By Steven Salzberg – July 4, 2011 – What happened to genetically modified salmon? A few months back I was looking forward to my first taste of the new AquaBounty salmon, which grows to maturity twice as fast as wild salmon. Will it taste just as good? Better? I thought I’d know soon. But then politics intervened.
It’s almost always bad when politicians meddle in science. Usually they do so because they just don’t like what they’re hearing, as they have done time after time with global warming. Now it’s genetically modified salmon. What happened? The FDA was ready to approve the new salmon until two weeks ago, when Congressman Don Young from Alaska, under heavy lobbying pressure from the Alaskan fisheries industry, simply stepped in to block it. The FDA had already found that the fish was safe to eat, but hadn’t yet issued final approval. So Congressman Young and his pals decided to pass legislation to halt the process.
I wrote about AquaBounty’s salmon last year, when the FDA was holding hearings to approve it for human consumption. Ironically, the FDA doesn’t get to approve genetically modified crops, and our food supply is filled with GM corn, soy, and other plants. But thanks to the vagaries of U.S. law, the FDA gets to weigh in on salmon.
Read the complete story from Forbes.