Agro groups: Derailing GM fish review would dent FDA’s credibility

Congressional leaders urge Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to complete its review of the world’s first genetically engineered fish for human consumption.

The move follows a recent amendment to the Agriculture Appropriations Bill (HR2112) that would stop the FDA from spending appropriated funds to finalize its review of the fish.

AquaBounty Technologies’ AquAdvantage Atlantic salmon includes a gene from the faster-growing Pacific Chinook salmon, which enables it to reach maturity twice as quickly as standard Atlantic salmon.

The amendment to block the approval process was proposed by House Republican Don Young from Alaska, who argues the transgenic salmon could threaten wild salmon populations (a claim that has been consistently denied by AquaBounty).

The congressman Sam Farr (Dem-CA), who claimed the fish could have “grave, unintended consequences on human health. Preliminary studies show that the compounds in genetically engineered salmon may be linked to cancer and severe drug allergies.”

Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (Dem-CA) added: “Because genetically engineered salmon are more sexually aggressive and resistant to environmental toxins, their escape would pose a catastrophic threat to wild salmon populations.”

AquaBounty said, the transgenic salmon were sterile, exclusively-female, and unable to breed even if they did escape from enclosed, FDA-regulated facilities into the wild.

The FDA has already concluded that there is no food safety or environmental risk. But a science-based review process is being threatened by political shenanigans.

In its analysis of the AquaBounty technology published last September, the FDA said: "The food from AquAdvantage Salmon that is the subject of this application is as safe as food from conventional Atlantic salmon... In addition, no effects on stocks of wild Atlantic salmon are expected.”
Source: http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Regulation/Agro-groups-Derailing-GM-fish-review-would-dent-FDA-s-credibility/?c=0VGm%2FSzqzf%2BOmkQwaBH7ztYs7si%2FzO4v&utm_source=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter%2BWeekly
Ari Wortzman