English_Survey_Report_Sample.doc

Name: KYC
Group: Business Studies group H
Title: A survey to discover people’s attitudes towards GM food
Date: October 2010Contents Pages

1) Introduction ……………………………………………………. 3

2) Method ……………………………………………………………… 4

3) Findings …………………………….…………………………….5 – 8

4) Discussion ………………………………………………….……… 10

5) Conclusion ……………………………………………………….. 10

6) Acknowledgement …………………………………………… 10

7) Appendix ……………………………………………………….. 11-12
8)
Introduction

Over the years, genetically modified (GM) foods have been a controversial issue in society. Some believe that they can solve the present food crisis while others draw attention to the environmental impacts and ethical problems they create. Even Prince Charles voiced his opinions about GM foods last year. But what does the public thinks about GM foods? The purpose of the survey is to discover people’s awareness and attitude towards GM foods.

Method

1) In October 2009, he survey was carried out of 40 respondents in Stratford-upon-Avon, most of whom were students. 2) They were categorized according to gender, age and nationality.

3) The survey was conducted by means of questionnaire with 10 questions including 2 open-ended ones. 4) The first question asked about their knowledge of GM foods and their interest in this issue. 5) Questions 3-4 considered the government role on GM foods; Questions 5-8 were concerned about how people choose foods. 6) Question 9 and 10 asked about the possible ethical problems, benefits and drawbacks that GM foods may bring respectively. 7) After completion of the survey, the data was analysed to see if any general conclusions could be drawn.

Results

Question1: How much do you know about GM food?

1) Surprisingly, the majority of respondents knew nothing or very little about the issue (65%), with a quarter of them knowing a fair amount about it. 2) Only 4 people (10%) agreed that they had considerable knowledge and no one claimed that they knew a lot.

Question2: Are you interested in programmes/articles about GM food?

3) More than half of the people questioned had no interest in GM food programmes and articles. 4) In contrast, few people who chose the option “interested” or “very interested” (3%).

Question3: Do you think the government should take measures to manage the production of GM food?

Quesion4: What kind of measures do you think should be taken? (In response to question3)

5) On the one hand, almost 70% of respondents believed that the government should take measures to manage the production of GM food and among them, most people preferred mandatory labeling on food packages to voluntary labeling, followed by printing warning labels. 6) Others suggested that the genetic modification process should also be monitored. 7) On the other hand, almost one third of people were not in favor of any government measures.

Question5: Do you read the labels on food packaging?

Question 6: What particular information do you look for?

8) Almost everyone read the labels on food packages and they usually searched for nutritional values. 9) The number of people who looked for fair trade, recyclability, GM food content and suitability e.g. vegetarian, allergy etc. was approximately equal.

Question7: Which of the following factors affect your choice of food?

10) Although people look at the nutritional values on food packages, health was not their biggest concern, and it only accounted for around one-fifth of respondents.

Question8: Are you willing to pay extra to avoid GM foods?

Question9: Do you think GM foods involve ethical problems?

11) Unexpectedly, 70% of interviewees were not aware of the ethical problems involved in GM food production. 12) The remaining 30% of people believed that GM food production involved problems for vegetarians because vegetables may contain the genes of animals. 13) Vegetarians may consequently eat meat accidentally.

Question10: Do you think GM foods benefit the society as a whole?

14) The final question was designed to investigate whether people were aware of the benefits and damage caused by GM food and also to find out the value judgment behind their choices. 15) More than half (55%) of the respondents were aware of the possible benefits of this bio-technology. 16) However, some argued that GM food may pose potential threats to human health including genetic diseases. 17) People believed that more research should be done before it becomes beneficial to human beings.

Discussion

1) While it is difficult to generalize from a survey of this size, it did reveal a number of interesting contrasts. 2) The survey demonstrated that even though GM food is widely debated among experts for its possible benefits and harmful effects, it aroused little attention among the interviewees. 3) As a consequence, the majority of respondents were not particularly concerned about the health risks associated with GM foods and were not willing to pay extra money to avoid them. 4) One possible reason for this is that the majority of respondents were in the “under 18” and “18-29” age groups who are not the major food buyers within a household. Therefore, they might not come across information related to food.

5) In addition, even though the respondents knew little about GM food, almost three-quarters of them supported government control over its production. 6) An explanation for this could be that most respondents were educated young people who are exposed to the debate through extensive media coverage. 7) However, they feel that it is quite remote from the main priorities in their lives.

Conclusion

1) In conclusion, respondents generally accepted GM food but in fact they did not understand how it changes our food production and its potential problems. 2) It is suggested that more education and attention should be paid to the issue in order to allow people to make the best choices for themselves, especially for teenagers who are ignorant about it.

(841 words)

Appendices

Appendix A-Questionnaire

Sex: □M □F
Age: □under 18 □18-29 □30-39 □40-49 □50 or above
Nationality:
Q1. How much do you know about GM food?
□Nothing □A little □Fairly □More than fairly □A lot
Q2. Are you interested in programmes/articles about GM food?
□Not at all □A little bit □fairly □interested □very interested
Q3. Do you think the government should take measures to manage the production of GM food?
□Yes (go to 4) □No (go to 5)
Q4. What kind of measures do you think should be taken?
(Can choose more than one)
□Voluntary labeling
□Mandatory labeling
□Warning labels on food packaging
□Restriction on the proportion of GM ingredients
□Financial penalties for mislabeling of products
□Others, please specify:
Q5. Do you read the labels on food packaging?
□Yes □No
Q6. What particular information do you look for?
□Fair-trade
□Ingredients
□Recyclability
□Nutrition Values
□GM food content
□Suitability e.g. For vegetarian, alcohol-free, allergy etc.
□Others, please specify:
Q7. Which of the following factors affect your choice of food? (Can choose more than one)
□Price □Quality □Taste □Health □Advertisement □Packaging
Q8. Are you willing to pay extra to avoid GM foods? (GM foods are generally cheaper)
□Yes □No
Q9. Do you think GM foods benefit the society as a whole?
□Yes □No
Why or why not?

Q10. Do you think GM foods involve ethical problems? Please describe.
□Yes: □No
Thank you for your participation in this questionnaire!

Appendix B: Details of the distribution of nationality

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