Tell Supermarkets No to Frankenfish It’s time to take a stand and tell major U.S. supermarkets to boycott genetically engineered salmon commonly referred to as “Frankenfish.” Many major stores, including Target, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have already agreed to not sell the genetically engineered fish. The call is now going out to several other supermarkets, like Safeway to do the same. The FDA is currently in the process of deciding whether or not the genetically modified salmon will be allowed on the market. If “Frankenfish” is approved, it could appear in stores as early as 2014 and would be the first genetically engineered animal determined safe for consumption. Several petitions online are calling for the ban of genetically modified salmon based on the potential personal and environmental harm the production and consumption of the fish could cause. “Frankenfish” are engineered to grow to market size in just 16-18 months compared to the usual 30 months required. Sign the Petition: Say No to Genetically Modified Fish
Canada approves export of genetically modified salmon eggs Canada will allow genetically modified salmon eggs to be produced and exported — but no way in hell will the eggs be allowed to hatch on Canadian soil. The GM salmon was developed by AquaBounty, which blended genetic material from Chinook salmon and from another type of fish called ocean pout into the DNA of Atlantic salmon. That helps accelerate growth rates. The eggs will be produced at a hatchery on Canada’s Prince Edward Island and exported to be hatched at a site in Panama. There, the fish will be fattened up before being exported to the U.S. for sale. Worries abound that the genetically modified fish will escape and spread their altered genes to wild populations of salmon and trout. The decision marked the first time any government had given the go-ahead to commercial scale production involving a GM food animal.The move clears the way for AquaBounty to scale up production of the salmon at its sites in PEI and Panama in anticipation of eventual approval by American authorities.
Canada Approves Genetically-Modified Salmon While Canadians were preoccupied with Senate scandals and Rob Ford’s latest debacle, Environment Canada quietly approved genetically-modified (GM) salmon eggs and salmon for farming off the country’s coast. Critics worry that insufficient testing has been done on the “frankenfish” that may escape fish farms and endanger wild Atlantic salmon worldwide. The decision announced by Environment Canada on Monday leaves many people wondering whether Environment Canada—Canada’s primary governmental department charged with working to preserve and protect the natural environment—is performing its duties to Canadians. Environment Canada’s decision came on the heels of American corporation’s Aquabounty Technologies application to sell the genetically-modified salmon in the country. News sources indicate that Health Canada has yet to approve the GM salmon. In the newspaper article, Aquabounty’s Chief Executive Officer Ron Stotish said: ”At the moment, everything is still as it was.
Canada sued over approval of “toxic” GMO salmon Canadian officials ventured into uncharted legal and ecological waters when they approved the cultivation and export of genetically engineered salmon eggs last year. And now environmental groups have sued the government, claiming the approval illegally disregarded the potential for the transgenic fish to become an invasive species. Quick background: AquaBounty Technologies Inc. has developed Atlantic salmon that grow more quickly than their natural cousins, thanks to the presence of DNA from Chinook salmon and from an eel-like fish called the ocean pout. Some environmentalists worry that the GMO fish will escape, breed, and outcompete wild species. “Our concern is basically, we don’t think they’ve done the due diligence to assess the toxicity of the eggs,” said Susanna Fuller, marine conservation coordinator with the [Ecology Action Centre].
Friends of the Earth Costco is one of the largest retailers of salmon and seafood in the U.S. and is one of the last large retailers that hasn’t yet made a commitment to keep GMO salmon off its shelves. Sign the petition: Tell Costco to keep GMO salmon off its shelves! Dear Mr. Jelinek, As you may be aware, the U.S. More than 60 grocery retailers across the U.S., including Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Aldi, Target, Kroger and Safeway, have made commitments to not sell genetically engineered salmon and other seafood. I urge Costco to join these other leaders in making a commitment to not sell GMO salmon or other seafood. Sincerely,
Farmed fish are breaking out of their pens at an alarming rate If you’re a child of the 90s, you might feel something like this when it comes to sea creatures escaping from captivity. But it’s now 2015, and we farm fish on the reg, so it’s time to grow up. Wired explains why: Aquaculture is fast becoming the main way that humans get their seafood fix. Trine Thorvaldsen, a researcher in Norway, where it’s a criminal offense to let farmed fish out of captivity, has been studying how these fish escape. “There was one instance in which fish were being pumped from one cage to another, but the workers didn’t realize there was no net to keep them,” says Thorvaldsen, who is a cultural anthropologist by training; by the time anyone noticed the silly mistake, 13,000 salmon had swum away. Scroll down to the end of that Wired article if you want to read about a few of the more “spectacular fishbreaks of recent vintage” — like the time 30,000 rainbow trout escaped captivity in Scotland after otters ate through their net. Robert H.
États-Unis – Premier animal OGM au monde autorisé à la consommation : le Le 19 novembre 2015, l’agence étasunienne en charge de l’alimentation (FDA, Food and Drug administration) a finalement accepté d’autoriser le saumon génétiquement modifié de l’entreprise AquAdvantage pour la consommation humaine [1]. Ce saumon, développé par AquaBounty Technologies (dont l’actionnaire principal est the Intrexon Corporation), a été modifié pour grandir quatre fois plus vite. Mais selon de nombreuses publications scientifiques, dont l’étude publiée en 2002 dans la revue American Society of Animal Science [2], l’hormone de croissance, produite par transgenèse, aboutit à plusieurs dégâts collatéraux. Ainsi, ces animaux ont une tendance supérieure aux autres à devenir diabétiques et les poissons d’AquaBounty devront probablement être vendus sous forme de filets ou dans des plats cuisinés du fait de leurs difformités. De nombreuses voix s’étaient donc élevées pour dénoncer les risques tant environnementaux que sanitaires [3] [4] [5].
Canadians have eaten five tons of GMO salmon. According to a new study from the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project, the current presidential administration has collected fewer civil penalties and filed fewer environmental enforcement suits against polluting companies than the Obama, Clinton, and George W. Bush administrations did at the same point in office. The analysis assesses agreements made in the Environmental Protection Agency’s civil enforcement cases. For abuses under laws like the Clean Air Act, the Trump administration has collected just $12 million in civil penalties, a drop of 60 percent from the average of the other administrations. Trump’s EPA has lodged 26 environmental lawsuits compared to 31, 34, and 45 by Bush, Obama, and Clinton, respectively. The marked decrease in enforcement likely has to do with the EPA’s deregulatory agenda. The Project notes that its assessment is only of a six-month period, so future enforcement could catch Trump up to his predecessors.
CANADA – Les saumons transgéniques dans les assiettes - Inf'OGM - Veille citoyenne sur les OGM La bataille a été dure, âpre. Est-elle pour autant gagnée ? Le vendredi 4 août 2017, l’entreprise AquaBounty Technologies a annoncé la vente d’environ cinq tonnes de filets de saumon transgénique sur le marché canadien [1], après avoir obtenu l’ultime feu vert des autorités. Si les premiers saumons GM sont arrivés récemment dans les assiettes des Canadiens, les écologistes et les associations de consommateurs continuent de dénoncer l’absence d’un étiquetage obligatoire. Le ministère de la Santé et l’Agence canadienne des aliments (ACIA) avaient estimé le 20 mai 2016 [3] que ce saumon « est aussi sain et nutritif pour les humains et le bétail [4] que le saumon classique ». Actuellement, les œufs sont produits dans les installations d’AquaBounty dans l’île du Prince Edouard, puis expédiés ensuite au Panama. Le saumon GM bientôt produit aux États-Unis ?
Unlabeled GMO Salmon Already Sold In Canada Canadians have expressed their desire for mandatory labeling of genetically modified (GMO) foods for over 20 years, but it turns out that some of them are unknowingly buying and eating GMO salmon already. Read about GMO salmon A Massachusetts-based company called AquaBounty Technologies is the first to develop a genetically modified (GMO) salmon. The company announced on August 4 it sold about five tons of its AquAdvantage salmon in Canada, and made $53,000 in revenue from the sales of the fish. The sales of this GMO salmon are the first time a GMO animal has been sold to consumers for human consumption. Love This? Thanks for subscribing! The salmon are engineered to have genes from Pacific salmon and an Arctic eelpout. Read about the 8 most common GMO foods AquaBounty claims that its salmon is “better for the environment and consumers,” and it “believes in sustainable seafood production.” Read about the top ten reasons to avoid eating GMOs Although the U.S. Written by Gina-Marie Cheeseman
Genetically engineered salmon may be coming to a store near you This story originally appeared in bioGraphic, an online magazine about nature and sustainability powered by the California Academy of Sciences. One day in 1992, a technology entrepreneur sat down for a meeting with a pair of biologists who were studying the genes of fish. The scientists, Choy Hew and Garth Fletcher, were working on a method of purifying “antifreeze proteins” that would help Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) survive so-called superchill events in the North Atlantic. Normally, these salmon migrate out of the subzero ice-laden seawater of the far North Atlantic to overwinter in less frigid waters. Increasingly, though, such fish were being farmed, penned year-round in offshore cages, in near-Arctic waters to which they were not adapted. As the meeting drew to a close, Fletcher and Hew showed Elliot Entis, the entrepreneur, a photo of two fish of equal age. Fletcher and Hew, it turned out, had not just been putting antifreeze proteins into Atlantic salmon.