the food industry itself without much confidence. Many questions re-main, however, about the reasons behind the public’s views and how the public understands concepts like “nutrition” and “food safety.” Importantly, to what extent might the issues asked about be conflated—for example, how many respondents consider GMOs a safety issue or organics a component of nutrition?
One known factor is that responses vary depending on respondents’ levels of interest in food overall. While nutrition and affordability are the most important issues for the general population, followed distantly by antibiotics and GMOs, those Americans who say they are “very interested” in food view nutrition as far
and away the single most important issue, with GMOs, antibiotics, and affordability tied for not-so-distant second place. Why is this? And how do the select interests of those most interested in food drive the conversation nationally for producers, marketers, and policymakers? How far do they push the conversation away from the national consensus? Further research is necessary to understand these intricacies.
As The Chicago Council’s Science and Our Food project continues, it will explore the drivers behind attitudes towards food production, trustworthiness, and agriscience to answer these questions. The goal is to untangle the discourse and find out what really drives the public’s understanding of science and food.
About the surveyThe analysis in this report is based on data collected
for The Chicago Council by GfK Custom Research
using the KnowledgePanel OmniWeb, a nationwide
online research panel recruited through an ad-
dress-based sampling frame. The survey was fielded
between September 25-27, 2015 among a national
sample of 1,000 adults, 18 years of age or older, living
in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia. The
margin of error is ± 3.0 percentage points, with higher
margins of error for demographic subgroups.
Funding for this survey was provided by The
Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ general operating
revenue. No donations were solicited or accepted for
the explicit funding of this survey.
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs is an inde-
pendent, nonpartisan organization committed to
educating the public—and influencing the public
discourse—on global issues of the day. The Chicago
Council has been a leading center for public polling
research on the US public and international affairs for
the past 40 years, while its Global Agriculture and Food
program has provided thought leadership on a range
of food and farm issues for the past decade.
About the authorMarcus Glassman is a research associate with the
Global Agriculture and Food program at The Chica-
go Council on Global Affairs, working to develop the
Science and Our Food project. A food safety epidemiol-
ogist, Glassman has previously worked on food safety
policy modernization and Salmonella transmission
research. He holds an MS in public health microbiolo-
gy from the George Washington University and a BA in
medical anthropology from Purdue University.
Contrary to the volume of the debate about hot-button issues like GMOs, antibiotics, and local food,
the vast majority of Americans value food that is above all affordable, safe, and nutritious.
6 - HUNGRY FOR INFORMATION: POLLING AMERICANS ON THEIR TRUST IN THE FOOD SYSTEM
Appendix
Q1. How interested are you in how the food you buy is produced?
Very interested 32%
Somewhat interested 46%
Not very interested 16%
Not at all interested 5%
Table 1
Q2. When you get information about the food you buy, how trustworthy do you find the following sources?
Very untrustworthy
Somewhat untrustworthy
Somewhat trustworthy Very trustworthy
Health professionals 3% 11% 60% 25%
Friends and family 2% 13% 60% 23%
Farmers 3% 14% 59% 23%
Scientists 4% 16% 58% 20%
FDA 8% 19% 53% 19%
Documentaries 5% 20% 62% 11%
Grocery stores 4% 30% 60% 5%
Food packaging 8% 31% 55% 4%
Food companies 11% 38% 45% 4%
Print and broadcast media, including online 11% 37% 47% 3%
Blogs and social media 15% 45% 36% 2%
Table 2
THE CHICAGO COUNCIL ON GLOBAL AFFAIRS - 7
Q3. When it comes to the food you buy, how important is it that the food be...
Not at all important
Not very important
Somewhat important Very important
Affordable 1% 5% 33% 59%
Nutritious 2% 5% 34% 57%
Not genetically modified 7% 21% 38% 32%
Antibiotic-free 5% 19% 43% 31%
Locally grown 5% 24% 50% 20%
Organically grown 12% 32% 37% 17%
From a family farm 8% 30% 44% 16%
From a nationally known brand 11% 35% 42% 11%
Table 3
Q4a. How much do you think food producers take the following items into account?
Not at all
Not very much
A fair amount
A great deal
Food safety 3% 19% 55% 20%
Affordability 5% 28% 48% 17%
Nutrition 5% 27% 53% 13%
Environmental sustainability 8% 38% 42% 9%
Fighting hunger 11% 45% 33% 9%
Transparency in production 11% 39% 39% 9%
Table 4a
Q4b. How much do you think food producers should take the following items into account?
Not at all
Not very much
A fair amount
A great deal
Food safety 2% 4% 19% 74%
Affordability 2% 5% 34% 57%
Nutrition 2% 4% 26% 66%
Environmental sustainability 3% 7% 35% 53%
Fighting hunger 3% 12% 38% 45%
Transparency in production 3% 6% 38% 51%
Table 4b
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, founded in 1922, is an independent, nonpartisan organization committed to educating the public—and influencing the public discourse—on global issues of the day. The Council provides a forum in Chicago for world leaders, policymakers, and other experts to speak to its members and the public on these issues. Long known for its public opinion surveys of American views on foreign policy, The Chicago Council also brings together stakeholders to examine issues and offer policy insight into areas such as global agriculture, the global economy, global energy, global cities, global security, and global immigration. Learn more at thechicagocouncil.org and follow @ChicagoCouncil.
332 South Michigan AvenueSuite 1100Chicago, Illinois 60604-4416www.thechicagocouncil.org