Part 6: Genetically Modified Organisms--Frankensteinization of fish

By Frosty Wooldridge

Part 6:  Turning salmon into something they are not

“We are eating hybridized and genetically modified (GMO) foods full of antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, and additives that were unknown to our immune systems just a generation or two ago. The result? Our immune system becomes unable to recognize friend or foe — to distinguish between foreign molecular invaders we truly need to protect against and the foods we eat or, in some cases, our own cells. In Third World countries where hygiene is poor and infections are common, allergy and autoimmunity are rare.”  Mark Hyman MD, The UltraMind Solution: Fix Your Broken Brain by Healing Your Body First

Genetically Modified Food scientists and corporations do not care what they thrust upon the Natural World.  They lack moral or ethical compunction of any kind.  They change DNA structure of plants to create “Frankenstein” equivalents in the foods we eat.

Not happy with the plant world, they entered the animal world hell bent for changing the structure of the living, breathing visceral world.

In a journal of www.FoodandWaterWatch.org , integral scientists presented readers with: “Genetically Engineered Salmon

Deficient, Deformed, and Dangerous to You and the Environment.”

The report said, “Beyond GE salmon’s uninspiring growth rates, the fish demonstrates serious risks to consumer health, animal welfare, fishing economies and the environment. That’s all on top of potentially diminishing the nutrition and taste of salmon, one of the most popular and important fish in the American diet. Unfortunately, the FDA’s flimsy regulatory approach has failed to examine both the false promises and clear risks of leaving consumers unprotected.”

While we see dramatic destruction of our plant world, we cannot see underwater.  Again, please understand that enormous amounts of money exchange hands for those who benefit into the billions of dollars to members of our U.S. Congress.   Bribery of old gave the “Robber Barons” a chokehold on America’s money supply.  Notice the bankers back in 1913 that forged the Federal Reserve right into the free money market of America.  Today, that same reserve controls everything in favor of the money-elites.

“Given the ambitions of the biotechnology industry, which claims that genetic engineering is essential to future food production and corporate profits, the FDA’s approval of GE salmon would set an important             precedent, paving the way for a deluge of new GE animals to enter the food supply,” said a spokesperson for Food and Water Watch.  “The FDA has also taken under consideration other proposals, like the Enviropig, a

genetically modified pig engineered to have manure with less phosphorous and designed for use on environmentally damaging factory farms.  The biotech industry spent nearly $550 million lobbying Congress between 1999 and 2009 to secure favorable rules, regulations and policies.”

The Biotechnology Industry Organization spent $8 million just in 2011 lobbying on issues including GE salmon.  The long-term intensive lobbying effort has allowed biotech companies to take control of the genetic content of much of the food produced in the United States.

Consumers do not want to eat GE salmon. A 2010 Reuters poll found major consumer opposition to genetically engineered fish, and 93 percent of respondents said they would want it to be labeled.  But the FDA ignored consumer concerns while setting an extremely low bar for AquaBounty’s scientific submissions, accepting data from the company that is flawed, biased, misleading and incomplete.

Dartmouth Professor Anne Kapucinski, a renowned expert on environmental issues related to biotech fish,noted major deficiencies in the FDA’s environ-mental review, citing three missing analyses: an uncertainty analysis, a quantitative failure-mode analysis and an analysis of the possible environmental impacts.

Much like what happens when GMO crops cross-pollinate with other natural plants, the Natural World reels back into the unknown. Same with GMO salmon.

Once GE salmon escape, they could out-compete wild salmon for food and even mates, quickly driving downwild populations. A 2011 study of GE salmon  mimicked an escape event and found that GE salmon would survive if released in the wild.  Even if salmon fail to survive long enough to reproduce, their short-term    presence in the wild could have myriad and insidious impacts on native fish populations and a variety of marine life, which the FDA did not examine.

Finally, the report said, “An additional concern about escaping GE salmon is the disease that they could spread to wild populations. Farmed salmon currently in production, which are raised in stressful, densely crowded environments, already have been linked to the spread of diseases, such as infectious hematopoictic necrosis, sea lice and furunculosis.  Heaven only knows that those words mean!

This “thing” we force on Mother Nature will bite back on our species and all species with greater consequences the further we tamper with the balance of nature.  Again, as the human race continues to add 1 billion of its own every 12 years and another 3.1 billion by 2050—a scant 36 years from now—any and all kinds of horrors face our species.

Join:  www.justlabelit.org

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