Russia Officially Bans GMOs

Karthik Kuchimanchi
Link: http://www.inquisitr.com/1692271/monsanto-eliminated-russia-officially-bans-gmos/
Source: Inquisitr
Published: December 20 2014


Summary:     
The Russia government has officially banned GMOs from its country . This is especially bad news for the company Monsanto, one of the leaders in genetically engineering organisms. Most of Russia's GMOs, are imported from Monsanto.Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated that Russia doesn't need to grow or import GMOs into their country like America. He said that Russia has enough space to produce organic food. Russia joins countries including Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and New Zealand, in the banning of GMOs. Along as banning them, Russia has opened an investigation on genetically modified foods and their influence on the human and animal health. Irina Ermashova, the vice president of Russia’s National Association of Genetic Safety, stated that studying GMOs and its effects will help Russia understand the dangers of genetically modified foods. Irina believes that bio-technologies should be developed, but not in the form of GMOs. He believes that the consumption of GMOs can lead to "tumors, cancers and obesity among animals."


Connection:
 This article relates to our last unit, which talked about GMOs. In class, we had a debate on the benefits and drawbacks of genetically modified crops.Our class did not come to a full conclusion on whether the benefits of GMOs outweighed the drawbacks of them, and whether genetically modified crops should be grown across the globe or not. Clearly the Russian government came to a conclusion and saw that they were more drawbacks then benefits, and that is why they decided to ban GMOs. Genetically modified crops can be usually produced quicker than organic crops, but at the cost of being chemically treated and modified. By banning genetically modified crops and imports, Russia will have to develop a strong organic agriculture to make up for the loss of the mass producing genetically modified crops. We also learned in class, that GMOs have many health risks for humans and animals. Russia recognized its risks, and Irina Ermakova said that GMOs can cause complications such as cancer in animals.