GMO Salmon - Some major retailers say "no" although science says its ok

Below is a recent article on the upcoming FDA approval of GMO Salmon and another example of how people would rather go with their emotions and fall prey to the propaganda of organized groups with hidden agendas rather than base their decisions on science.



U.S. retailers vow not to sell GMO salmon

Greg Henderson, Editor, Associate Publisher, Drovers CattleNetwork | Updated: 03/20/2013



Whole Foods Market, Aldi and Trader Joe’s Co. are among retailers who have pledged not to sell genetically engineered salmon or other seafood, according to a new advocacy campaign.

The Campaign for Genetically Engineered-Free Seafood – a coalition formed by the Consumers Union, Friends of the Earth and other groups – announced Wednesday that food retailers representing 2,000 U.S. stores have vowed not to sell GM seafood if it is approved in the United States. The announcement was made as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears close to approving genetically engineered salmon from AquaBounty Technologies, Maynard, Mass.

In December the FDA announced a draft environmental assessment indicating the genetically engineered salmon from AquaBounty – called AquaAdvantage – would not have a significant impact on the U.S. environment. The salmon would be farmed in Panama.

AquaBounty formally applied for approval of the GM salmon in 1995. Last month the public comment period was supposed to end, but the FDA extended the deadline to late April. If approved, the salmon would become the first genetically engineered animal to enter America’s human food supply.

Journalist Emily Anthes described AquaAdvantage in The New York Times as “an Atlantic salmon that carries two foreign bits of DNA: a growth hormone gene from the Chinook salmon that is under the control of a genetic ‘switch’ from the ocean pout, an eel-like fish that lives in the chilly deep. Normally, Atlantic salmon produce growth hormone only in the warm summer months, but these genetic adjustments let the fish churn it out year round. As a result, the AquAdvantage salmon typically reach their adult size in a year and a half, rather than three years.”

AquaBounty says the faster-growing “AquaAdvantage Salmon” saves time and resources, and that the products are safe. Critics claim such GM products are not sufficiently tested for safety, carry allergy risks and should be labeled.

“We won’t sell genetically engineered fish because we don’t believe it is sustainable or healthy,” Trudy Bialic from PCC Natural Markets in Washington State told Reuters.

Whole Foods Market, a 335-store organic and natural food chain, announced earlier this month that by 2018 it will require all products in its stores to be labeled indicating whether they contain GMOs.

But scientists, including the FDA’s experts, have concluded that AquaAdvantage is just as safe to eat as conventional salmon and that, raised in isolated tanks, it poses little risk to wild populations, Anthes wrote in The Times.

“We should all be rooting for the agency to do the right thing and approve the AquaAdvantage salmon,” Anthes said. “It’s a healthy and relatively cheap food source that, as global demand for fish increases, can take some pressure off our wild fish stocks. But most important, a rejection will have a chilling effect on biotechnological innovation in this country.”

 

how are GMO fish unsustainable? We're going to need to turn to it with the rising population. GMO has allowed our population to survive, beans, corn, strawberries, etc. People are going to need to get with the times.

 

I wouldn't expect places like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's to sell GMO seafood. Their shoppers aren't the kind of people that would buy any GMO products and are the type of people more likely to demand Organic foods.

If the FDA finds that this salmon is safe, the only reason its approval would be rejected is because of the GMO label and the emotions that go along with it for a small group of people.

 

What he said..... plus, we got more farm raised poop fed seafood in our grocery stores now. It's almost impossible to find wild caught salmon, shrimp or whatever. If you read the labels almost everything is raised in a cage in Vietnam or Indonesia or whatever. Up where I live all shrimp are from some farm in the Far East. I order mine from Louisiana. I only buy wild caught sockey salmon.

 

The FDA is never wrong, of course .....

Mike ..what science is it that you follow?

 

No one ever said the FDA was never wrong. Aquabounty applied for the approval in 1995, that's 18 years ago. From their research in that 18 years they have found nothing wrong with it. All they are doing is inserting two genes into the fish's DNA that makes it grow faster and all year, not just in warm water. What's wrong with that? If they were pumping them full of steroids, synthetic hormones or anything else, I could see there being a problem. Inserting a natural gene from another fish? No problem, in my eyes.

 

Tony, as you know I am in the commercial cattle business, and while I am not a scientist myself, we have to fight the battle daily on many fronts when it comes to the agenda of many well intended but mis- guided advocacy groups. I can give you four specifics right off the top of my head involving the beef industry where there is no scientific data to prove the false claims used against us...Lean Finely Textured Beef or more affectionately known by the agenda driven liberal media as Pink Slime, the use of low level antibiotics in farm animals, debate over groth hormones, and until recently a ban from Japan on cattle over the age of 21 months for unfounded fear of BSE or better known once again by our unbiased media as Mad Cow.

Now many consumers, including some on here, don't "like" the sound of any of the items I mentioned. But there is no scientific data to support the opposing view on any of these, only emotions, fear, and biases based on opinion.

And I certainly don't have a problem with anyone that wants to avoid any or all of these if they so choose. Just understand two things when you do..1. it is an emotional decision on your part unfounded by credible science and 2. as good as it sounds to some to go all organic and locally grown from the local farmer that has 15 cows or 20 pigs, you are not going to feed 300 million americans, and certainly not a big chunk of the rest of the world with that business model.

Go spend some time on Consumers Union and Friends of Earth websites. No opposing scientific data, only anectodotal "what ifs" "maybe's" to try and discredit anything they don't like. Just because someone creates a website spouting an opposing view without scientific data to substantiate their claims does not make them "science" as so many of you that drink their Kool- Aid think.

 

This is the ty
pe of info I was hoping to get on my thread

Interesting stuff, Mike

 

Of course, no critters ever get out of those 'isolated' tanks/ponds/enclosures.

Want to eat a sustainable fish? Eat an Asian carp. You know, those ones that were raised in isolated ponds and escaped? The ones that are costing hundreds of millions to try and control and threaten billion dollar fisheries.

 

Then there are the zebra mussels....followed by the Gobie .... totally ruined the great lakes fishery....couldn't catch,a fish if you wanted to

 

Yep, nothing is without risk, like driving a vehicle or pumping, refining and distributing oil. Lets ban all motor vehicles. There is certainly less risk in walking or riding a bicycle, especially once we get rid of all these vehicles. Besides, society got by for centuries without them...why did we ever change and create all these inherent safety and environmental risks associated with them?

 

This is where I am leaning on this....someone else said in my thread that it is faith ... either way you go with it.....I guess he was right... I believe God designed things the way they are supposed to be ...

Course you could say that He designed us with minds to GM stuff ... but was that His plan...

 

Quite honestly when I move to the midwest next year I plan on eating Asian Carp. Seems theres a bunch and you don't have to fish, you just put up a net as they ram you in the head. Zebra Mussels Ill eat them too.

PreacherTony- Can't tell if youre for or against GMO, but, I think we need GMO food because there is absolutely no way we can sustain populations at the current and rising levels without having some kind of GMO or starvation.

 

You can't be serious...can you?

 

One of the tastiest fish swimming in freshwater too. A 10 pound chunk smoked whole is some awesome eating!

 

I am curious; how do chicken farmers get 7 pound chickens in 6 weeks? Are they not genetically altered? Asking... not saying.

 

I have no problem with pink slime... I just don't believe it should be passed off as pure ground beef. Deception is another matter. Of course I almost never eat beef anyway, especially hamburger.

 

By breeding ... breed the biggest to the biggest and keep doing it until you have a Cornish cross...voila!

 

When Jimmy the greek said that he was fired in a fire storm!

 

But is that what God intended?.....He gave us the minds to do it as well as how to cross pollinate tomatoes so you can grow bigger and hardier tomatoes in your garden as opposed to the way God originally made them....I have to wonder is that what God intended?....Slippery Slope...