THE FUTURE OF FOOD: SCIENCE FICTION OR NATURE? - Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America - page 168

The documents revealed that the FDA had not adequately fulfilled a requirement under the Endangered
Species Act to consult with both FWS and another federal agency, the National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS), to determine whether approval of AquaBounty's salmon might impact endangered wild Atlantic
salmon.
“Nice work, Greg,” FWS regional geneticist Denise Hawkins, PhD, wrote to a coworker in September.
“Especially pointing out that there is no data to support the claims of low survival in the event of escape,
which I agree with you all is a big concern. I also agree . . . that using triploid fish [which AquaBounty
claims have undergone a sterilization process] is not foolproof. Maybe they [the FDA] should watch Jur-
assic Park.”
Despite AquaBounty's claim to produce only sterile salmon, the company admitted that up to 5 percent
of their GE salmon eggs could be fertile, prompting the FDA to label the company's claims “potentially
misleading.”
According to internal FWS e-mails, contrary to AquaBounty's claims that GE salmon would be grown
in closed systems (and therefore unable to escape), FWS employees received news of a proposal to grow
the fish in a facility that would discharge into the ocean off the coast of Maine. It appears that the proposal
is from Joe McGonigle, the former (as of February 2008) vice president of AquaBounty. “No matter what
precautions you take, fish escape and once they do, there is no closing that door. So, that being said, I think
it is very bad precedent to set,” said one FWS program supervisor.
In the documents, high-ranking FWS employees, including branch chief Jeff Adams, complain of the
FDA's failure to consult with FWS, as required by law. “The proposal [to approve AquaBounty salmon]
also presents a situation where FDA, whose jurisdiction is not focused on natural resources, is entrusted
with the authority to approve an application which poses such a threat to the country's natural resources,”
Adams said.
Regarding the FDA's level of consultation with FWS, one assistant regional director was quoted as say-
ing, “It's a little hazy to me how we are supposed to be engaged.”
“Hazy to me, too,” replied Gary Frazer, FWS assistant director for endangered species.
Meanwhile, GE salmon is not the only place that the “god complex” rages unabated in the scientific-
corporate realm of research and technology. Many other bizarre and ethically challenged food technologies
and products are under development. In early 2008 the FDA announced that it considered meat and milk
from cloned animals to be safe to eat, despite years of controversy and a long list of unresolved ethic-
al, health, and animal welfare concerns. The agency asked the livestock industry to continue a voluntary
moratorium on putting meat and milk from cloned animals in the food supply but did not ask for the same
moratorium on products from the offspring of cloned animals.
And to add insult to injury, the agency will not require any of these foods to be labeled. The appeal of
cloned animals to the livestock industry lies in their role as breeders or milk producers. Already, cloned
bulls' sperm is shipped all over the country to sire offspring with desirable traits like high milk production.
Cows were successfully cloned for the first time in Japan, and since then hundreds of cows have been
cloned in the United States. 56 A Texas-based company began cloning champion horses in March 2006,
which can sell for as much as $150,000 per horse. 57 For a mere $32,000, a for-profit company can clone
your pet cat. 58
Researchers are pushing forward with cloning animals for food and have successfully cloned pigs with
higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids by blending a gene from earthworms with pig's genetic material. 59
Bet that fact will not be included in the ad campaign.
But the dirty little secret about cloning is that the animals are more likely to have birth defects and
health problems, and only about 5 percent of cloned animals survive. 60 A heartbreaking list of maladies
has been documented in sheep, cows, and mice, including malformed brains, livers, spleens, lymph nodes,