Americans Just As Polarized On Food As They Are On Politics

Eating Habits Don’t Seem To Correlate With Political Beliefs

Interestingly, these widely varying opinions on GMOs and organic foods have very little to do with respondents’ political attitudes, education level, household income or geographic location.

According to the report, approximately equal percentages of Democrats (40 percent) and Republicans (39 percent) believe genetically modified foods are less healthy. Democrats are somewhat more convinced that organic produce has unique health benefits, with 60 percent of them supporting that claim, versus 50 percent of Republicans.

But overall, how we feel about the food we buy, eat and feed to our families appears to defy the usual demographic signifiers, noted Cary Funk, the report’s lead author and Pew’s associate director of research.

“People’s beliefs more generally about the role food plays in their long-term health is not so often linked up with these sort of common public opinion divides,” Funk told HuffPost.

That’s not to say demographics don’t play any role in these food debates, Funk added: Younger Americans, ages 18 to 49, appear more inclined to support organic produce and be suspicious of genetically modified foods. And women were more likely to care deeply about genetically modified foods than men.

We’re Skeptics Of Media Reports And Scientists

The Pew survey also suggests Americans are distrustful of institutions attempting to influence their eating patterns.

Most respondents were largely unfazed by sometimes-contradictory news about the health effects of various foods and drinks. Seventy-two percent said they believed “the core ideas about how to eat healthy are pretty well understood,” which suggests many U.S. adults are simply tuning out conflicting nutritional information.

This could be linked to a broader trend of skepticism toward institutions, including the media and the government — another bipartisan phenomenon, Funk noted.