A recent Senate hearing placed a spotlight on the regulatory tangle surrounding the approval process for genetically-engineered salmon. Potentially the country’s first GE animal for human consumption, the salmon have raised a host of worries among critics including the impact on the environment should they escape fish farms.
However, what came to the fore during the mid-December hearing was the complicated morass of government approval, oversight, and trade when dealing with the GE fish. Other GE animals are surely being developed and the current approval process outlined during the hearing seems ill-equipped to deal with the new technology.
Years ago, Massachusetts-based AquaBounty, submitted an application for its GE salmon to the FDA. In late 2010, preliminary analysis by the FDA – charged with regulating GE animals as “new animal drugs” — said the fish were safe for consumption were unlikely to harm the environment. That was hardly the last word as the approval process has since moved through a handful of other federal agencies.
Questions to the expert panel from the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard mostly came from the chairman, Alaska Sen. Mark Begich, and Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe. Both have large salmon industries in their states and Begich has introduced S.1717, which would ban interstate commerce of genetically engineered salmon.
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