Europe scorns 'supersalmon' as GM battle widens
source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/22/us-food-salmon-idUSTRE73L1AA20110422
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- JanforGore
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"We don't have any monster pigs in Europe, or monster cows, and there's no need for such a salmon," said Geir Isaksen, the chief executive at big Norwegian fish farmer Cermaq.
Genetically modified (GM) Atlantic salmon patented by U.S. biotech firm AquaBounty are widely billed as growing at double speed and could be approved by U.S. regulators as early as this summer, taking the global GM food fight to the fish counter.
"This is a safe and stable construct," AquaBounty CEO Ronald Stotish told Reuters, explaining how technicians inject Atlantic salmon eggs with genes from Pacific Chinook and bottom-dwelling ocean pout.
The result -- three species in one, thus transgenic -- would be the first GM animal approved for human consumption, joining GM plants like soy and corn that have been altered to tolerate harsh herbicides.
"If it (GM salmon) becomes a big thing, it's clearly negative for the existing salmon farmers," said Dag Sletmo, an analyst at Oslo investment bank ABG Sundal Collier.
Norwegian Atlantic salmon producers led by Cermaq and Marine Harvest provided 65 percent of world supply in 2010, exporting for a record $5.9 billion as the big new middle classes of Asia and eastern Europe stoked demand.
Sletmo said salmon has become a global commodity whose prices could tumble if genetic tinkering boosts supply while puncturing demand in core markets like Europe, where sentiment runs high against GM food.
"We would expect it to be less challenging to market such a fish in U.S. than in Europe, but it is not certain that it would be marketable in the U.S.," said Joergen Christiansen, spokesman for Marine Harvest, which is "keeping an eye on" AquaBounty.
In an online Washington Post poll last autumn, 58 percent of respondents said they would not eat GM salmon. A European Commission survey at the same time found that 77 percent of Europeans opposed GM food of any kind.
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August_K
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"A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) committee has already said AquaBounty salmon are safe to eat and unlikely to damage the environment if raised in land-based tank farms permitting no contact with wild fish."
Unlikely to damage the environment? They don't know if it can or can't?
"Tank production would also reduce the escapes, pollution and parasites that bedevil sea-pen farmers, he said. And since AquaBounty turns almost all its embryos into sterile females, the wild gene pool should be safe if a superfish got loose."
Turns almost all of it's embryos into sterile females....almost? That alone should make it NOT safe for existing fish.
"He said the first commercial batch of his "AquAdvantage" salmon could reach stores in 2013 if the FDA permits egg sales this summer. An FDA spokeswoman said such speedy approval was possible if the agency waives a major environmental study."
Waves a major environmental study so they can get a speedy approval?
Good grief. What the hell is the FDA thinking?
We already know that anything GM is not turning out like they claimed it would and that infertility is showing up in HUMANS because of their frankenstein foods and now they want to add GM animals to our food supply and possibly taint the gene pool of real salmon?Why are the Europeans so much wiser than us?
Why can't Americans wake up and see that this GM shit is bad, bad, bad. - 1 year ago
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August_K
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good_stuff
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August_K:
"AquaBounty turns almost all its embryos into sterile females, the wild gene pool should be safe if a superfish got loose."
-Didn't these lawmakers see Jurrasic Park? Life will find a way!
- 1 year ago
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good_stuff
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JanforGore
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"A European Commission survey at the same time found that 77 percent of Europeans opposed GM food of any kind."
And here in America, 77 % of Americans are too distracted with BS to even care about this.
- 1 year ago
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JanforGore
