GMO ban expands in Russia as Putin halts all production and imports

Russia has adopted a new law that prohibits all GMO crop cultivation and GMO animal breeding in the Russian Federation, to prevent the release of GMOs into the environment. Furthermore, the new law allows the Russian government to restrict the import of GMO products that may pose a threat to human health or the environment.

In 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Russian Parliament that the country should become the world’s largest supplier of organic foods. Later that year, Russia enforced a law that required strict labeling of products that contain GMOs, while the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich announced that Russia would not use genetically modified organisms to increase productivity in agriculture.

“Russia has chosen a different path. We will not use these [GMO] technologies,” he said.

As a result, a bill for a full ban on the cultivation of GMO crops was sent to the State Duma, which has now been fully approved.

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