Not only are GMOs not banned in the U.S., our government doesn't even require our foods to be labeled as to whether they contain GMOs.
What other countries have banned GMOs outright?
Algeria
Egypt
Sri Lanka
Thailand
China
Japan
Philippines
The EU
Norway
Austria
Germany
United Kingdom
Spain
Italy
Greece
France
Luxembourg
Portugal
Brazil
Paraguay
Saudi Arabia
Australia
New Zealand
American Samoa
Cook Islands
Fiji
Kiribati
Federated States of Micronesia
Marshall Islands
Nauru
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tonga
Tuvalu
Vanuatu
Many more countries have restrictions on GMOs or require labeling of products that contain GMOs (there may be some that I did not list above).
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Thanks to the Center for Food Safety for providing us with this handy map! (Click here to actually read it: http://organicconnectmag.com/wp/gmo-labeling-map-of-the-world/#.UJvcduSoPE0) I don't see any colors near us, do you?
The U.S. is clearly behind many other first world countries when it comes to a) protecting our food supply and b) giving consumers information to make their own choices. I hope that one day my home state decides to step in and make this change where the Federal government has not.
Audra:
ReplyDeleteThis is a great blog. Thanks for taking the time to post about such an important topic! You might be interested (but unsurprised) to know that there is a giant literature in political science on how and why different countries choose to ban or label GMO-related food stuffs. Two of these literatures are closely tied to my areas of interest: 1) comparative studies of the EU and the US (as you note, the EU and its 27 member states require labeling and, in some cases, ban GMOs outright, while the US does not; this was a hard-fought battle in the EU, and perhaps an instructive tale for the US) and 2) the literature on international trade ande economic development. Send me an email if you are interested in seeing a list of specific citations. Also, my sister-in-law sent me this TED talk last year, and it really breaks down many of the concerns: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rixyrCNVVGA
Keep up the good work!
Sarah
I feel really ignorant asking this, but what is a GMO? Genetically modified organism? I'm not exactly sure what that is. This is obviously not my subject area of expertise so your blog is a new introduction to the subject for me.
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