Grants and Contracts Details
Description
A Comprehensive Study of Non-GMO and Bioengineered Disclosures: Consumer
Preference, Producer Impact, and Certifier Choice
A. Introduction
This research project connects consumer, producer, government, and third-party elements of the
supply chain as they relate to the rapidly evolving labeling and certification landscape for
bioengineered (B.E.) and non-genetically modified (GM) foods. These markets involve both
private (e.g., the Non-GMO Project and self-claimed non-GMO status) and government
certification and disclosure (organic certification and B.E. disclosure). Understanding consumer
preferences for information signals, the respective impacts of non-GMO (verified and non-
verified) and B.E. disclosures on product sales, the producer benefit-cost of choosing a specific
method of production (B.E., organic, Non-GMO certified or none), and consumer/producer price
sensitivity to compliance with government regulations and third-party certification costs are
critical pieces of information necessary to find the market equilibria that maximize consumer
utility and producer profitability. We utilize primary and secondary data to meet the objectives
elaborated on in Section C.1 below. The consumer objective combines primary data collection
and national-level supermarket scanner data analysis to provide insights into consumer
preferences toward non-GMO and B.E. products. The producer objective uses retail scanner data
to show the impacts of non-GMO and B.E. disclosures on product sales. Lastly, the certifier
objective studies producers’ choice of certifiers focusing on price, distance, and processing time
and relation-specific learning between producers and certifiers. From an upstream perspective,
all three objectives are interconnected as the preferences for and the impacts of labels as well as
their price elasticities all relate to producer’s certification decision.
The National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard implemented on January 1, 2020
required that food manufacturers, importers, and retailers disclose B.E. foods by January 1, 2022.
They could voluntarily comply at an earlier date, utilizing options consisting of text, symbol,
digital link (Q.R. code), and/or text message.
We propose to combine and utilize three large datasets. These include 1) unique product-
level certification data provided by the Non-GMO Project, which identify producer-certifier pairs
and the dates of non-GMO certification for a certified product (letter of support included), 2) IRI
scanner data, which identify organic and non-verified non-GMO products, and 3) Mintel Global
New Products Database, which allows us to identity products with B.E. disclosure and disclosure
formats. Treating National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard implementation as a natural
experiment, we aim to identify critical interactions between the stakeholders of the non-GMO
and bioengineered disclosures, namely consumers and certification, producers/retailers and
certification, and producers and certifiers (Figure 2). Given its inter-connected scope, this project
will provide important insights to a large group of stakeholders, including but not limited to:
policymakers of the regulatory agency USDA, non-profit organizations supporting sustainable
agriculture, marketers and developers of food products, and farmers and supply chain partners of
the GMO/BE ingredients.
Status | Active |
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Effective start/end date | 9/1/24 → 8/31/27 |
Funding
- US Department of Agriculture: $799,481.00
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