ABSTRACT
Medical and agricultural biotechnologies are being touted by some as the answers to such problems as world hunger and disease.2 The conventional wisdom with respect to these new technologies is that people within the United States are at least neutral and for the most part extremely positive about them, whereas populations in Europe and parts of the developing world, such as India and Africa, are very pessimistic. Explanations offered within the scientific community for the differences in opinion, perhaps not surprisingly, often center on education, suggesting that if only people understood these technologies more fully they would appreciate them and not be “afraid” (Garland, 1999; Priest et al., in press).
