Trust, access, and governance in biofortified food systems: an extended theory of planned behavior analysis of Golden Rice acceptance

Trust, access, and governance are important contextual dimensions of public acceptance of agricultural biotechnology. This study examined Golden Rice acceptance in the Philippines using an extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework informed by a food systems governance perspective. Survey data from 333 Filipino adults recruited through purposive sampling were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The model examined the relationships of Informational Promotion (IP), representing communication-related conditions relevant to trust and information credibility, and Marketing Interventions (MI), representing perceived market-access conditions, with TPB constructs. Both IP and MI were positively associated with attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. Attitude and perceived behavioral control were stronger predictors of behavioral intention than subjective norm, while behavioral intention was strongly associated with measured Golden Rice acceptance. These findings indicate that acceptance is associated not only with individual evaluations and perceived social expectations but also with perceptions of information and access conditions. The study contributes a governance-informed extension of TPB by interpreting informational promotion through the lens of epistemic governance, concerning the communication and credibility of information, and marketing interventions through material governance, concerning practical access conditions. This integrated perspective provides a framework for examining how trust-related communication and perceived accessibility intersect with individual decision-making in biofortified food systems. Because the study used cross-sectional, non-probability survey data, its findings do not establish causal effects, nationally representative levels of acceptance, or actual purchasing, consumption, and sustained adoption of Golden Rice.