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Stotish: This is about 'technology, innovation, and science based regulation'
The boss of a Massachusetts-based firm attempting to commercialize genetically engineered farmed salmon has accused a small group of senators opposing the move of “willfully ignoring science-based research” and spreading “misinformed paranoia”.
His comments came as eight senators signed a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urging commissioner Margaret Hamburg to halt the regulatory approval process of AquaBounty Technologies’ AquAdvantage Salmon.
AquAdvantage Atlantic salmon includes a gene from the faster-growing Pacific Chinook salmon, which enables it to reach maturity twice as quickly as normal Atlantic salmon, and consume 25 percent less food.
In a statement defending the technology, AquaBounty chief executive Ronald Stotish said the FDA had spent 15 years scrutinizing the fish and concluded that it was “exactly the same as any other Atlantic salmon and, therefore, safe for consumption”.
No threat to the environment
Meanwhile, his AquAdvantage Salmon would be sterile and grown in self-contained inland tanks, posing no threat to the environment, he claimed.
"We remain confident that the more deliberative body of the Senate will refrain from interfering in the 15-year scientific review by the FDA.
“The facts about the safety and the environmental benefits of the fish have been made fully public by the FDA. It would be a dangerous precedent to react to a handful of legislators' misinformed paranoia."
He added: “The real waste of tax-payer dollars would be to abandon the important American principle of science-based regulation, responding instead to economic protectionist fears or subjective and emotional judgments.
“This is an issue greater than our application, an issue of American leadership in technology, innovation, and science based regulation."
Should genetically engineered fish be labeled as such?
While genetically engineered (GE) fish is not yet approved for sale in the US, the California Assembly Health Committee recently voted in favor of a proposal calling for all GE fish sold in the state to be clearly labeled as such, should they become available.
“Knowing whether our salmon is genetically engineered is important for a host of reasons, including risks to our native salmon species, and allowing consumers to make dietary choices consistent with concerns they may have for the environment, food safety, and religiously or ethically based dietary restrictions,” Assemblyman Huffman said.
West Coast Director of the Center for Food Safety Rebecca Spector said: “The FDA has indicated that it will not require these GE fish to be labeled once they are approved.
“As such, it is incumbent on the California State legislature, starting with the Health Committee, to let the people of California make informed choices about the food they eat by requiring the labeling of GE fish sold in California.”
GM fish and sustainability
AquAdvantage salmon is more sustainable than current farmed salmon, because it would enable the production of more fish with less feed, according to AquaBounty.
The salmon would be grown as sterile, all-female populations in land-based facilities and could not escape or reproduce in the wild, claims the firm.
*Look out for FoodNavigator-USA.com on Monday, when we will run an interview with Ronald Stotish
7 comments (Comments are now closed)
Different URL
Sorry, my comment posted the wrong URL, please go to http://somloquesembrem.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/arisleblanc2011.pdf
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Posted by JP
26 July 2011 | 02h53
No Support for GM Fish
These advocates have no real idea how their creation might upset the normal ecological balance. They are simply business people seeking to make a buck. They solve no problem other than seeking to enrich themselves.
Kudos to the California Assembly for seeking labeling should our impotent government once again ignore the consumers will. We already have massive amounts of GM grain and food in this country that we will discover is poisoning us. I direct everyone to go to http://www.usherbrooke,ca/gnec/pj/Article%20paru%20dans%20Reproductive%20Toxicology%20(document%20PDF).pdf for the smoking gun.
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Posted by JP
26 July 2011 | 02h35
GM Salmon
GM and farmed Salmon fish only perpetuates ill-health. Therefore any research or proposal is flawed.
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Posted by Harry
23 July 2011 | 14h30
The Business of Science
Interesting how some businesspeople, who probably haven't set foot in a science class after basic high-school biology (taken 30 years ago), suddenly become expert scentists as soon as their profits are threatened.
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Posted by Jennifer Christiano
22 July 2011 | 16h46
GM Science is Their Science and its not for the common good.
Its GM salmon is so wonderful, Label it as so and allow customers to make informed decisions. The science these so called GM experts is their science.
We need more senators like these guys who really stand up for their children and the general population.
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Posted by JB
21 July 2011 | 19h16
It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature
Wonder if this is the same kind of science that continues to push glyphosate ready crops when a known new microorganism that is causing spontaneous abortions in livestock as well as impacting plants is being ignored. To the detriment of all life.
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Posted by Susan
21 July 2011 | 17h41
GM salmon mis-information
These are the same Senators trying to sell us Global Warming!
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Posted by Carl
21 July 2011 | 16h17
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