Friends of the Earth's genetically engineered salmon issue brief
"Just Label It!" campaign kicks off!
Grist.org, “Genetically engineered salmon’s fishy promises"
Huffington Post, "Genetically Engineered Salmon Waylaid by Congress"
During a week-long tour of Atlantic Canada, we will raise awareness on the risks of genetically engineered fish pose to our environment and our health. We’ve spent the past year urging the Food and Drug Administration to conduct proper environmental assessments on genetically engineered salmon, to deny approval of the so-called “Frankenfish,” or at the very least to label them so consumers know what they’re eating and feeding to their families.
Our biotechnology campaigner Eric Hoffman is spending the week of October 24-28 touring several different communities along the Atlantic coast of Canada, discussing the risks of genetically engineered salmon on the environment and wild fish populations. He’ll be posting his updates daily to this blog – read on to find out how his adventures up north are going.
Whew! After four-plus days of non-stop action here in Atlantic Canada, our tour is starting to slow down. We just had our last meeting this morning with the local government, and we have the rest of the day off to relax and discover Newfoundland!
I wanted to take this time to thank all of you who have been reading the blog and ask you to check back next week for a summary of my thoughts about the trip. Blogging was an experiment for me, but it has been a great opportunity to write about our travels for our friends and colleagues back home.
This trip has been invaluable for our genetically engineered salmon campaign. I am excited to return home and keep our fight going to ensure the AquaBounty frankenfish (and all genetically engineered foods) do not threaten our environment, our health or our right to a healthy, sustainable, and just food system that we all deserve.
Until next week,
Eric
The past four days touring Atlantic Canada have been a whirlwind!
Tonight we hosted our fourth and last public forum in St. John’s. This city is the birthplace of AquaBounty’s genetically engineered salmon, as it was a professor at a local university who first invented the technology. We had more than 80 people in attendance, and the audience was really active during the Q&A time... [Read More]
Here's a really interesting article about the tour and the message we're trying to get across: 'Frankenfish' concern international delegation:
An international delegation against genetically-modified salmon is holding public meetings across the Atlantic provinces to raise awareness of what its members call "Frankenfish."
The group, which includes people from Prince Edward Island, Ottawa and Washington, stopped in Fredericton on Tuesday to campaign against about what could soon become the first world's first genetically-modified animal approved as a food product...
Day three on the road, and things aren’t slowing down one bit! Yesterday we received news that the official opposition party here, the New Democratic Party, introduced a motion in the Canadian Parliament that would ban the introduction of genetically engineered salmon into the Canadian food supply. [Read more]
Check out this clip from the Global Maritimes evening news program!
Day two on the genetically engineered salmon tour, and things are coming along well. We drove four hours this morning from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, to Fredericton, New Brunswick. Most of the day was spent in the car, but we also had a number of interviews with local press and got to meet our hosts from the Conservation Council of New Brunswick and the Fundy Bay Keepers, two of our allies in Canada.
The press coverage around our tour has been greater than I ever would have predicted...[Read More]
Check out this article, published in The Guardian (Charlottetown): Public needs more information on GM salmon, says advocates:
A company that's producing genetically modified salmon isn't giving the public enough information about them, says a spokesman for a food safety group.
Jaydee Hanson, a policy analyst with the U.S. based Centre for Food Safety, said there are concerns about the health of salmon at AquaBounty, but the company isn't providing the public with information it...
Late last night, I finally arrived in Charlottetown, on Prince Edward Island, to kick off my genetically engineered salmon tour of Atlantic Canada. It was already dark when my plane landed so I couldn’t see just how beautiful the island is. Thankfully, though, I had a chance to take in the scenery today, as I drove with my fellow tourmates from Charlottetown a little more than an hour to Bay Fortune, where the AquaBounty facility is located. A few weeks ago, we requested a tour of the facility where the company plans to raise its genetically engineered salmon eggs, but our request was denied.
Even though we had hoped to get a look at the place where genetically engineered salmon may get its start, we didn’t let their refusal to give us a tour stop us from going to Bay Fortune on our own... [Read more]
On October 23 I’m flying to Prince Edward Island, Canada, for a week-long tour of Atlantic Canada to discuss the risks of genetically engineered fish. Prince Edward Island is home to the facility that will create genetically engineered Atlantic salmon eggs to be raised into food for the U.S. public. This would be the first-ever genetically engineered animal to be approved for human consumption and could open the floodgate to other genetically engineered animals, such as trout, tilapia, cows, pigs, and even chickens.
Friends of the Earth has been campaigning for the past year to prevent the FDA approval of this genetically engineered salmon produced by Massachusetts-based company AquaBounty Technologies. We have asked the FDA to complete a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement to get a better idea of the risks genetically engineered salmon pose to the environment and to wild salmon populations – but it seems as if the FDA is gearing up to move ahead with only a flawed environmental assessment based on company data that doesn’t look at the full range of risks these fish pose. We have also asked the FDA to put a label on this genetically engineered fish should it decide to approve it, so consumers can avoid genetically engineered salmon if they chose.
We are now taking our show on the road to raise awareness on how genetically engineered salmon may impact the people and environment of our neighbors up north. I will be traveling with Jaydee Hanson, the senior policy analyst at the Center for Food safety, and meeting up with Lucy Sharratt, the coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, and Leo Broderick, vice-chair of the Council of Canadians, to give four public presentations and meet with local activists and politicians. You can learn more about the events, including venues and a list of speakers, at the CBAN website. These events are all free and open to the pubic, and we hope to see you and any friends or family you have in the area!
I will also be updating this blog daily (as long as internet access permits) to keep our members and supporters up-to-date with how the trip is coming along, along with pictures and news from the road. In the meantime, check out all our resources in the sidebar above for information on genetically engineered foods and our campaign against them. Be sure to let us know what you think!
Cheers,
Eric