Numerous countries around the world restrict the growing or importing of GMO crops. These international restrictions are always held up as examples pointing to the lack of regulation of genetically modified organisms in the United States.

The reality is that many nations in the world are in flux about whether to allow or ban GMOs. While countries may ban the growing of GMO crops, most don’t completely ban imports of GMO foods. And some countries that banned most GMO foods have allowed one or two GMO crops to be grown.

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Here are a few of the rules and regulations regarding GMOs in other countries:

1. China. Beijing supports GMO technology because it sees GMO as crucial to food security, says Reuters. But although China may support the technology and allows for some genetically modified food crops to be imported, it doesn't permit their domestic cultivation. The country plans to increase its surveillance of GMO products to make sure rules are being followed. The country’s ministry has been sued by a group of individuals who want more transparency relating to GMOs.

AgWeb reported that GMO soybeans and corn are used in the country for feeding animals, but GMOs can’t be in food except for cooking oil and papayas.

2. Europe. In January 2015, the European Union decided to allow individual countries to set their own standards for GMO, including banning GMO crops that may have received EU approval and/or restricting imports of GMO products, the EU Observer said. Currently only one GMO crop, a type of corn, is allowed to be grown in the EU, and it is grown primarily in Spain. Others countries, though, including Italy, Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, and Luxembourg, have banned its planting, according to Environment News Service.

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Hungary is exceptionally active in fighting the proliferation of GMOs, and the Genetic Literacy Project reported in January 2015 that the country would seek to create an alliance of EU nations against GMOs, frustrating pro-GMO nations like the U.K. and the Netherlands.

The EU decision leaves the individual countries to battle it out internally, and many are doing so, with the fate of GMOs up in the air. Germany, for instance, is seeing a strong push to ban the planting of GMO crops on a national level, according to EurActiv.com.

3. India. In the past year, India’s government has reversed its anti-GMO stance and is allowing test fields of GMO crops to be planted in the country, according to the Genetic Literacy Project.

4. Kenya. This country stands as the only one in the world to have an outright ban on GMOs, according to the Literacy Project.

Special: GMO Foods: Are We Unknowingly Poisoning Our Families?

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