Production of GMO Salmon Increases Significantly as $300 Million Farm in Ohio Takes Center Stage

June 4, 2022 by Nick Meyer

The Biotech industry has created several new products in recent years utilizing genetic modification, and GMO salmon is one of the industry’s newest laboratory creations.

The GMO salmon’s creator, AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. expanded from Canada into the United States in recent years, purchasing a 40-acre farm in Albany, Indiana in 2017.

The first GMO salmon was sold, unlabeled and untested for long term health effects on humans, at a market in Philadelphia last summer, and production has increased since.

Recently, the company announced that its output increased in the first quarter of 2022 — and it’s all leading up to the planned grand opening of a $300 million dollar GMO salmon production facility that could change the way humans consume fish for generations.

GMO Salmon Sales Up Twelve-Fold From 2021 to 2022

According to a report from MarketWatch.com, GMO salmon maker AquaBounty’s product revenue increased from $74,372 in the first quarter of 2021 to $962,881 a year later.

The company’s GMO salmon is being purchased in record numbers, which of course begs the question: Would consumers still buy it if they knew how it was made?

These fish, coined the ‘AquAdvantage salmon,’ are engineered to grow roughly two times faster than their natural salmon counterparts.

AquaBounty claims the fish eat 25 percent less feed and reach the marketplace in just 18 months.

The GMO salmon was developed through the use of a growth hormone gene from the Chinook salmon and genes from an eel pout. The company says its methods are safe, but non-GMO advocates warn that studies have shown unintended, off-target effects from the type of genetic engineering used to make them. 

Wild salmon fishermen and environmental advocates argue that GMO salmon will inevitably escape from these facilities and cause unknown changes to wildlife and the environment.

“It’s a terrible idea to design genetically engineered ‘frankenfish’ which, when they escape into the wild (as they inevitably will), could destroy our irreplaceable salmon runs,” said Mike Conroy, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, one of the plaintiffs in a recent federal lawsuit against AquaBounty which found that the FDA failed to properly assess risks posed by the GMO fish.

“Once engineered genes are introduced into the wild salmon gene pool,” he added, “it cannot be undone.”

A Forthcoming $300 Million GMO Salmon Farm in Ohio Could Change Everything

In May of this year, the FDA was sued over its failure to release documents pertaining to the approval of GMO salmon and the continued building of the $300 million GMO salmon farm in Pioneer, Ohio.

The facility is expected to be completed in 2023, with the stated goal of increasing GMO salmon production to 10,000 metric tons per year.

According to Jaydee Hanson of the Center for Food Safety, the FDA has not been transparent as to the intentions of the Ohio facility. 

If the facility is allowed to be built and GMO salmon continues on its current trajectory, millions of Americans could find themselves consuming unlabeled GMO salmon from restaurants, fish markets, cafeterias, special events and grocery stores — without even knowing it.

One of the world’s favorite animals, and one of its healthiest and most natural foods, could be modified, and many say corrupted, forever.

“We are concerned that FDA is not paying careful attention to AquaBounty’s planned expansion in Ohio,” said Jaydee Hanson, policy director at Center for Food Safety in a press release about its recent lawsuit against the FDA.

“After years of touting that it will grow its fish in tanks that recycle the water, the company now plans to pump water from the aquifer that supplies community drinking water and dump wastewater back into a nearby stream. Without the requested documents, we have no way to know if (the) FDA has fully considered the effects this facility will have on the local environment.”

Endangered species and wild salmon could be at risk, the Center added, and its approval was deemed unlawful. 

“Despite the 2020 court decision holding FDA’s first-ever approval of a genetically engineered food animal unlawful, FDA claims it needs nearly two years to produce records,” said Amy van Saun, senior attorney at the Center. 

“But our request is narrow and straightforward: it’s time for (the) FDA to tell the public about the possible environmental and ecological effects of genetically engineered salmon, including any effects to endangered wild salmon species.”

What Can You Do as a Consumer?

In 2013, GMO/Toxin Free USA joined a campaign led by Friends of the Earth to urge food companies to pledge not to sell genetically engineered salmon. Since then, 80 grocery stores, seafood companies, restaurants and foodservice companies have made that commitment. You can see the full list HERE.

In the absence of federal mandatory GMO labeling, how can you know if your salmon is genetically modified? The easiest way to avoid GMO salmon at present is to choose wild-caught salmon. Since AquaBounty’s AquAdvantage salmon is farm-raised, wild-caught claims or labeling cannot be applied to their GMO fish.

You can also help further by asking your favorite grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, catering service, and any other place that sells or serves seafood to take the No GMO Salmon Pledge. Point them to the pledge form HERE.

Are you a citizen sleuth? AquaBounty refuses to disclose who is buying their salmon. If you are aware of any grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, catering services, or any other place that is selling or serving AquAdvantage GMO salmon, send us an email at info@gmofreeusa.org.

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