While the FDA debates whether genetically modified salmon (AKA "frankenfish") will become the first GMO animal approved for human consumption, retailers are taking a stand. Kroger and Safeway have announced that they will not sell the GMO salmon, even if the FDA approves it.
From LA Times:
The nation's two largest conventional grocery chains, Kroger and Safeway, have announced that they will not sell genetically engineered salmon. They join several other chains, including Target, Whole Foods (of course) and Trader Joe's. Now let's hope the holdouts, such as Costco, do the same.
The Food and Drug Administration has not yet decided whether to approve the salmon, with DNA retooled so that the fish grow twice as fast as conventional salmon. But the agency already has decided that the fish are safe to eat and are very unlikely to pose an environmental threat if they're grown, as planned, in land-locked tanks.
The FDA's final decision on the fish has been expected for a long time, and there is speculation that the agency has been holding off mainly because it knows that the public is inclined to look suspiciously on the new product.
The fish would be raised in the mountains of Panama nowhere near the ocean, and they would be rendered sterile and all of them female, to avoid mating. However, the pens would be right next to a river, and the technology for producing sterile fish is not perfect -- it would fail in up to 5% of the animals.
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