a survey finds a rising number of iowans believe food labels are beneficial, but their confidence is falling in the trustworthiness of what some labels actually say.aaron is spokesman for the iowa food and family project, which conducted the survey. &ldquowhile the percentage of iowans who find food labels helpful increased dramatically over the past year,&rdquo putze says, &ldquothey also expressed increased skepticism about some of the claims made on those labels.&rdquothe survey found consumers prefer both the quality and quantity of information when they are making a food purchase. putze says his organization wants to make certain consumers get the right information. he says, &ldquowe place an emphasis on creating opportunities for people to meet and become better acquainted with the people who grow their food so they can have real conversations that directly address the questions they have about the quality and the wholesomeness of that food.&rdquothe survey found a majority of iowa consumers like it when the word &ldquolocal&rdquo is used on food packaging. &ldquosixtytwo percent of those we surveyed believe food labeled &lsquolocal&rsquo is better than food not labeled local,&rdquo putze says. &ldquothe interesting point behind that, however, is that we could not come across a standard definition of how people would define what local is.&rdquoto some people, &ldquolocal&rdquo means in their immediate area, but to others, it means within iowa, within 200 to 500 miles, or even within the united states. some producers go to great lengths and expense to become organiccertified facilities, but putze says terms like organic, hormonefree, antibioticfree, or even genetically modified organismfree aren&rsquot big sellers.&ldquothe organic and the gmo labels rank towards the bottom in terms of whether or not people believed those foods with those labels are better than foods not labeled,&rdquo putze says. &ldquofor example, only 25 of respondents believed that food labeled &lsquoorganic&rsquo is better than food not labeled organic.&rdquo he says 22percent of iowans surveyed thought &ldquonongmo&rdquo products were better than those that weren&rsquot labeled as such.the iowa food and family project is a subdivision of the iowa soybean association. learn more about the survey results at www.iowafoodandfamily.com.reporting by morrice, klem, le mars 
