Americans have been given the go-ahead to eat genetically modified salmon.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US has given approval to production of the first genetically modified animal to enter the human food chain. It should on sale before 2018.
Atlantic salmon normally needs three years to grow in fish farms. Now they will have their DNA altered so that they grow faster and larger in half that time.
The US biotech company, AquaBounty Technologies, will produce the GM salmon by inserting two genes from a Chinook salmon and an Atlantic pout. One gene is linked to a growth hormone and the other ensures that growth continues in very cold waters.
The technology will allow many more salmon, dubbed AquaAdvantage salmon, to be produced and at lower cost.
The firm says it will reduce the environmental impacts of salmon farming as well as providing a sustainable source of fish with a lower carbon footprint but eco-campaigners say there has been insufficient safety testing.
The company's CEO, Dr Ronald Stotish, said: “AquAdvantage Salmon is a game-changer that brings healthy and nutritious food to consumers in an environmentally responsible manner without damaging the ocean and other marine habitats.”
Many campaigners remain concerned about tampering with wildlife and with the food humans consume. People also fear the possibility of GM salmon escaping and reproducing, citing AquaBounty’s disastrous environmental record, which greatly raises the stakes for an environmentally damaging escape.
Dr Joe Perry, former Chair of the European Food Safety Authority GMO Panel said:
“There remain legitimate ecological concerns over the possible consequences if these GM salmon escape to the wild and reproduce, despite FDA assurances over containment and sterility, neither of which can be guaranteed.
"My view is that if an application were to be made for such GM salmon to be released in Europe, then the risk assessment would require considerably more data to demonstrate the efficacy of the induced sterility in these GM salmon than were required by the FDA."
In recent years, AquaBounty facilities outside the U.S. have dealt with an accidental disease outbreak, an accident that lead to “lost” salmon, and a $9,500 fine from Panamanian regulators who found the company in breach of that country’s environmental laws.
Canadian researchers found that GMO salmon readily breed with a different species of fish, a potential risk that FDA never addressed in its risk assessment.
To add insult to injury, this product will be hitting store shelves without labelling, making it impossible for consumers to distinguish GMO from non-GMO salmon. This ignores consumers’ fundamental right to know how food is produced and is bad for business, since many consumers will avoid purchasing any salmon at all for fear it is genetically engineered.
The UK government, however, has already given its support to genetic modification.
A number of British scientists support genetic modification believing that it could help farmers produce plants which are healthier and need fewer pesticides. They are already widely used in the US, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and India. Around 85% of all corn crops in the US are now GM.
New EU rules allow each European country decide for itself whether or not to grow GM, once it has been ruled safe by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the EU’s food safety body.
The deal was brokered by the British government who grew weary of GM trials being blocked by Germany, France and Italy.
Comments
As when trying to combine homo sapiens with the evolutionary dead end - the Portuguese. That obviously failed and the European Union must share some of the blame for wasting everyone's time trying to make something good out of it.