Federal Court Declares Genetically Engineered Salmon Unlawful

In 2016, Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice — representing a broad client coalition of environmental, consumer, commercial and recreational fishing organizations and the Quinault Indian Nation — sued the FDA for approving the first-ever commercial GE animal, an Atlantic salmon engineered to grow twice as fast as its wild counterpart. The GE salmon was produced by AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. with DNA from Atlantic salmon, Pacific king salmon, and Arctic ocean eelpout. This marks the first time any government in the world has approved a commercially genetically engineered animal as food.

The court ruled that FDA failed to consider and study the environmental risks of this novel GE fish. When GE salmon escape or are accidentally released into the environment, the new species could threaten wild populations by mating with endangered salmon species, outcompeting them for scarce resources and habitat, and/or introducing new diseases. The world’s preeminent experts on genetically engineered fish and risk assessment, as well as biologists at U.S. wildlife agencies charged with protecting fish and wildlife, heavily criticized FDA’s approval for failing to evaluate the impacts of GE salmon on native salmon populations. Yet FDA ignored their concerns in the final approval.…

Studies have shown that there is a high risk for GE organisms to escape into the natural environment, and that GE salmon can crossbreed with native fish.

Read more.

Also see: Transgenic Lox - Not Kosher!