Alaska Senator Mark Begich yesterday got to use the power of his Commerce subcommittee chairmanship to aim some barbs at genetically engineered salmon. Begich and Senator Lisa Murkowski have introduced a bill that would ban interstate commerce of what they’re calling “frankenfish.”
Begich says he’s concerned because the Food and Drug Administration, is the agency that’s deciding whether to approve the fish. Begich says that’s not an agency that typically grapple with questions about the health of fish stocks and the environment.
As you can imagine it’s very difficult to assess the environmental impacts from fish that have never existed before now. And the FDA is now asked to carry out an impossible task of trying to assess the food safety and the environmental impacts of genetically engineered fish.
The president of the company that wants to market genetically engineered, or GE, salmon held his product up for scrutiny. Ron Stotish runs Aqua-Bounty Technologies Incorporated, which is trying to get FDA approval to sell the first genetically engineered fish as human food in the U.S.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Alaska Public Radio Network