Friends of the Earth - Center for Food Safety - Clean Water Action
October 18, 2001
Contacts: Mark Helm, 202-783-7400 x102
For Immediate Release
Consumer and Environmental Coalition Asks Restaurants and Grocers Not to Sell Genetically Engineered Fish
Washington, DC -- Friends of the Earth, the Center for Food Safety, and Clean Water Action announced a new campaign to prevent the commercialization of genetically engineered fish, citing potential negative health effects and threats to wild salmon. The groups are asking seafood retailers to pledge not to sell genetically engineered fish and to oppose their commercialization. An application is pending for market approval of an experimental salmon developed by Aqua Bounty Farms (also known as A/F Protein). The Food and Drug Administration could approve the application at any time putting the first engineered fish on dinner plates, grocery shelves and in restaurants across the country.
“Consumer safety, environmental groups and some in the seafood industry are calling on restaurants and grocery stores to pledge not to sell genetically engineered fish in order to keep the natural supply from being contaminated,” said Linda Setchell, campaign coordinator for Clean Water Action New England. "If the market for transgenic fish disappears, so will the drive to rush this untested technology into the marine environment."
The campaign will contact the largest restaurant chains and grocers in the U.S. that sell seafood asking them to pledge not to sell engineered fish and to oppose its commercial introduction to avoid contamination of their supplies. More than 50 have been contacted so far. Grocers include Kroger, Safeway and Trader Joe's while restaurants include Long John Silver, Applebee's and Legal Seafoods, and bagel companies include Einstein Brothers Bagels and Chesapeake Bagel Bakery. Campaign members are awaiting responses of several companies that are considering the pledge.
“Most people do not want to eat genetically engineered fish. We hope that companies that sell seafood will reflect public concern for health and the environment by making a pledge not to sell these fish,” said Lisa Ramirez, campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth.
According to Tracie Letterman, of the Center for Food Safety, “adequate independent studies of the health effects of eating these fish have not been conducted.” Additionally, a Purdue University study showed that the release of just 60 engineered fish into a population of 60,000 naturally occurring fish would cause the wild fish species to become extinct within only a few generations. The groups expressed concern about the potential threats to people who consume genetically engineered fish as well as the extinction level threat they pose to wild salmon.
The groups emphasized the liability risk companies could face if the fish turn out to be harmful or were to inadvertently enter supplies without federal approval. In a contamination incident last year, mixing of StarLink engineered corn into the food supply caused Taco Bell to lose $60 million in sales, Kraft Foods to recall over 25 million taco shells, and the price of all corn--not just genetically engineered corn--to drop dramatically in the year 2000 harvest. That corn was not approved for human consumption due to concerns about potential allergenicity.
Genetically Engineered Fish release
The risk of contamination of existing fisheries led the State of Maryland to pass a moratorium on the release of genetically engineered aquatic species into waters flowing into the Chesapeake Bay in April 2001. However, no federal legislation exists to restrict the introduction of engineered fish into other ecosystems or even into parts of the Chesapeake Bay that lie in other states.
Of particular ecological concern are dozens of salmon populations on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts already listed under the Endangered Species Act that could be further undermined by the release of engineered salmon. The release of fast-growing GE salmon would likely impose yet another significant burden on this wild fish species struggling to survive.
GE salmon are designed to grow as much as ten to thirty times faster than natural salmon. They would be raised in marine aquaculture operations (fish farms) before being sold to stores and restaurants across the country. Unintended releases of GE fish into the world's waters would be inevitable as hundreds of thousands of conventional farmed fish escape every year.
New studies have shown that GE fish may be more aggressive, eat more food, and attract more mates than wild fish. In addition, these same studies show that although GE fish may attract more mates, their offspring would be less fit and less likely to survive. As a result, scientists predict that GE fish could cause some species to become extinct within only a few generations. There are already dozens of salmon populations on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts that are listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
While no federal laws specifically govern the regulation of genetically engineered animals grown for human consumption, the FDA has made the informal decision to regulate GE fish under its authority to review new animal drugs. Given the potential toxicity, allergenicity, and aquaculture diseases posed by the commercialization of GE fish, the campaign members organized over 70 other organizations and individuals to join in the filing of legal petitions earlier this year to several agencies requesting a moratorium on the approval of GE fish until they have been properly reviewed.
“As a food safety agency, not an environmental agency, the FDA is ill-equipped to assess environmental impacts of engineered fish. Given its policy of treating engineered crops as equivalent to conventional crops, the FDA is also a biased promoter of this technology, not an impartial regulator,” added Ramirez of Friends of the Earth.
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An initial list of companies contacted and the pledge they have been asked to sign may be found at:
http://www.stopgefish.org
Additional information on engineered fish including the petition signed by more than 70 groups
may be found at:
http://www.stopgefish.org and http://www.gefish.org
For an article about a North American seafood importer opposed to engineered fish, see: “Industry Giants Urged to Fight GM fish” by Bent-Are Jensen,
http://www.intrafish.com/articlea.php?articleID=12533