U.S. Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Labeling Information on Genetically Modified Foods: An Application of Choice Modeling

This study analyzes U.S. consumers' valuation of five types of genetically modified food labels on a cornflakes cereal product. Using a nationwide survey and choice-modeling framework, results indicate that consumers value the label "contains no genetically modified corn" the most with a mean willingness to pay of 20 more cents, followed by "USDA approved genetically modified corn" with a mean willingness to pay of 9 more cents, and "corn genetically modified to reduce pesticide residues in your food" with a mean willingness to pay of 7 more cents. Results also suggest that consumers negatively value the labels "contains genetically modified corn" with a mean willingness to pay of 13 less cents and "may contain genetically modified corn" with a mean willingness to pay of 2 less cents.