Citizens as consumers: styles of reasoning about agricultural biotechnologies and publics

In research and policy there is a dominant style of reasoning about the contribution agricultural biotechnologies can make to resolving major global challenges. In this reasoning, consumer scepticism is a major hindrance to deploying biotechnology and there is a significant focus on understanding consumer opinion in order to manipulate it. Analysing the historical role given to publics in public opinion research, and within technology research and policy, demonstrates that the framing of publics is largley shaped by economics. A review of academic publications on agricultural biotechnology and publics between 1995 and 2021 reveals some of the core tenets of this style of reasoning. The dominant framing of publics as individual consumers confines attention to concerns with end products on supermarket shelves. Theories and methods are focused on understanding individual perceptions, and fixed response questions reify the expert/public divide. This obscures broader public concerns with agricultural biotechnologies, such as issues of social justice or governance of uncertainty. A broader framing of different publics and their opinions of technology development and deployment would improve understanding of the issues that concern people as citizens, and enable more meaningful public engagement with agricultural biotechnologies.