G.M.O.s on your plate

Submitted by David on Sun, 2011-02-20 18:07

There may be a significant amount of genetically modified food already in your diet. For example, about 80% of Canadian canola is genetically modified. Now it seems that genetically modified fish may be soon to arrive on American plates - it got approved by the US FDA last year (if you'd like to read the 180 page committee documents, see here). No labeling of these products is, of course, to be required. Read the AquaBounty description of these "advanced-hybrid salmon, trout, and tilapia" which are "reproductively sterile". This couldn't possibly have any unexpected or undesired consequences no doubt.

The FDA's approval process seems to have been rather sketchy:

  • An atypically short public review period,
  • examination of a grand total of 6 fish raised under different conditions than likely to be seen in practice,
  • a review committee with one only expert on fish and numerous individuals affiliated with genetic-engineering companies.

That said, you can do some freaky-looking stuff by breeding too - not just with genetic modification techniques.