Methods of production are becoming
more important to consumers in their decisions about
whether or not to buy or consume a certain product This decision making process is influenced, among
other things, by the images consumers have with
regard to the product and its method of production. In
this research, consumer images regarding plant
breeding technologies were ascertained by means of
focus group discussions. Thirty-five respondents,
divided into four homogenous groups, were given descriptions of three plant breeding techniques and
challenged to provide and discuss their images of
these technologies. The discussions resulted in
images about genetic modification, genomics, and conventional breeding. It was interesting to see that elaboration of the descriptions changed the consum ers’ images, especially regarding the positioning of
genomics in relation to the other two technologies.