The nannies over at the Genetically Engineered Food Alert coalition (GEFA) are at it again. This time, they’re asking the Food and Drug Administration to halt the pending approval of genetically improved fish. (Subscription required.) A Massachusetts company called Aqua Bounty has spent untold millions breeding a biotech salmon that can grow to full maturity faster than normal. It could eventually lead to more plentiful (and therefore more affordable and consistently available) salmon stocks, which would be great for consumers. But GEFA is peddling fear, as usual. The group has even resorted to Halloween imagery to scare people into shunning genetically improved food products. The StarLink corn debacle was a project of GEFA.
GE Food Alert’s publicity is managed by the PR firm Fenton Communications, and is made up of the following organizations: the US Public Interest Research Group, the National Environmental Trust, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the Organic Consumers Association, Friends of the Earth, the Center for Food Safety, and the Pesticide Action Network. GEFA also has ties to Greenpeace and the Maharishi Maresh Yogi cult.
Aqua Bounty’s biotech fish are grown specifically to be sterile, so that if they ever do escape into the wild, they will never reproduce. Noting that the FDA had already agreed to do a thorough health and environmental impact study, the company’s president told the New York Times: “What we really have here is an attempt to grab a headline.”
