How do you feel about genetically modified SALMON?? (hormone, diet, cheap)
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They are trying to make the genetically modified salmon grow twice its size in half the time.
BLOCK: And why don't you explain first how this salmon has been genetically modified to grow faster?
Prof. KAPUSCINSKI: The company that's developed these fish has inserted two genes. One gene is for growth hormone, and it's almost identical to the growth hormone gene that's already in these salmon.
And then the other gene acts like a little switch. It's a piece of DNA that comes from another fish, from the ocean pout, and it's normally connected to the gene that produces antifreeze protein in that fish.
In the case of these salmon, they've just taken the part of the DNA that acts like a switch, and that switch turns on the gene that produces the growth hormone so that the salmon will produce growth hormone in its tissues throughout the year, whereas a conventional salmon only produces growth hormone during the warmer times of the year, when the water temperatures are warmer.
BLOCK: So they end up growing to market size in, what, 18 months instead of three years.
Prof. KAPUSCINSKI: I think that's about right. It's about half the time...
They are not required to conclude that they're environmentally safe, and that's the only condition under which to approve them. That law just requires an environmental assessment, basically figuring out what would be the effect on the quality of the human environment. But in reading between the lines and the documents they released this past Friday, I have the impression that they hope to conclude that they don't need to require labeling of the fish because the flesh of these genetically engineered salmon I think they're going to argue is substantially equivalent to the flesh of conventional salmon.
So if they don't require labeling, consumers would only know if the company decides, on its own, to voluntarily label the fish.
My understanding was no labeling. Frankenfoods - who knows the unintended consequences?
In the wild, something along the lines of other non-native invasive species. On the food level.........I don't want to know. There is simply no need for this garbage, none. We must do everything we can to keep our natural food diversity and not allow it to be destroyed by industries looking to make a quick dollar.
I can't even eat that meat anymore because it does not taste like the real thing.
If anyone wants a cheap meat to compare buy some organic free range chicken on the bone and non-organic chicken. Bake them in different dishes and taste. The texture is a major difference and notice the after taste...Well its like comparing diet pop to real pop. Anyone else taste this?
I don't think they should do this with fish at all because its too easy to lose one and then you affect the whole natural lot too. Just like how Monsanto destroyed decades of seed stock for family run corn farms.
I think everyone just needs to stop overeating themselves and the rest of the world to death.
I can't even eat that meat anymore because it does not taste like the real thing.
If anyone wants a cheap meat to compare buy some organic free range chicken on the bone and non-organic chicken. Bake them in different dishes and taste. The texture is a major difference and notice the after taste...Well its like comparing diet pop to real pop. Anyone else taste this?
I don't think they should do this with fish at all because its too easy to lose one and then you affect the whole natural lot too. Just like how Monsanto destroyed decades of seed stock for family run corn farms.
I think everyone just needs to stop overeating themselves and the rest of the world to death.
I agree completely. And yes, it was mentioned somewhere that one GM fish can indeed affect the whole natural lot. I'll see what I can find on this.
Anyone who does not want this, LET YOUR CONGRESSpeople know now! The bill comes up soon!
While not on anyone's dinner table just yet, genetically engineered salmon are just a pen stroke away. GE salmon are being developed by a U.S. company called Aqua Bounty Farms and are preferred for their ability to grow two to four times faster than other farmed salmon:
"The goal of producing faster growing Atlantic Salmon for the commercial food market is well on its way at Aqua Bounty Farms, a research facility located in Fortune, Prince Edward Island, Canada. This experimental hatchery has been injecting growth hormone genes into fertilized salmonid eggs to produce fast growing salmon, trout and Arctic char."
Research at Aqua Bounty Farms, Aqua Bounty Farms webpage.
Research at both Purdue University and The National Academy of Sciences points to the "considerable risks" that genetically engineered (also called "transgenic") fish pose to nearby populations of native fish
* * *
Responding to consumer concerns, more than 200 grocers, restaurants, and seafood distributors have pledged not to purchase or sell genetically engineered fish:
"'If my patrons don't want genetically engineered fish, then I certainly don't want to serve it. My customers congratulate me for signing the pledge,' said Todd Gray, award-winning chef/owner of Equinox restaurant in Washington, DC."
Press Release (2002). 'Stop the Commercialization of Genetically Engineered Fish,' Say over 200 Grocers, Restaurants and Seafood Distributors, Center for Food Safety, Clean Water Action, Friends of the Earth, 18 September.
The Food and Drug Administration is currently considering an application by Aqua Bounty Farms to permit sales of genetically engineered salmon:
"If the application is approved, salmon would become the first genetically modified animal allowed onto American dinner plates, where it would sit alongside genetically engineered corn and potatoes, which have been available for several years."
Burros, M. (2002). Chefs Join Campaign Against Altered Fish, New York Times, 18 September.
We have seen where GMO-genes have crossed species barriers [I posted an article about GMO plants where the genes migrate to become bacteria genes in the human gut].
As an Organic Farmer I have seen it reported that wild plants are being found which have been pollinated with GMO pollen. GMO pollen is carried in the wind and has already began crossing with many people's home garden crops.
So the GMO 'scare' has already left the laboratory. Modified Genes are already crossing species lines and basically invading the weeds and garden plants across the nation.
Once these GMO salmon are released into the wild, will they continue to grow to become killer shark-like creatures? What other species of fish will take on the GMO ability to grow fast and large?
It is amazing that man is learning how to do this things. I am concerned that man clearly does not have the wisdom of when not to do them.
There is a method to their madness with all the GMO food.
They have found that lab animals become sterile in the 3rd generation!
I see this as a population reduction scheme.
If all this continues the planet will be denuded.
Maybe that is what happened to Mars.
As to the bad after taste in the chicken....it is there in the "natural" chickens too.
It seems that the FDA Requires that when the birds come to be ready to package, the MUST have a certain amount of Chlorine on them! I can tell you that it is not only on them it is IN them. They must soak the caracasses in the stuff. Beef and Pork also get a Citric Acid treatment. The fish you buy at the store also has been treated with either Chlorine of Citric Acid. The FDA gave the approval for this in the fall of 2008. I'm hypersensitive to all these things and am about out of things to eat.
We have seen where GMO-genes have crossed species barriers [I posted an article about GMO plants where the genes migrate to become bacteria genes in the human gut].
As an Organic Farmer I have seen it reported that wild plants are being found which have been pollinated with GMO pollen. GMO pollen is carried in the wind and has already began crossing with many people's home garden crops.
So the GMO 'scare' has already left the laboratory. Modified Genes are already crossing species lines and basically invading the weeds and garden plants across the nation.
Once these GMO salmon are released into the wild, will they continue to grow to become killer shark-like creatures? What other species of fish will take on the GMO ability to grow fast and large?
It is amazing that man is learning how to do this things. I am concerned that man clearly does not have the wisdom of when not to do them.
Agreed. I am particuarly concerned about the cross pollinization as I rent some land to a farmer for his crops but would like to do some more organically geared small scale food production for my own use as well as to take to farmer's market.
As to the salmon, I think this is particularly unwise given the havoc the asian carp is causing and their threat to the Great Lakes as well as our major rivers.
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