Demand for a Transgenic Good with Nutritional, Medical, and Environmental Qualities

Most GM crop varieties are designed to reduce farm costs, and it has direct appeal only to producers. Especially in developed areas such as Japan and the United States, consumers generally see no particular advantage in consuming these products other than their arguably lower prices. Yet GM food technology can provide direct consumer as well as producer value. GM medical rice has been developed as a new recombinant-gene rice variety useful in the treatment of cedar-pollen allergies. We examine whether the addition of such new functionalities and associated environmental risk reductions by employing plant factory, might contribute to wider diffusion of such a GM variety. Result indicates that consumers who are allergic to cedar pollen respond positively to the medical benefits of GM rice. Especially, if they have a higher opportunity cost of the hospital visit or if they are more familiar with GM products, they are more likely to consume medical rice. Patients concerning about environmental risks of GM plants tend to buy medical rice produced in a factory. As a result, in addition to enhance consumer knowledge of GM crops, targeting busy patients is effective when promoting medical rice.