Photo credit: Julia Manzerova / flickr / cc
A federal court has ruled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has violated U.S. law in approving genetically engineered salmon.
From the article: “Mike Conroy, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, one of the plaintiffs in case, framed the ruling as a clear win for fish and those whose livelihoods depend upon them given the the possible ecological consequences of the genetically engineered salmon.
"'It's a terrible idea to design genetically engineered 'frankenfish' which, when they escape into the wild (as they inevitably will), could destroy our irreplaceable salmon runs,' said Conroy. 'Once engineered genes are introduced into the wild salmon gene pool,' he added, 'it cannot be undone.'"
In a separate essay, A Tale of Frankenfish: Should We Be Afraid of Genetically Modified Salmon?, Marcelo Gleiser reveals the creepy origin of this GM creature: "The GM salmon grows twice as fast as its wild relative. Its genes have been artificially modified to include DNA from the Pacific Chinook and from an eel-like species so that the resulting fish keeps growing all year long."
Bad news. Frankenfish salmon have already broken through their river enclosures and escaped into the wild… The good news is they are unable to successfully interbreed with natural salmon, however they have voracious appetites and will put existing salmon populations at risk.
Read the article here.
Read Marcelo Gleiser’s essay here.