Posts Tagged ‘Atlantic salmon’
U.S. to decide – if we’re allowed to decide – to eat redesigned fish
Two fish the same age. Same-size portions on the dinner plate? No differences.
U.S. health officials are set to rule on whether a faster-growing, genetically engineered fish is safe to eat in a decision that could deliver the first altered animal food to consumers’ dinner plates.
The fish, made by Aqua Bounty Technologies Inc, is manipulated to grow twice as fast as traditional Atlantic salmon, something the company says could boost the nation’s fish sector and reduce pressure on the environment.
But consumer advocates and food safety experts are worried that splicing and dicing fish genes may have the opposite effect, leading to more industrial farming and potential escapes into the wild. Side effects from eating such fish are also unknown, with little data to show it is safe, they say…
There are no data which say, however, that eating these fish is unsafe at all. The rest is pundit-babble.
The small Massachusetts-based biotechnology company is seeking Food and Drug Administration approval to sell its salmon, called AquAdvantage, to fish farmers nationwide.
If given the green light, the salmon could be followed by the company’s engineered trout and tilapia…
“This is an Atlantic salmon in every measurable way,” said Aqua Bounty Chief Executive Ronald Stotish. “When you look at the fish, it’s impossible to see the difference.”
And that’s the kicker. As it is with GM beef or pork – or any other genetically-engineered animal protein that’s moved far enough along towards production to sit on a platter before the FDA.
My enviro brothers and sisters have one serious question to answer before this old political insurgent is convinced to back their fears. Prove to me you can come up with any test which can differentiate between the engineered protein and the stuff swimming past my kinfolk’s farm up on PEI. Let’s cook it and eat it, smell it and taste it, feed it to test animals for several years [again?] and show me where it’s different.
Then, I won’t think you’re wasting my time – and that of a public who could use a break on the cost of good food.
Salmon will be first GM animal available for consumption
Jetliner carrying one fish to market
A salmon that grows at twice the normal rate is set to be the first genetically modified (GM) animal available for human consumption.
Usually Atlantic salmon do not grow during the winter and take three years to fully mature. But by implanting genetic material from an eel-like species called ocean pout that grows all year round, US scientists have managed to make the fish grow to full size in 18 months.
They hope that the sterile GM salmon can offer an efficient and safe way to breed salmon in fish farms, so that the wild fish can be left in the oceans.
US watchdog the Food and Drug Administration is currently considering whether the GM Atlantic salmon, called AquAdvantage, is safe to eat. The fish could be on supermarket shelves within a year…
But Lord Melchett, policy director at the Soil Association, said the new technology is not worth the risk.
“Once you have bombarded an animal with other genes, the DNA is unstable, and there is no guarantee these fish remain sterile. It poses far too great a risk to wild salmon. A fish that grows that quickly is likely to lose some of its environmental benefits. There is no such thing as a free salmon lunch and we will pay the price,” he said.
I hope he knows more about soil than he apparently does about genomics.
And I have to laugh over the Telegraph’s headline. I can picture this giant salmon lurching through the aisles of a supermarket. When in fact the growers are aiming at bringing the farmed fish to market size sooner – not larger.
Such foolishness and sophistry.
