Muesli bar quiz stumps researcher

By SIMON COLLINS, science reporter

Two-thirds of Aucklanders say they are willing to pay a premium for a genetically modified muesli bar that would be less likely to upset people with allergies.

Only four days before New Zealand is due to lift its two-year moratorium on releasing genetically modified organisms from containment, an "auction" staged by Crown research institute HortResearch suggests that some people may accept genetic modification in some cases.

The institute found that New Zealanders were willing to pay between 5c and $1 to exchange two genetically modified muesli bars for two ordinary ones.

But the study author, HortResearch consumer scientist Joanna Gamble, is unsure what to make of the results because people were also willing to pay the same prices to get rid of two GM muesli bars and get back two ordinary ones.

"What we make of it is that the procedure needs further development," she said.

The institute asked about nine groups, each of about 15 people, what they would pay to exchange ordinary muesli bars for bars containing apples that had been genetically modified to produce high levels of polyphenolics, a group of compounds that can control immunity disorders such as asthma and allergies.

The study followed larger-scale polls by Dr Gamble and AgResearch, which found that New Zealanders were willing to endorse specific GM products with health benefits.

A telephone survey of 400 people in October 2001, commissioned by Dr Gamble, found that 63 per cent felt it would be acceptable to insert a gene from one apple into another apple to improve its flavour. Sixty per cent said it would be acceptable to insert human genes into cow's milk to make insulin for diabetics.

But only 41 per cent said it would be acceptable to insert bacterial genes into clover to reduce the need for pesticides, and then to feed the clover to beef cattle.

AgResearch's mail survey last May, in which questionnaires were returned by 48 per cent of 2000 people, only 31 per cent felt it would be acceptable "to genetically modify cows for the benefit of humans" - a more general statement than Dr Gamble's question.

Forty-four per cent disagreed with that statement, 21 per cent were neutral and 4 per cent did not know.

However, opinion in this year's survey was less anti-GM than two years earlier. At that time, only 20 per cent agreed and 59 per cent disagreed, with 16 per cent neutral and the same 4 per cent unsure.

In contrast, a Herald-DigiPoll survey of 801 people in August found the proportion of New Zealanders wanting to "ban GM for good" jumped from 23.2 per cent in June last year to 37.8 per cent this year.

Those willing to allow commercial release "under strict conditions" fell from 66.7 per cent to 52 per cent.

The end of the moratorium on Wednesday means companies such as HortResearch can apply for permission to release GM products.

But Crop & Food Research, which had been expected to lodge the first application for farm trials of GM potatoes, says it may now have to wait because its research funding has run out.