The ‘Franken Salmon’ is dead in the water, but other GM animals thrive
The AquAdvantage Salmon may have failed because of its wide media coverage which included environmental projections, ethical questions about species creation and consumer feedback. The many GM animals that have been created in the lab before and after the salmon are still being ignored from underreporting and almost no consumer outrage.
MARTHA ROSENBERG: AquaBounty Technologies, the company that produced the genetic modified (GM) AquAdvantage salmon “Frankenfish,” has shut down, largely thanks to grocery chain rejection… But that doesn’t mean new GM animals have disappeared. In fact, they are thriving largely through flying under the public radar…
For example, Giuseppe Ambrosi, European Dairy Association president, told Dairy Global that, “Genome editing has been found to be a valuable tool for lightening the hair and coat color to better adapt dairy cattle to rapidly changing climatic conditions.” Dark coats absorb more “solar radiation”––so here’s a solution to climate change!
National Hog Farmer, another industry outlet, wrote that genetic engineering “has the potential to transform how we improve livestock with genetics … increasing agricultural productivity (more food for more people in our community and elsewhere)”…
Like feeding food/farm animals with hormones, antibiotics and growth promoters to make them gain weight faster, the creation of GM animals is presented as “feeding” more people. The truth is the genetic “improvements” usually only benefit industrial farmers as they create more “profitable” animals that can be grown and processed more quickly…
Objections to GM crops are certainly magnified when it comes to GM animals who know they are alive, unlike plants, a mental state called sentience.
Creating new animals for dedicated human use “is a mechanistic use of animals that seems to perpetuate the notion of their being merely tools for human use rather than sentient creatures,” said the Humane Society of the United States now named Humane World for Animals…
The AquAdvantage Salmon may have failed because of its wide media coverage which included environmental projections, ethical questions about species creation and consumer feedback. The many GM animals that have been created in the lab before and after the salmon benefit from underreporting: there is almost no consumer outrage. SOURCE…
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