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First Genetically Engineered Salmon Sold in Canada

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-genetically-engineered-salmon-sold-in-canada/

US firm AquaBounty Technologies says that its transgenic fish has hit the market after a 25-year wait


Genetically engineered salmon has reached the dinner table. AquaBounty Technologies, the company in Maynard, Massachusetts, that developed the fish, announced on August 4 that it has sold some 4.5 tons of its hotly debated product to customers in Canada.
The sale marks the first time that a genetically engineered animal has been sold for food on the open market. It took AquaBounty more than 25 years to get to this point.

The fish, a variety of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), is engineered to grow faster than its non-genetically modified counterpart, reaching market size in roughly half the time — about 18 months. AquaBounty sold its first commercial batch at market price: US$5.30 per pound ($11.70 per kilogram), says Ron Stotish, the company’s chief executive. He would not disclose who bought it.

AquaBounty formed around the technology in the early 1990s and approached regulators in the United States soon after. It then spent almost 25 years in regulatory limbo. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the salmon for consumption in November 2015, and Canadian authorities came to the same decision six months later. Neither country requires the salmon to be labelled as genetically engineered.
But unlike in Canada, political battles in the United States have stalled the salmon’s entry into the marketplace. The law setting out the US government’s budget for fiscal year 2017 includes a provision that instructs the FDA to forbid the sale of transgenic salmon until it has developed a programme to inform consumers that they are buying a genetically engineered product. Senator Lisa Murkowski (Republican, Alaska), who inserted the provision, has called AquaBounty’s salmon “fake fish”.

Farmed salmon can potentially lower prices and help reduce overfishing in our oceans. The usual anti-GMO activists will still complain, however.

https://phys.org/news/2017-08-sale-genetically-salmon-canada-alarms.html

Environmentalists charged Monday that genetically modified salmon are being marketed in Canada without warning labels and called on supermarkets to withdraw them from sale.
"The first genetically modified animals have arrived in the market and Canadian consumers are becoming, unwittingly, the first guinea pigs," said Thibault Rehn of the group Vigilance OGM.
On Friday, US company AquaBounty Technologies announced that it has sold about five tonnes of genetically modified salmon filets in Canada, after receiving a green light from food and health authorities.
The Health Ministry and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency ruled in May, after three years of testing, that the genetically modified salmon is "as safe and nutritious as conventional salmon."

Previous GAF threads on this issue:
The FDA approves... a salmon

FDA approves genetically modified salmon. Grows 2x fast, all female to avoid breeding

Frankenfish or super salmon? FDA to decide (what can possibly go wrong??)

Would you eat genetically modified salmon? I would. Especially if it's cheaper and/or has less mercury than wild salmon. Modify the fish to have even better nutrition next, please.
 

kami_sama

Member
I am still a little concerned about cross-breeding with wild salmons, but I welcome that the world is starting to get a little less weary about transgenics.
 

Aselith

Member
HeH



Sure, after the Canadians beta test it for me.


meftV0q.gif
 

rSpooky

Member
The gmo scare is a bit our of control really. I hope that in the future this is less of an issue and we can better deal with the food demands of the world. If people do not have to worry if they have something to eat that day it might also reduce conflict and wars.
 

Sesuadra

Unconfirmed Member
how does the taste, firmness of the meat etc compare to "normal" and slower grown salmon?

and, as long as they're grown in tanks and will never get out into nature I'm good. if the mouthfeel of the meat is the same.
I am still a little concerned about cross-breeding with wild salmons, but I welcome that the world is starting to get a little less weary about transgenics.
100% security that never one of the fishes gets out in the wild is definitely a must. or are they all infertile?
 

Jerry

Member
The day I can buy genetically engineered pork which is nothing but crackling is the day I die happy.
 
Genetically engineered as in took a normal already existing fish and did some genetic voodoo on it, or genetically engineered as in grown in a lab, never previously existed fish?

Sorry I'm a science noob.
 
Genetically engineered as in took a normal already existing fish and did some genetic voodoo on it, or genetically engineered as in grown in a lab, never previously existed fish?

Sorry I'm a science noob.

The fish, a variety of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), is engineered to grow faster than its non-genetically modified counterpart

The former.
 
'Grow faster' more like 'grow fatter'.

I am against most industrial salmon farming as it currently stands. Coming from Scotland where our wild salmon have been decimated compared to historic stock, and whitnissing the growth of commercial fish farming, where the migratory species are kept in shitty conditions, get obese, and taste oily and fatty compared to the wild variety, makes me shake my head. These genetics of these captive fish has already been manipulated, through breeding and forced selection, and they are pumped full of antibiotics. The fact that the wild stock continues a negative trend and these farmed varieties continue to burdgeon is revolting in my opinion.

It is not primarily genetic modification in and of itself, it is the much of the industry behind it which is out of wack with sustainability science...

Anyway, a lot of the genetic work in foods is ultimately profit driven, it bores me and I am not really in favour of it. Much more interested in potentially of genetic engineering to create bio-materials, etc... that is where the greater benefits are, which don't simply emerge from unsustainable management practices, shoring up inequitable access to food, fuelling increased consumption for ultimately profit driven motifs...You can see that I am more in line with ecoligical economic thinking, than the pathological growth mentality of free market economics...
 
Genetically engineered as in took a normal already existing fish and did some genetic voodoo on it, or genetically engineered as in grown in a lab, never previously existed fish?

Sorry I'm a science noob.

They'd call it "lab grown" if it were the latter.
It's just fancy breeding, in the end.

I'd buy it.
 
Found it, AQB on NASDAQ, I'm going in

Article was reproduced and reposted from here on the 4th, which begs the question. Why has their stock really only seen a tiny jump. Over the last month they've made a solid jump, however they effectively hit an all time low early this month before making about a 14% jump over the last few days. Suprisingly low jump for this kind of news.

http://www.nature.com/news/first-genetically-engineered-salmon-sold-in-canada-1.22116
 

Xe4

Banned
Cool shit. That type of GMO salmon has been under development for a damn long while now. It's good to see it finally reach market.
 

Circinus

Member
Farmed salmon can potentially lower prices and help reduce overfishing in our oceans. The usual anti-GMO activists will still complain, however.

https://phys.org/news/2017-08-sale-genetically-salmon-canada-alarms.html



Previous GAF threads on this issue:
The FDA approves... a salmon

FDA approves genetically modified salmon. Grows 2x fast, all female to avoid breeding

Frankenfish or super salmon? FDA to decide (what can possibly go wrong??)

Would you eat genetically modified salmon? I would. Especially if it's cheaper and/or has less mercury than wild salmon. Modify the fish to have even better nutrition next, please.

Good news, as OP says this could be the start of reducing fishing out in the oceans. I'd eat this.

Erm what? Just saying but fish farming, salmon farming most notably is notoriously bad for environment and for local fish populations. Farmed salmons are fed fishmeal and most of the fish in fishmeal is wild-caught.. (and it isn't just bycatch, fish (anchovies, mackerel, pollock, sprat etc) are specifically fished to processed to be fishmeal and fish oil). So farmed salmon does not reduce pressure on wild fisheries at all.

Still, this is not an argument against GMO of course, but an argument against salmon farming. I guess this GMO salmon still represents a step in the good direction since it requires less feed for same growth, but it's probably still futile since it just a very inefficient and environmentally-unfriendly method of food production. And if it puts more pressure to lower prices of farmed salmon, leading to higher consumptions then obviously in the end the environmental impact increases.


If you're concerned about overfishing it's undoubtedly much better to not eat fish at all, or to eat farmed shellfish (bivalves only, not crustaceans) like oysters, clams, mussels (these have actually a very positive ecological impact). Or eat sustainably caught fish that is on a low trophic level like anchovy, sardines, herring etc.
 

Sushi Nao

Member
Hey guys, bit of undeserved negative perception floating around in here about salmon farming that I'd like to address - but it's 3 am out on the farm right now, I'll try to get to it tomorrow.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Erm what? Just saying but fish farming, salmon farming most notably is notoriously bad for environment and for local fish populations. Farmed salmons are fed fishmeal and most of the fish in fishmeal is wild-caught.. (and it isn't just bycatch, fish (anchovies, mackerel, pollock, sprat etc) are specifically fished to processed to be fishmeal and fish oil). So farmed salmon does not reduce pressure on wild fisheries at all.

These salmon grow up faster which means they eat less food in their lifetime. They also respond favorably to plant based fish meal, and more research is being done for alternatives to traditional fish meal.

Progress is occurring.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Hey guys, bit of undeserved negative perception floating around in here about salmon farming that I'd like to address - but it's 3 am out on the farm right now, I'll try to get to it tomorrow.

If you still feel like writing about your perspective on this topic, I'd still love to read it :)
 
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-genetically-engineered-salmon-sold-in-canada/

US firm AquaBounty Technologies says that its transgenic fish has hit the market after a 25-year wait






Farmed salmon can potentially lower prices and help reduce overfishing in our oceans. The usual anti-GMO activists will still complain, however.

https://phys.org/news/2017-08-sale-genetically-salmon-canada-alarms.html



Previous GAF threads on this issue:
The FDA approves... a salmon

FDA approves genetically modified salmon. Grows 2x fast, all female to avoid breeding

Frankenfish or super salmon? FDA to decide (what can possibly go wrong??)

Would you eat genetically modified salmon? I would. Especially if it's cheaper and/or has less mercury than wild salmon. Modify the fish to have even better nutrition next, please.

I want GMO everything so yes. The alternative is to fix overpopulation and I'll take that over literally everything on the planet
 
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