It’s no secret that Russia’s leadership has long opposed Monsanto’s frankenfood. Both Prime Minister Medvedev and President Putin have voiced their concerns about GMOs, and have pushed for policies that would eliminate those foods from markets in the Russian Federation. As recently as last September, the Russian government banned the production of GMOs within their borders.
But now they want to take these policies a step further. On Thursday, Putin addressed the Russian Parliament with a new plan to make their country the world’s leading exporter of non-GMO food. “We are not only able to feed ourselves taking into account our lands, water resources – Russia is able to become the largest world supplier of healthy, ecologically clean and high-quality food which the Western producers have long lost, especially given the fact that demand for such products in the world market is steadily growing.”
Aside from health and safety concerns, there is also a strong economic incentive for this move. In the address, Putin pointed out that over the course of ten years Russia has gone from being a nation that imported half of its food from abroad, to a net exporter, and they now make more money from selling food than from selling weapons. While he did not explicitly say it, it’s likely that Putin is trying to diversify Russia’s economy after sanctions and falling gas prices lead to a crippling financial crisis that his people are still enduring.
No comments:
Post a Comment