Will Giant Genetically Modified Antifreeze Salmon Be Next on the Menu?

This week the FDA is likely to decide that genetically modified salmon is safe for you to buy and eat. The new fish, called AquaBounty, is salmon whose DNA has been deliberately altered.

Genetically modified food, however, is nothing new in the world. Most likely you've eaten it recently, if not today. Almost all of the soybeans and corn grown in the US come from seeds that are modified to resist pesticides. Genetically modified food is in your cereal, your soda, and your stomach—but only if it's growing from the ground. However, the FDA's decision is set to change that as AquaBounty would be the first time genetically modified animals would be legal to sell for human consumption.

AquaBounty is modified by introducing two foreign genes from two other fish. For those of you who don’t know what genetically modified food is; it is basically finding desirable traits in one animal, and sticking them in the other for a hybridized genetic sequence. With AquaBounty, the first of two genes are a powerful growth hormone from the Chinook salmon, boosted by pairing it with a gene from the obscure ocean pout, which triggers constant biological antifreeze that keeps the salmon growing during the winter. The result is a super fish that never stops growing. They keep growing, reaching full, bulky maturity in 18 months instead of three years. Company officials say the fish are environmentally sustainable and that only females will be sold. They have three sets of chromosomes, making them sterile and thus preventing new families of mutant fish or interbreeding with native populations. Larger fish that grow faster means more money for farmers, and more food for fish fans. What could go wrong?

AquaBounty Salmon grow at twice the rate of their natural counterparts. These fish are the same age.

Well as always, there is opposition to the idea of genetically modified super-salmon. Scientists and food safety advocates are calling out the FDA on sloppy, biased science. Skeptics worry about Frankenfish-induced allergies and illnesses, because the fish have never been eaten before. Other critics fear that rampaging populations of fast-growing salmon, which grow at twice the rate of their normal brethren, might out-eat wild populations and starve them into extinction. And will we even know what we're exposing ourselves to? However the FDA has already ruled that GM salmon won't need to be labeled as such. In addition they have further concluded, that we have nothing to worry about health-wise, though critics characterize their testing methodology as laughable, using only a dozen or so sample fish to test check for potential medical complications in humans. Compare this to the European Union, where opposition to GM food is so intense that only a dozen or so have been approved in the past decade—a process requiring multinational consensus, not a small panel of experts.

If the FDA approves AquaBounty’s sale of the fish, it could be available in supermarkets within two years, AP reports.

I think that if either side is correct, the impact will still be the same. The first time for GM fish to be introduced onto our plates will be the most difficult to achieve, but once superfish are the norm, the rest of the animal kingdom won’t be far behind. As Gizmodo said:

“When fish that are named by trademarks instead of taxonomy are commonplace, it will have changed a fundamental part of eating. Companies and R&D labs, rather than oceans, may someday be the source of our food—a shift that companies like AquaBounty have fought hard for, spending $60 million and a decade to develop the salmon. On paper, the benefits of GM animals are clear. But, like anything else that ends up in our bodies, rigorous deliberation is necessary—maybe enough until both sides are quiet and content.”

What do you guys think? Do you support eating GM food because of the ease of “production” or will you avoid the Frakenfish in order to not grow a second arm? As usual let us know in the comments below.