Rant

Federal Franken-Fish Food

Posted 8 months ago|2 comments|825 views

Salmon

TAGS

FDA , Salmon , Genetically modified food , AquaBounty , Eelpout

Written by

DrDarko

According to FDA, a genetically modified Salmon is "as safe to eat as food from other Atlantic salmon." As the lawmakers in Congress are pointing out, something seems fishy with the entire AquAdvantage® Salmon approval.

First, it is unsure how well is FDA able to assess the risks to the natural world posed by an organism created in a laboratory. According to Anne Kapuscinski, a professor at Dartmouth College and an international expert on the safety of genetically modified organisms, "This is very, very complex." I really trust her when she says that "If you put the top scientific researchers in this area into a room, they would have to work very hard together to figure out the conclusion for ecological risk."

AquaBounty Technologies of Boston, Massachusetts created a genetically modified Salmon by artificially combining growth hormone genes of an Eelpout, a slimy, bottom-dwelling, ray-finned fish, with those of a separate spawn of Salmon.

According to AquaBounty, this new "Franken-Fish" grows at least twice as fast and by the time your regular salmon reaches weight of 2 pounds, this genetically modified Salmon will reach more than 6 pounds. Is this a solution to feed the world or solution to feed future health issues?

This Salmon will be grown be as sterile, all-female population in order to avoid having them bread in the wild. Now, eating a sterile, all-female fish with growth hormones from Eelpout does not sound too safe to me. I really have to wonder if those FDA apparatchiks would serve this Franken Fish to their own kids. Biotechnology companies that invested millions of dollars in developing genetically modified animals for food are pushing FDA to act.

If FDA approves this Salmon, it would make it the first genetically modified animal legally available for human consumption. Congress is trying to keep this creature out of stores, citing safety concerns and uncertain outcome it could have on the American salmon biz.

Personally, I think that competition is good for any business, but health is something that really concerns me! I wholeheartedly agree with Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski that a genetically engineered fish for sale "kind of gives me the heebie jeebies."

EMAIL|FLAG THIS POST

To:

From:

COMMENTS

2 comments|ADD A COMMENT|JUMP TO MOST RECENT

Altruist
Eugene, OR

8 months ago: Americans have been eating genetically modified food for quite a while. People in Europe are less willing to experiment with their health but here in the states food manufacturers are not even required to label foods that are genetically modified.

It may be scary but thus far GM foods don't seem to be too dangerous.
"The European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 2010 report on GMOs noted that "The main conclusion to be drawn from the efforts of more than 130 research projects, covering a period of more than 25 years of research, and involving more than 500 independent research groups, is that biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not per se more risky than e.g. conventional plant breeding technologies."[8] A 2008 review published by the Royal Society of Medicine noted that GM foods have been eaten by millions of people worldwide for over 15 years, with no reports of ill effects.[9] Similarly a 2004 report from the US National Academies of Sciences stated: "To date, no adverse health effects attributed to genetic engineering have been documented in the human population."[2] A 2004 review of feeding trials in the Italian Journal of Animal Science found no differences among animals eating genetically modified plants.[10] A 2005 review in Archives of Animal Nutrition concluded that first-generation genetically modified foods had been found to be similar in nutrition and safety to non-GM foods, but noted that second-generation foods with "significant changes in constituents" would be more difficult to test, and would require further animal studies." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_food_con...

The genetically modified salmon are the "second generation GM foods mentioned above that require more testing.

Given that we are destroying the natural animals and their environments, we may be forced to rely on GM foods. There are no longer enough wild fish to feed people. Most fish that we eat now is farmed.

We have increased the temperature and the acidity of the oceans so that by the end of the century we may not have any coral reefs left. Coral reefs are only 1% of the ocean yet they contain 20% of the life and are nurseries for fish in the rest of the ocean. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/scien...

Our only hope for survival may rest in genetically modifying coral and other plants and animals so they can survive in the harsher conditions that will exist in the future. Currently corals can only survive in a very narrow range of temperatures. Corals, shellfish, mollusks, and millions of other animals and plants are dependent on forming shells and skeletons of calcium carbonate. Now shells are thinner and soon they will be dissolved because of the acidity of the oceans, because of all of the CO2 they have absorbed. http://blogs.discovery.com/animal_news/2...

The alternative is mass extinctions that take hundreds of thousands of years to recover from. FLAG THIS COMMENT

DrDarko

8 months ago: Yes, most fish is currently farmed. Still, I really do not think that FDA bureaucrats are equipped to judge on the safety of genetically modified animals. And we all know what will happen once the first animal gets approved. The same think that happened to corn, you will only be able to buy GM food and who knows what problems might that bring...

FLAG THIS COMMENT