Frankenfish or not?

[brewmaster15]

Genetically modified Salmon coming to a grocery store near you soon...

US regulators clear path for genetically modified salmon
By CANDICE CHOI, AP / 3:06 am ET Sat Mar 09, 2019
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. regulators on Friday gave the green light to salmon genetically modified to grow about twice as fast as normal, but the company behind it may face legal challenges before the fish can be sold domestically.

The Food and Drug Administration said it lifted an alert that had prevented AquaBounty from importing its salmon eggs to its Indiana facility, where they would be grown before being sold as food. The agency noted the salmon has already undergone safety reviews, and that it lifted its alert because the fish would be subject to a new regulation that will require companies to disclose when a food is bioengineered.

The move comes despite a pending lawsuit filed by a coalition of consumer, environmental and fishing groups that challenged the FDA's approval of the fish.

"We think a remedy in our case would stop sale of the fish before they're allowed to be sold," said George Kimbrell, legal director for the Center for Food Safety, one of the groups suing the FDA.

AquaBounty was founded in 1991, and it has been working through years of safety reviews and regulatory hurdles to sell its fish in the United States. In 2015, its salmon became the first genetically modified animal approved by the FDA for human consumption. But the agency subsequently issued an alert that stopped the Maynard, Massachusetts-based company from importing its fish eggs until disclosure guidelines for genetically modified foods were resolved.

Called AquAdvantage, the fish is Atlantic salmon modified with DNA from other fish species to grow faster, which the company says will help feed growing demand for animal protein while reducing costs.

AquaBounty CEO Sylvia Wulf said the company expects to get a final certification for its Albany, Indiana, growing facility in the coming weeks. Salmon eggs could then be sent from the company's research and development facility in Canada, and would be harvested after about 18 months when they reach 10 pounds, she said.

Wulf said it's been difficult to engage companies in sales discussions because AquaBounty didn't know when it could start growing the fish in the United States. She said the salmon already has been sold in limited quantities in Canada, where it doesn't have to be labeled as genetically modified. Wulf said she doesn't expect the pending lawsuit to affect the company's U.S. plans.

The genetically modified salmon are raised in tanks and bred to be female and sterile, measures designed to address any fears that they might get into the environment and breed with wild fish.

But Kimbrell, of the Center for Food Safety, said the company's own tests have shown it's not 100 percent certain the fish would be sterile, and that concerns about it getting in the environment would grow if the company's operations were to expand.

He also noted the disclosure regulation uses the term "bioengineered," even though most people are more familiar with the term genetically modified. And he pointed out that companies can provide disclosure through codes that have to be scanned.

Implementation of that regulation starts in 2020, though people may start seeing disclosures on packages sooner. Compliance becomes mandatory in 2022.

The genetic modification for AquaBounty's fish is different from gene-editing technology, which lets scientists snip out specific genes to bring about traits without introducing foreign DNA. Companies are also working to develop a variety of gene-edited crops and animals .

source...

https://my.xfinity.com/articles/news...ed-Salmon-7916


What are your thoughts? I personally do not like gmo foods not because I necessarily think they are unsafe for consumption ((though they potentially could be) but because they are potentially damaging to native organisms and honestly our track record with screwing up the environment with exotic releases and invasive species it pretty pathetic.

al

[bluelagoon]

My bottom line.I will not eat farmed fish.They are full of pollutants and carry diseases in the crowded pins that can be passed on to the ecosystems.

[samurai.cichlid]

Called AquAdvantage, the fish is Atlantic salmon modified with DNA from other fish species to grow faster, which the company says will help feed growing demand for animal protein while reducing costs.

i'm a big fan of finding ways to produce more food using less resources/time/space. it's a no brainer: it'd be better if we could feed more people more easily. i'm also happy to read there that the fish are all deliberately created to be sterile. it seems to me, the uninitiated, to be a safe practice?

although, i'm always suspicious when it comes to corporations "reducing costs". as a north carolinian the coal ash and gen x issues are fresh in my mind. i'm loathe to get too political and i really don't mean to; i don't really see protecting the environment (and thereby our health) as an ideological issue. but i understand and respect that some people do, so apologies in advance. keep in mind, i'm not trying to change anybody's mind, i'm just sharing what's on mine.

the concern going back to these gm salmon (and other gm foods) is that while it seems safe at the moment, we might find out in the future that it wasn't safe after all. it's happened many times in our history i.e. asbestos, lead pipes, mercury in thermometers, etc, etc, etc

[jeep]

My bottom line.I will not eat farmed fish.They are full of pollutants and carry diseases in the crowded pins that can be passed on to the ecosystems.

Ditto!!

[Willie]

My bottom line.I will not eat farmed fish.They are full of pollutants and carry diseases in the crowded pins that can be passed on to the ecosystems.

So the facts are farmed salmon contains considerably lower levels of PCB's, dioxins and heavy metals (including lead, mercury and cadmium) than wild salmon. Of course, I'm sure you eat catfish and tilapia, which are farmed. Wild catfish and tilapia are virtually inedible - taste like mud.

Willie

[bluelagoon]

I just try not to eat farmed fish.I do realize that fresh water catfish and tilapia are farmed.I am not fond of the muddy taste of fresh water fish myself and steer clear of them at the super market,knowing they're pin raised and fed CM food to fatten them up quicker.I used to live near some of those unsightly structures along our once beautiful coast of Nova Scotia;they are indeed an eye sore and please not in my back yard sort of deal.There is void of marine life beneath those pins and destroy the bottom in the area.Being once a fisherman I'm deed against those pins.We all know the world is getting too over populated and they need to be fed.This is the issue.I have very little against GM foods.Compare the taste of a GM anything to it's original form.Like the strawberries I had a few days ago big as black plums;they lacked in flavor.The shrimps are mostly out for me these days too;all seem to come from farms in Tailand ponds now.

[bluelagoon]

O and they are not 100% sterile salmon.Some do escape and interbreed with the wild stocks.It as been proven.

[brady]

I would not touch a farmed raised fish or shrimp. The only salmon I eat is wild caught
Alaska king, sockeye and copper river when available. Shrimp,wild caught gulf.
As far as gmo's ,same thing, not on my table.
Jay

[brewmaster15]

So the facts are farmed salmon contains considerably lower levels of PCB's, dioxins and heavy metals (including lead, mercury and cadmium) than wild salmon. Of course, I'm sure you eat catfish and tilapia, which are farmed. Wild catfish and tilapia are virtually inedible - taste like mud.

Willie

Willie where did you find the information on the toxins in farmed being less?...I had thought that tas well but when I try and find it doocumented I see the opposite.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition...on#fatty-acids

Farmed Salmon May Be Higher in Contaminants
Fish tend to ingest potentially harmful contaminants from the water they swim in and the foods they eat (1, 11).

Studies published in 2004 and 2005 showed that farmed salmon had much higher concentrations of contaminants than wild salmon (12, 13).

European farms had more contaminants than American farms, but species from Chile appeared to have the least (1, 14).

Some of these contaminants include polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins and several chlorinated pesticides.

Arguably the most dangerous pollutant found in salmon is PCB, which is strongly associated with cancer and various other health problems (15, 16, 17, 18).

One study published in 2004 determined that PCB concentrations in farmed salmon were eight times higher than in wild salmon, on average (19).

Those contamination levels are deemed safe by the FDA but not by the US EPA (20).

Researchers suggested that if the EPA guidelines were applied to farmed salmon, people would be encouraged to restrict salmon consumption to no more than once per month.

Still, one study showed that the levels of common contaminants, such as PCBs, in Norwegian, farmed salmon decreased significantly from 1999 to 2011. These changes may reflect lower levels of PCBs and other contaminants in fish feed (21).

In addition, many argue that the benefits of consuming omega-3s from salmon outweigh the health risks of contaminants.

SUMMARY

Al

[Willie]

I'll be glad to pull that report. But the fact of the matter is, it doesn't matter. People form their opinions devoid of science. When science is presented, they dismiss it.

1. People deny climate change even though the Arctic has opened up to free passage to commercial shipping.
2. People condemn GM foods even though the National Academy of Sciences confirm that not a single injury or death has been reported in 40 years of consumption.
3. People claim vaccines cause autism even after the original instigator of the hoax confessed.
4. People has this belief that nature is safe and everything else is inherently suspect. Nature nourishes us and also gives us E. coli, the Zika virus and radon gas. Science protects us from the negative aspects of nature.

What people chooses to eat is their business. But unless you buy your own salmon from a seafood specialty store and cook it, it's always going to be farmed. Farmed salmon costs about 1/2 the price of wild salmon and there's no way to tell the difference. So if you eat salmon at a restaurant, it's farmed. No matter what they say.

Like most things on the Internet, the publication you cite has an agenda. No citation is provided and the data does not reflect the original conclusions of the researchers. When you read the author's own bio, it states that he published hundreds of articles online. Yup, he's no scientist. He has never written a technical document subject to scrutiny.

Willie

[bluelagoon]

Here is a read on the sterile info on farmed salmon.Here are two "rabbit holes" for more info.Liverpool is where I grew up.https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfo...tudy-1.3770864 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...pool-1.4881177

[brewmaster15]

Willie ,
I look forward to your unbiased article and citations then.

I agree with you that many ignore the science and facts but I also know many that do not, including myself.

al

[RogueDiscus]

Maybe causing trouble, or showing my ignorance, or just stimulating conversation, but isn't every different kind of living organism the result of a usually random, accidental GM, that just happened to be supported by the environment? Many then went on to outcompete others, leading to their extinction. It's not like evolution has always created "better" species, just ones that survive. If the environment is changing, maybe it would be good to create a few that could survive.

OK, so now maybe I need to go back and read Shelley.

[brewmaster15]

Maybe causing trouble, or showing my ignorance, or just stimulating conversation, but isn't every different kind of living organism the result of a usually random, accidental GM, that just happened to be supported by the environment? Many then went on to outcompete others, leading to their extinction. It's not like evolution has always created "better" species, just ones that survive. If the environment is changing, maybe it would be good to create a few that could survive.

OK, so now maybe I need to go back and read Shelley.

Steve, its close but not the same. With GM foods we are literally taking Genes from one species and placing them into unrelated ones. For instance taking a bacteria that creates a toxin that kills insects and genetically implanting the genes into corn and other food plants so bugs die when they eat it. The plant makes its own pesticide which is safe for humans. The fear is these plants we have armed against the bugs can interbred with related species and in effect kill beneficial or non target insects. This has been shown to happen.

Or we create food plants that are round up ready.. they are bred to be able withstand round up weed killer.... So farmers can spray their crops and kill only the weeds. But again.. the plants can cross to the wild ones and then you need more pesticide or stronger ones...so it becomes an arms race.

I'm not saying that GM foods are necessarily bad for our health directly though I can see a potential there, but I think theres mounting evidence they are bad for native species. Gene pollution is becoming a very real thing.

The glass ball we live in is a fragile thing...throw too many stones and it will break.

Al

[RogueDiscus]

See, my ignorance. I forgot about mixing from different species.