Most studies showed that transgenic crops are valued moderately positive. There seems to be a clear difference in risk perception of transgenic food products between various EC countries. Because Dutch potatoes are exported to almost all other EC member states, public attitude in all these countries is important for the Dutch potato industry. In an EC study on public attitude towards biotechnology it was shown that most people consider environmental and consumer organisations as the most trust worthy sources of information on the impact of biotechnology. Concerning transgenic potatoes in the Netherlands the environmental organisations are the most critical.
Consumer organisations stress the importance of sufficient information for the consumer.
Therefore they favor compulsary labelling. In order to achieve broad acceptance of transgenic agricultural products a dialogue must be set up between proponents and critics of genetically modified food crops. In this dialogue the parties involved must listen to and respect each others arguments. Only this way some consensus may be reached on what applications of genetic engineering holds benefits for all groups in society. Concerning transgenic potatoes this implies that biotechnology firms and the potato business on the one hand and environmental and consumer organisations on the other hand must enter a dialoque to discuss which transgenic potatoes should be developed and introduced.