P R O G R E S S  R E P O R T S

Understanding & Communicating Consumer Benefits from Bioengineered Functional Foods
Submitted by Laurian J. Unnevehr, University of Illinois

Unnevehr: laurian@uiuc.edu
  • Brag item: To aid consumers who wish to see the impact of soy food substitutions in their diets, an Isoflavone calculator is provided on-line at http://www.nat.uiuc.edu/soy/ The calculator allows individuals to select the soy foods that they consume and see a summary of their isoflavone intake. With the controversy over the safety and efficacy of Isoflavones, this calculator will be a valuable tool for consumers.
  • Executive Summary and Project Highlights

    • An assessment of Golden Rice shows that a biotechnology strategy can be more cost-effective in addressing micronutrient deficiencies than traditional interventions. The effectiveness of Golden Rice will be determined by changes in diets underway in Asia, including the growing consumption of wheat and livestock products.
    • Household panel data from 1997-99 and a review of the trade literature shows that introduction and adoption of calcium-enhanced orange juice was spurred by the FDA recognition of a health claim for calcium in 1995 under the NLEA. Adoption of this product is primarily among households that have greater benefits from calcium and have greater ability to understand health messages.
    • Household panel data from 1997-99 and a review of the trade literature show that soy substitutes for dairy products are a small but rapidly growing part of the dairy and dairy substitute market, accounting for about 4% of all households in 1999. Households adopting soy beverages tended to have higher incomes, spend more on all kinds of beverages, and to have a younger female head of household.
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  • The Golden Rice research was facilitated by collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, which provided additional support.
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  • Publications and Presentations

    Dawe, D., R. Robertson, and L. Unnevehr, "Golden Rice: What Role Could It Play in Alleviation of Vitamin A Deficiency?", Food Policy, Volume 27, Issues 5-6 , October-December 2002, p 541-560.

    Determinants of Household Adoption Behavior of Calcium-Enhanced Orange Juice: A Binary Logit Analysis, Xiaoming Bao, Master's Thesis, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois, 2002.

    Golden Rice: What Role Could it Play in Alleviation of Vitamin A Deficiency?, David Dawe, Richard Robertson, and Laurian Unnevehr, paper presented at the International Conference on Impacts of Agricultural Research and Development, February 2-4, 2002, San Jose, Costa Rica; poster presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Agricultural Economics Association, July 28-31, 2002, Long Beach, CA.

    The Effectiveness of Golden Rice, Web-based tutorial on the Illinois World Food and Sustainable Agriculture site, http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/wf/tutorial.html

  • Two masters-level graduate students worked on this project and benefited from their experiences. One used the publication cited below to proceed into our PhD program and to refine his interests in international agricultural development. The other master's student completed her thesis and moved on to do further study in statistical analysis.
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