Note: Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) is part of the STOP Genetically Engineered Trees Campaign. You can support the fight against the spread of GE organisms by signing the petition to stop GE trees here.
-The GJEP Team
February 28, 2013. Source: Canadian Biotechnology Action Network
Photo: ABC News
Charlottetown – Islanders Say No to GM Salmon is calling on Premier Ghiz to ban the production ofgenetically modified (also known as genetically engineered or GE) Atlantic salmon eggs in PEI. As the United States edges closer to approving human consumption of GM salmon in the next months, increased attention is now focused on Canada, and in particular PEI, as the only source of GM salmon eggs on the planet.
The experimental lab-created Atlantic salmon eggs have been produced by AquaBounty, an American company, at a remote facility in Bay Fortune, PEI for more than a decade while it tries to convince the U.S. government to allow the mutant fish into grocery stores.
AquaBounty proposes to produce the GM salmon eggs in PEI, ship them to Panama for growing out and processing, then send the GM fish into the U.S. market. Using PEI and Panama to produce the fish allows AquaBounty to avoid an even more contentious environmental assessment process in the US, said Islanders Say No to GM Salmon spokesperson Sharon Labchuk.
Already the US government has received more than 30,000 comments from citizens and groups as part of the public process to assess the GM fish. Almost one million people have signed an online petition from Avaaz, a global civic action organization, against GM salmon.
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Christy Rodgers
Global Justice Ecology Project
hallieb
Jeff Conant
