In the 16 years since genetically modified crops started growing in the United States, New Zealand has remained a GM-free food producer. Not because of red tape, nor because New Zealanders are anti-science. Quite simply it is because GM foods continue to be shunned in New Zealand's high-value export markets. Consumer resistance in Europe, parts of Asia and Australia has largely corralled GM food production to the Americas, where 83 per cent of GM crops are grown. The 11 per cent of GM crops grown in Asia is almost all cotton, not food.