In most poor countries today, farmers still plant no GM food or feed crops at all. Some are now planting GM cotton, but GM food and feed crops have not yet been grown commercially anywhere in developing Asia or the Middle East, and in only one African country (South Africa). Government authorities in most of these countries have not yet given farmers official permission to plant any GM food or feed crops??superficially in most cases because of precautionary concerns about biological safety. The more fundamental reason is now a fear that consumers in high-income importing regions, such as Europe and Japan, will shun imports from any country that begins planting GM varieties. The new EU regulation calling for strict labelling and traceability on all GM-derived foods and feeds (requiring a costly physical segregation of GM from non-GM all the way up the marketing chain) will further discourage the planting of GM crops in poor countries.