<p>Improvements to the agricultural system and tackling challenges emerging from societal, geo-political or climate change requires decision makers to consider trade-offs between technological solutions and consumer preferences. Such a challenge is the breeding of resilient crops through traditional techniques (i.e. crossbreeding, mutagenesis) and new breeding techniques (i.e. transgenesis, cisgenic genetic modification, intragenesis, genome editing), and the protection from pests and diseases using plant protection products. This article presents nuanced insights into consumers views of plant protection products and new breeding techniques regarding the specific case study focused on potato blight. Two online studies were conducted in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. In the first study (<i>N</i> = 965), synthetic and natural fungicides, cisgenic genetic modification and genome editing were rated similarly by the participants in terms of acceptance and perceived naturalness. The second study (<i>N</i> = 1061) extended these insights and showed that different types of fungicides (i.e. natural vs. synthetic, named vs. unnamed) elicited different spontaneous associations, levels of acceptance and perceived naturalness. Interestingly, the ubiquitous mutagenesis was rated similarly as breeding techniques currently restricted by EU regulations.</p>