Posted on 04/01/2016 6:41:39 AM PDT by w1n1
The Golden Gate Salmon Association is among several litigants in a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s plans to develop genetically engineered salmon.
Here's some info on the lawsuit:
A broad coalition of environmental, consumer, and commercial and recreational fishing organizations today sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approving the first-ever genetically engineered (GE) food animal, an Atlantic salmon engineered to grow quickly. The man-made salmon was created by AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. with DNA from three fish: Atlantic salmon, Pacific king salmon, and Arctic ocean eelpout. This marks the first time any government in the world has approved a GE animal for commercial sale and consumption.
In approving the GE salmon, FDA determined it would not require labeling of the GE fish to let consumers know what they are buying, which led Congress to call for labeling in the 2016 omnibus spending bill. FDA’s approval also ignored comments from nearly 2 million people opposed to the approval because the agency failed to analyze and prevent the risks to wild salmon and the environment, as well as fishing communities, including the risk that GE salmon could escape and threaten endangered wild salmon stocks. Read the rest of the story here.
Why would anyone sue genetically engineered salmon?
I’m definitely not against genetically engineered anything (non-human), UNLESS it threatens the integrity of crops of other people, and as long as it is clearly indicated as such.
Frankenfish !!
No, stopping starvation fish
We’ve been genetically engineering foods for millennia. What do these people think selective breeding is?
I want to know where they would escape to? Are they going over the pond wall or through the drainage system? “The ocean is only 30 miles away, let’s rob a bicycle since that is a trait we were taught.”
“My god Hopkins, fish can really ride bikes.”
manipulating genes is the same whether you breed for the trait or shortcut the process by inserting it. The point is one process isn’t necessarily more “dangerous” to life than the other.
As if those salmon have a dime to their names.
As you say, but inserting genes from one animal into another that would never naturally have them is what is happening in this case. If they had a breeding program that achieved the same results I would be okay with that.
To my way of thinking, (sans lab evidence), the DNA of the food we eat is extremely important to our diet and well being. There is no way to determine what effect genetically altered food of any sort will have on our internal systems....same with micro-waved foods.
Selective breeding, humans using God's tech to manipulate God's creations, has produced both good and bad results. We do the best we can.
Otoh, to me, genetic manipulation in the lab, humans using human tech to manipulate God's creations, cuts away the safety net.
We think we know more than we do. We think we can, but we tend to forget our mistakes and often don't remember why we shouldn't.
For example:
“You know what's wrong with scientific power?" Malcolm said.For our sake and that of a happy future, I hope that safety net is still in place.
“It’s a form of inherited wealth. And you know what assholes congenitally rich people are. It never fails."Hammond said, "What is he talking about?”
Harding made a sign, indicating delirium. Malcolm cocked his eye.“I will tell you what I am talking about," he said.
"Most kinds of power require a substantial sacrifice by whoever wants the power.
There is an apprenticeship, a discipline lasting many years.
Whatever kind of power you want. President of the company. Black belt in karate. Spiritual guru.
Whatever it is you seek, you have to put in the time, the practice, the effort.
You must give up a lot to get it. It has to be very important to you.
And once you have attained it, it’s your power. It can't be given away: it resides in you.
It is literally the result of your discipline.Now what is interesting about this process is that,
by the time someone has acquired the ability to kill with his bare hands,
he has also matured to the point where he won't use it unwisely.
So that kind of power has a built-in control.
The discipline of getting the you so that you won't abuse it.But scientific power is like inherited wealth: attained without discipline.
You read what others have done, and you take the next step.
You can do it very young. You can make progress very fast.
There is no discipline lasting many decades.
There is no mastery: old scientists are ignored.
There is no humility before nature.
There is only a get-rich-quick, make-a-name-for-yourself-fast philosophy.
Cheat, lie, falsify--it doesn't matter. Not to you, or to your colleagues.
No one will criticize you. No one has any standards.
They all trying to do the same thing: to do something big, and do it fast.”“And because you can stand on the shoulders of giants, you can accomplish something quickly.
You don't even-know exactly what you have done, but already you have reported it; patented it, and sold it.”“And the buyer will have even less discipline than you. The buyer simply purchases the power, like any commodity.
The buyer doesn’t even conceive that any discipline might be necessary.”Hammond said, "Do you know what he is talking about?"
Ellie nodded.
“I haven't a clue”; Hammond said.“I’ll make it simple.” Malcolm said.
"A karate master does not kill people with his bare hands. He does not lose his temper and kill his wife.
The person who kills is the person who has no discipline no restraint,
and who has purchased his power in the form of a Saturday night special.”“And that is the kind of power that science fosters, and permits.
And that is why you think that to build a place like this is simple.""It was simple," Hammond insisted.
'Then why did it go wrong?"
--from Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. New York: Ballantine Books, 1990, pp.305-307.
Yeah, I know, I'm quibbling over the mathematics of infinity.
"But I Still Have Many Clones On The Way, To Confuse the Assasins."
I won’t be happy till they engineer the liberal gene out of humans.
LOL, Now that is a worthy goal!
But why sue the salmon and not the FDA or the company?
(My point here was the sloppy headline)
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