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Since virtually all Atlantic Salmon are now sourced from fish farms, the seafood industry is pushing to have genetically modified fish permitted by the FDA without the use of specific labeling.
Though the GM fish would not be cultivated in open-sea systems where they could potentially escape, out-compete and eliminate the wild populations, the all-female, all-sterile and all-modified fish the industry proposes to raise on inland farms could still cause problems. While “closed” aquaculture systems are beneficial in that they help take pressure off wild populations, by genetically altering a species facing extinction we also could make it in the interest of the mega-fisheries to replace the wild and “open-source” salmon with a modified and proprietary version.
Industry advocates prefer to defend genetic modification entirely on the basis of its effect on human health. They claim the transgenic fish (which achieve full size in a fraction of the natural time) are not materially different from wild fish and thus need not be labeled. But what both the industry and the public fail to recognize is that this GMO debate is not just about human health. It is also about the health and natural diversity of the planet. The question that still needs to be addressed is whether or not we can find ways to solve our food needs by changing human behavior rather than the sovereign nature of animals.
Since the only way to maintain healthy wild fish populations is by maintaining a healthy ocean ecosystem, the answer to the shortage of seafood must not be sought only in closed and contained aquaculture systems but also by regulating the global seafood industry in order to protect the health and abundance of the oceans. |
