Genetically Engineered salmon ‘Frankenfish’

EARTHJUSTICE, acting for a big group of environmental agencies including Greenpeace, Ocean Conservancy and Friends of the Earth, is asking for a proper environmental impact assessment before the first ever genetically engineered (GE) salmon are passed for human consumption. A citizen petition signed by over 400,000 people has been submitted today to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA, urging the Agency to withhold final action until the risks have been properly considered. The petition opposes the “Frankenfish” and demands mandatory labelling of any GE fish approved for sale to US consumers. FDA has not yet taken final action on the AquaBounty application.

The application material released to the public raises serious concerns regarding potential destruction of wild salmon populations. The petitioners argue that the environmental assessment AquaBounty previously submitted, together with the FDA’s evaluation of it, fails to provide assurances that AquaBounty’s AquAdvantage Salmon, engineered to grow twice as fast as wild Atlantic Salmon, will not endanger natural fish populations. The protesters’ concerns are heightened by the fact that AquaBounty has publicly stated its intent to expand production and commercialisation of AquAdvantage Salmon throughout the US and abroad.

George Leonard, Ocean Conservancy’s aquaculture programme director, said, “As far as we and the public can tell, FDA has not comprehensively assessed the full range of environmental risks. Instead, FDA is relying on the company’s own scientific analysis that no fish will escape, survive, or reproduce in the wild—even though that type of security cannot be guaranteed.”

Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Centre for Food Safety, went further. He said, “This genetically engineered fish has no redeeming value. It has lower nutrition and represents other potential hazards to consumers; it puts the entire US salmon industry at risk, and most importantly it could threaten the very survival of our native salmon populations. FDA needs to assess all these risks and then take the only rational step, which is to deep-six this hopelessly misguided and dangerous product.”