News / genetically modified organisms

Peru protects its biodiversity with ban on genetically modified foods

John Patrick in Peru.

Peru is the first country in the Americas to ban genetically modified foods, with a law that protects Peru's biodiversity and the practices that have kept it in tact for so long, in the form of a 10-year ban on genetically modified food. The president of Peru, Ollanta Humala, really helped this legislation move forward and pass.

“In the end, it’s not a law that’s ‘against’ anything,” said Antonietta Gutierrez, a biologist at Peru’s National Agrarian University. “This is a law in favor of biosecurity. The idea is that there should be a responsible way of using technology, so that it helps us develop resources – and at the same time, doesn’t destroy what we already have."

Peru's new law puts its food policy closer to that of Europe, than to that of the US or many of its South American neighbors, further proving we in America have a long way to go fighting against GMO's. 

KC Orcutt
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