AquaBounty in Murky Water After Accusations of Safety Violations at GM Salmon Plant

“Both GE Salmon and land-based large aquaculture facilities are ‘new’ and ‘cutting edge,'” Block Corporate Salmon member and food justice organizer Jon Russell tells AFN. “GE Salmon is being touted as this revolutionary thing to save fish. Land-based aquaculture facilities [promise] to keep oceans clean and have clean fish."

April 1, 2023 | Source: AFN | by Jennifer Marston

“Both GE Salmon and land-based large aquaculture facilities are ‘new’ and ‘cutting edge,’” Block Corporate Salmon member and food justice organizer Jon Russell tells AFN. “GE Salmon is being touted as this revolutionary thing to save fish. Land-based aquaculture facilities [promise] to keep oceans clean and have clean fish. To see employees covered in hydrochloric acid, murky waters, the mortality rate [of the fish] and immense amount of ammonia in these waters ruins all of that.”

He says that even places where there is “a lot of waste” in the ocean don’t see the levels of toxicity found in some land-based aquaculture facilities.

There are also nutrition concerns around these fish. According to the FDA’s assessment, GE salmon contains 40% higher levels of a hormone linked to some cancers.

Activists believe AquaBounty releasing GE salmon into the US food system would open the floodgates to more GE animal products and facilities that operate with a “production at all costs” mindset.