FDA rules support industrial agriculture, won't require labeling of genetically modified salmon

Frankenfish Poised to Climb From Shelf to Sea

Food And Water Watch

Just sixty GE salmon into a wild population of 60,000 would lead to the extinction of the wild population.

A coalition of 31 consumer, animal welfare and environmental groups, along with commercial and recreational fisheries associations and food retailers submitted a joint statement criticizing an announcement this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that it will potentially approve the long-shelved AquAdvantage transgenic salmon as the first genetically engineered (GE) animal intended for human consumption.

The engineered Atlantic salmon being considered was developed by AquaBounty Technologies, which artificially combined growth hormone genes from an unrelated Pacific salmon, (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) with DNA from the anti-freeze genes of an eelpout (Zoarces americanus). This modification causes production of growth-hormone year-round, creating a fish the company claims grows at twice the normal rate. This could allow factory fish farms to crowd fish into pens and still get high production rates.

Each year millions of farmed salmon escape from open-water net pens, outcompeting wild populations for resources and straining ecosystems. If the FDA opens this door, GE fish will likely be among the millions of salmon that currently escape from open ocean pens every year. This could be the last blow to wild salmon stocks and in turn the thousands of men and women who depend on fishing for their livelihoods. “Approving genetically engineered salmon is a sharp contradiction to the agreements the United States has signed at NASCO, where transgenic salmonids are considered a serious threat to wild salmon” said Boyce Thorne Miller, Science and Policy Coordinator for the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and accredited observer at the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization.

Escaped GE salmon can pose an additional threat – genetic pollution resulting from what scientists call the “Trojan gene” effect.” Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences notes that a release of just sixty GE salmon into a wild population of 60,000 would lead to the extinction of the wild population in less than 40 generations.

Anticipating the stark danger to our fisheries and ocean environments – and trying to circumvent analyses of those dangers – AquaBounty has claimed that they will only raise their fish in land-based facilities. However most salmon farmers in the real world ply their trade in low-lying coastal areas and competing corporations will no doubt race to produce GE fish in crowded open ocean facilities already in use for fish production. Backsliding on its original claims, reports have circulated that AquaBounty may only suggest producers raise GE fish in “inland waters” – presenting novel threats to our nation’s lakes, rivers, and estuaries – many of which are already under attack by invasive fish species like the Asian carp and Northern snakehead.

“FDA’s decision to go ahead with this approval process is misguided and dangerous, and is made worse by its complete lack of data to review” said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director for the Center for Food Safety. “FDA has been sitting on this application for 10 years and yet it has chosen not to disclose any data about its decision until just a few days before the public meeting.”

“The approval of these transgenic fish will only exacerbate the problems facing our wild fisheries.” - Jonathan Rosenfield, PhD, a Conservation Biologist and President of the SalmonAID

The FDA is a national disgrace.

The biotechnology industry is opposed to mandatory labeling, saying it will only bewilder a public that is not well informed about genetic engineering.

"Extra labeling only confuses the consumer," said David Edwards, director of animal biotechnology at the Biotechnology Industry Organization. "It differentiates products that are not different. As we stick more labels on products that don't really tell us anything more, it makes it harder for consumers to make their choices."

That's the most self-serving argument I've ever heard. Consumers should have all the information available to decide for themselves what they want to eat, regardless of whether they understand the science behind genetic modification of food, and regardless of whether the claims that GM is not harmful are correct.

Do we believe in freedom of information or not?

I guess I won't be eating salmon anymore:( I know they said that "natural" companies can label there products as such, but I wonder how long it will be before big ag closes that option. They know that the public does not want these lab created "foods" and the only way they could sell them, would be to disguise them by making all the packaging the same. The only other way to sell them would be to cut the prices very low on them, people will buy it if it is cheap enough.

Buyers deserve to know if a food a GMO or not. All GMO foods need to be labeled that way. Now that one product got itself through the door without a label more will follow.

As for this fish. There is better places to get Omega 3s than fish. Pen raised fish are contaminated and studies show they have higher levels of Mercury and I'll pass on wild fish also.