GMO World Map—Color Me Labelled

As the spread of com­mer­cial­ized GE food prod­ucts mount, the num­ber of peo­ple exposed to GE foods glob­ally has grown. This makes truth in label­ing of GE food ingre­di­ents increas­ingly fun­da­men­tal to pre­serv­ing con­sumer choice and pro­tect­ing per­sonal health. The CFS GE Food Labeling Laws map pro­vides an instant overview on the advance of label­ing man­dates across the globe, and will con­tinue doc­u­ment­ing the growth of GE label­ing as more nations estab­lish these laws. As detailed on the map, India will join the ros­ter of nations requir­ing GE label­ing in 2013.

“One quick glance at the map and you know the U.S. is truly lost on GE label­ing,” said CFS exec­u­tive direc­tor, Andrew Kimbrell. “With all we know about the human health and envi­ron­men­tal impacts of GE prod­ucts, it’s encour­ag­ing to see the num­ber of nations that have embraced label­ing. Yet, at the same time it’s frus­trat­ing and offen­sive that Americans are denied the infor­ma­tion about their food that those in Kenya and Saudi Arabia receive.”

Despite polls con­sis­tently show­ing up to 90% of Americans favor GE food label­ing, efforts sup­port­ing label­ing in the U.S. have been unsuc­cess­ful to-date. In November 2011, CFS filed a ground­break­ing legal peti­tion with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration demand­ing the agency requir­ing GE label­ing. Currently, over 1 mil­lion peo­ple have joined the petition.

Additionally, twenty states have con­sid­ered bills requir­ing label­ing for or pro­hibit­ing GE food over the past three years. On November 6th, California’s Prop 37 will give vot­ers the oppor­tu­nity to join the cit­i­zens of 61 nations across the globe who have the infor­ma­tion and the law­ful power to choose whether GE foods will be a part of their daily diet.

“Global GE label­ing laws are spring­ing up because both gov­ern­ments and cit­i­zens alike instinc­tively under­stand we all have the basic human right to know what we put in our bod­ies and where it came from,” said Kimbrell. “If food man­u­fac­tur­ers and elected offi­cials don’t want to put the facts of food ingre­di­ents on prod­uct labels, you can bet some­thing is very wrong.”

The inter­ac­tive, color-coded GE Food Labeling Laws map offers a quick, nav­i­ga­ble guide of those coun­tries that have man­dated GE foods label­ing laws, and the strength of each pol­icy. It also rec­og­nizes those coun­tries that have banned GE foods completely.

A link to the map can be found here.