Hightower Lowdown

If you listen closely, you can always hear a big, wet smooching sound whenever corporate interests get in the back rooms with government officials.
This time it’s the Food and Drug Administration in there with corporate fish marketers. The FDA is conducting a secret review of a proposal to allow firms to put genetically altered Frankenfish on our plates. These are fish that have had their DNA manipulated by lab technicians, who splice in genes from other species.
Is this genetic manipulation done to make the fish tastier or more nutritious? No. It’s done strictly to make the fish grow larger and faster in order to produce quick profits. The first transgenic species being considered for FDA approval is salmon. The transgenic salmon, farmed in ocean pens, grows twice as fast as normal salmon. Fine for the marketers, but, as we’ve learned from experience, when corporate interests mess with Mother Nature, we tend to get a mess.
The biggest mess in this case comes when the biotech salmon escape from their pens, as inevitably happens. These super-salmon are able to muscle aside wild species in the search for food and mates. Even a small number of the biotech salmon can have a devastating effect on the already endangered wild population, eventually leading to its extinction.
A growing group of agitators is rallying to prevent this. Some 200 chefs, grocers, and other seafood purveyors have launched a boycott, pledging not to buy or serve transgenic fish. To join the effort, contact the Center for Food Safety’s anti-GE fish campaign at 800-600-6664.