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Food

Russia Has Officially Banned GMOs in Food Production

While the idea of “Frankenstein food” with altered genetic code may seem disturbing on the surface, there is still no solid evidence of GMOs being detrimental to human health.
Photo via Flickr user Chris Combe

When Mother Russia bans food, she does not do it in half-measures.

Last year, in retaliation to Western sanctions, Russia banned almost all food imports from the US, Norway, Canada, Australia, and the European Union, depriving its own people of imported meat, fish, cheese, milk, and produce.

And over the summer, it also took to seizing and destroying Western foods within Crimea. That led to tonnes of Dutch lettuce, Italian tomatoes, and European cheese being burned, buried, and steamrolled by Russian forces.

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"As far as genetically-modified organisms are concerned, we have made decision not to use any GMO in food productions," Russia's Deputy PM Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters at an international conference on biotechnology, Reuters reported.

But Dvorkovich also said that the restriction on GMOs would be strictly limited to food, and that other sectors of the economy would not be affected. "This is not a simple issue, we must do very thorough work on division on these spheres and form a legal base on this foundation."

READ MORE: Russia's Food Sanctions Have Escalated into Mass Cheese-Burning

This decision comes on the heels of similar changes by European counterparts like France, Scotland, and Germany, all of whom vowed to get rid of genetically modified crops. In the United States, where GMO products are not prohibited, a debate still rages on about how, or if, they should be labelled.

But while the idea of "Frankenstein food" with altered genetic code may seem disturbing on the surface, there is still no solid evidence of GMOs being detrimental to human health and some researchers argue that the altered organisms can actually provide a sustainable source of food in a world of finite resources and growing population.