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Guest Blog: Janice Beers JD
Surprise: FDA Panel Unable to Reach Conclusion on a Genetically Modified Food!

Public Hearing Concludes, No Vote or Recommendation by FDA
By KIM CAROLLO, ABC News Medical Unit
Sept. 20. 2010

“After two days of hearings, several members of an 11-member advisory panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found that there are not yet sufficient data to determine that a genetic modification that enables salmon to grow twice as quickly is safe for the affected fish or for consumers.

“The panel, made up of outside experts, did not vote or make a recommendation on whether to approve these fish for human consumption, after holding today’s public hearing to determine whether genetic engineering is safe for the fish; whether the fish are safe to eat; whether the fish actually do grow faster; and the potential environmental impacts the production of these fish could pose…”

This is GOOD NEWS about the FDA Panel holding off deciding whether genetically altered salmon are safe to sell for food until they look into the matter more.

Some experts told the hearing that technology is beneficial. But then all they addressed was whether the GM salmon are safe — for the environment! They are looking at ecological risk.

I have not heard that the hearing ever heard HOW the salmon were genetically modified. They did not look at the mechanism by which the genetic modification worked in the fish.

The article that I am forwarding here says “The genetically altered salmon eggs include a growth hormone gene that cause them to reach full size in about half the time it takes regular salmon to reach the same size.” Said another way, they grow to market size two times faster than non-modified Atlantic salmon. It’s about money and profit.

I have explored what the so-called “growth hormone gene” is and what it does. Please follow this:

“The firm inserted part of a gene from an ocean pout into the growth gene of a Chinook salmon. They then injected the combined genetic material into the fertilized egg of a North Atlantic salmon.” http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-welfare/blog/FDA_considers_Frankenfish_for_human_consumption/

It is an Atlantic salmon that contains a growth hormone gene from a Chinook salmon as well as a genetic on-switch from the ocean pout, a distant relative of the salmon. http://www.naturalnews.com/029193_GMOs_salmon.html

I looked up ocean pout in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_pout

The ocean pout (Zoarces americanus) is an eelpout in the family Zoarcidae. It is found in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of New England and eastern Canada. The fish has antifreeze proteins in its blood, giving it the ability to survive in near-freezing waters.

Scientists have done studies wherein genes are taken from the ocean pout and implanted into salmon in an attempt to make the latter grow faster.[1][2] These genes transfer the ocean pout’s tolerance for extremely cold waters to the salmon, allowing it to grow year-round.

If it grows year round, even in cold water, of course it grows faster than non-GM Atlantic salmon. Antifreeze proteins are being renamed

“. . . ‘ice structuring proteins’ in order to more accurately represent their function and to dispose of any assumed negative relation between AFPs and automotive antifreeze, ethylene glycol. These two things are completely separate entities.” [Ocean pout have them naturally, but I don’t eat ocean pout.] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifreeze_protein#Mechanisms_of_action

What I don’t like about this is that the FDA has approved “ice structuring proteins” for use in all kinds of foods we eat — without our knowing they are in it. And I don’t trust what FDA has approved as safe.

The “ice structuring proteins” are in the GM salmon that FDA is being asked to approve for sale for food in the U.S. That’s the point. When Atlantic salmon were genetically modified, they were put in the salmon to make them reach market size faster. They are still in the salmon when they are pulled out of the water. They will be in the salmon when it is put on our plates.

Real, wholesome Atlantic salmon have no “ice structuring proteins.” The GM salmon that FDA is being asked to approve as food do have them. Maybe they are safe. Maybe not. The choice to eat such manipulated food must be your choice, not the FDA’s choice! If approved by the FDA these “Frankenfish” would be able to be sold without a warning to the public that they are GMO and their effect on the human body is not known for certain!

To oppose all GMO foods that are not labeled, and to demand the right to know if foods are “GMO Free” (a label the FDA does not currently allow) take action here: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2049