NR AWPT
AU Veeman,M.; Li,Y.; Adamowicz,W.
TI Canadian food and environmental risk perceptions following three BSE incidents: a natural experiment
QU International Conference - Prion 2006: Strategies, advances and trends towards protection of society - 3.10.-6.10.2006, Torino, Italy, Lingotto Conference Centre - Poster sessions RA-16
PT Konferenz-Poster
AB Our objective is to measure whether and how Canadians' food and environmental risk perceptions have changed following a series of BSE incidents. We report analysis of data from a natural experiment based on responses by a representative group of Canadians to surveys conducted in January 2003 (prior to the first BSE incident in a Canadian-origin cow) and October 2005 (subsequent to three BSE incidents), following extensive media reporting. Each survey queried respondent's risk perceptions, based on a four point rating scale ("high risk" to "almost no risk") and "don't know" for 8 food issues, including BSE, presented in random order. A separate set of randomized questions related to perceptions of environmental risks of 6 issues associated with agriculture, including BSE, used similar rating scales. For the 2003 sample, n=646; for the 2005 survey n=1567. Each is reasonably representative of the adult Canadian population. The level of concern expressed in the choice of "high risk" ratings for BSE as a food issue fell from 31% to 24% between January 2003 and October 2005 while "moderate risk" and "slight risk" ratings rose from 10% to 27% and 18 % to 28%, respectively. Ordered probit models are tested in which socioeconomic, demographic, and trust variables are postulated to explain the probabilities of the categorical risk rankings for each food and environmental issue. These are tested separately on the data for each period and on the data set pooled for the two periods, including time dummy variables. Chow-type tests show significant differences in parameters that determine respondents' BSE risk perceptions between the two time periods. Respondents with higher education were more likely to consider BSE to be highly risky in 2005 than in 2003. Older respondents and those living in Quebec were less likely to rate BSE as a high food risk in 2005 than in 2003. Risk communication issues that may have influenced these changes are discussed
AD Dept. Rural Economy, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. E-mail: michele.veeman@ualberta.ca
SP englisch
PO Italien