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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:
"Tahoma","sans-serif";">Gene-spliced
salmon a risky unknown</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:
"Tahoma","sans-serif";">Sacramento
Bee-11/20/10 </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:
"Tahoma","sans-serif";">By Noelle
Ferdon and Rick Guerrero </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:
"Tahoma","sans-serif";">Opinion</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Although fish may not be on the menu for your
Thanksgiving
Day feast, its fate for future meals hangs in the balance. The
Food and Drug Administration
is on the verge of approving the first genetically engineered fish
for human
consumption: an Atlantic salmon crossed with the genes of two
other fish to
make it grow twice as quickly as a normal salmon. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If the FDA approves the fish, it may not even
be labeled as
genetically engineered. Consumers would have no way of knowing
whether they
were eating a natural salmon or a mutant farmed fish whose impact
on human
health and the environment is still largely unknown. The last day
for public comment
is Monday. Comments can be submitted at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>,
docket No.
FDA-2010-N-0385.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A federal bill that would ban the production of
genetically
engineered fish (HR 6265) was recently introduced to put the
brakes on the
FDA's runaway process. Sacramento Rep. Doris Matsui should take a
stand and
co-sponsor this bill. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It is not just seafood-loving consumers who
should worry
about the future of their next salmon fillet if genetically
engineered farmed
salmon are OK'd. Our local salmon and the communities that depend
on them,
would be at risk, too. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Pacific Coast fisheries have been in a state of
crisis for
several years. The number of salmon in the Sacramento River fell
from 800,000
in 2002 to under 40,000 in 2009. Up and down the West Coast,
commercial salmon
fisheries have closed for the last few years, costing an estimated
23,000 jobs
and $2.8 billion in lost revenue. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Farmed salmon already threaten wild stocks,
escaping by the
millions each year from ocean pens. There, they compete for
resources, spread
disease and reduce biodiversity. Genetically engineered salmon
could be even
more dangerous to wild fish, as their quick growth makes them more
voracious
and aggressive (think salmon on steroids) and more likely to
outcompete wild
fish for food. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In a letter sent to FDA Commissioner Margaret
Hamburg in
September, 14 California legislators registered deep concern that
"approval (of AquaBounty's petition) will lead to numerous other
applications to grow this and other genetically modified fish. …
California's wild salmon runs are at historical lows and are not
capable of
withstanding an additional assault that could come from escaped
genetically
modified farmed salmon in the future." </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The legislators also point out that California
law prohibits
the rearing of genetically engineered salmon or any transgenic
fish in our
ocean waters. FDA approval could pre-empt California from
enforcing this law.
Even if it did not, flooding the market with genetically
engineered farmed
salmon raised elsewhere would undercut local producers of wild
Pacific Coast
salmon – much like cheap farmed shrimp from foreign operations has
driven
the few sustainable, local shrimperies left in the United States
toward
bankruptcy.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer have
sent letters
to the FDA expressing concern over the FDA's shoddy approval
process of
genetically engineered salmon. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Experts, including scientists at the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife
Service, believe that insufficient research has been done on the
risks of
raising or eating genetically engineered salmon. The FDA only
considered
studies conducted by AquaBounty or its contractors, not
independent scientists.
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The rapid approval of genetically engineered
salmon would
open the floodgates for other transgenic food animals. It would
also reduce
political pressure to restore our natural salmon runs. But we must
restore
them: their health is critical to our fishing communities, our
economy, Pacific
tribal cultures and our state's biodiversity. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It would be a mistake for our legislators to
allow the
approval of genetically engineered salmon, particularly at a time
when our
unemployment rate is at an all-time high and efforts to restore
our wild salmon
fisheries are in full force. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Matsui sits on the House Energy and Commerce
Committee,
which allocates funding for the FDA. She has an especially
important role to
play in protecting our health and the critical salmon habitat that
helps define
the Sacramento region. She can lead on this issue by co-sponsoring
HR 6265 and
by directing the FDA to develop a robust process for considering
genetically
engineered animal applications. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Our fisheries are nearing the point of no
return. We need
federal and state investment in their restoration, not a science
experiment
that uses our plates – and our environment – as a Petri dish.# </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Noelle Ferdon is senior organizer with the
consumer
advocacy group Food & Water Watch. Rick Guerrero is
president of the Green
Democratic Club of Sacramento County.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="http://www.sacbee.com/2010/11/20/3199355/gene-spliced-salmon-a-risky-unknown.html">http://www.sacbee.com/2010/11/20/3199355/gene-spliced-salmon-a-risky-unknown.html</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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