Concerns over pollinator health are interlaced with concerns of how neonicotinoids impact pollinators. But do consumers care whether their plants have been sprayed with neonicotinoids?
In our survey, consumers were presented with a range of environmental horticulture plants such as impatiens, marigolds, and chrysanthemums. Each plant was marked with a label indicating the presence or absence of neonicotinoids, and consumers were asked how much they were willing to spend on each plant. Before asking about their willingness-to-pay for each plant, however, we first asked the consumers about their level of familiarity with neonicotinoids.
Interestingly, the survey found that most consumers (more than 70%) had not heard of neonicotinoids. Those that had heard of them (about 27%) had varying degrees of knowledge about neonicotinoids. The following chart uses a sample of those surveyed to demonstrate the overall trend in prior knowledge of neonicotinoids.
Researcher: Dr. Hayk Khachatryan