Ethical Compatibility of GM Crops with Intrinsic and Extrinsic Values of Farmers: A Review

The role of intrinsic and extrinsic ethical values as determinants of farmers' adoption decisions of genetically modified (GM) crops is reviewed based on 17 scientific papers publish between 1999 and 2006 in nine countries. In these studies, intrinsic values received less attention than extrinsic values as contributors to adoption decisions. The natural- ness/unnaturalness concept featured only in one qualitative study. Farmers in most countries were generally very knowl- edgeable about issues related to GM food safety, environmental and agronomic impacts, and animal welfare. In a study conducted in New Zealand, farmers intending to adopt GM crops agreed more with the anthropocentric value position than other conventional or organic farmers, who tended to emphasize the risks associated with GM crops. This and other farmer typologies, produced in four countries on the basis of expressed ethical attitudes toward GM crops and condensing around benefit believers, risk perceivers and fatalists, showed recognizable consistency between countries. Thus conven- tional farmers are far from being a homogeneous group in regard to their attitudes toward GM crops. Even those who were using these crops for years questioned and evaluated their decision continuously. Despite the expressed ethical con- cerns, economic and market considerations tended to figure as the most prominent determinants of intended or realized adoption/rejection decisions. The stability/changeability of farmers' ethical values in the course of the innovation- adoption process is discussed. The term ethical compatibility is suggested to be included in the list of innovation attributes as used according to the adoption perception paradigm of innovation diffusion research.