a repost: a story & issue that needs more research and repeal the rider 

AquaBounty …

 is a biotechnology company dedicated to the improvement and productivity in aqua culture.

Our mission is to play a significant part in “The Blue Revolution” – bringing together biological sciences and molecular technology to enable an aquaculture industry capable of large-scale, efficient, and environmentally sustainable production of high quality seafood. Increased growth rates, enhanced resistance to disease, better food-conversion rates, manageable breeding cycles, and more efficient use of aquatic production systems are all important components of a sustainable aquaculture industry of the future.

Unless you have been resting … under a rock, you heard about the GE Wheat found in an Oregon Field, though folks keep looking left and right stating uh  how did that happen; just remind them using that great song by Bob Dylan because it fits our predicament . “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,” a protest song, that has been described as “impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind”. [2

I think the answer is so obvious and now it is time to stop sitting on the sidelines and go call your member of Congress ~~ Call the White House and tell them 64 countries – including China, Australia and the entire European Union – already require GE/GM foods be labeled.

I hear that HR933 had among other things, something called the Monsanto Protection Act. Reports from various news sources are that the rider was quietly tucked into the House bill without a proper hearing that is currently chaired by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD). I do not know about you but that sadden me considering all that we know about GMOs/GM and even more important, do we know what high consumptions will do to humans in the long term…

Anyway, unless you live in a completely sustainable environment you know that we already eat GMO; you can find out by reading about Monsanto, Cargill, DuPont or Dow Chemical and the best possible way to fight back is by buying local, free-range to avoid some if not all GMOs  and synthetic chemicals. Currently, Salmon farming in open net-cages is a reality in Canada, though in March of 2013, “CAAR congratulated the BC government for ceasing issuance of new open net-cage aquaculture tenures.”  Yet, their federal government has not acted, making the threat or risk to consumers more likely if the number of plants increase while inspections are far and few, giving some GMO’s an opportunity escape or muscle their way into the wild or even worse the pens are so cramed the environment becomes even more unsanitary. FYI: most if not all GMO salmon will be bigger … above average in all it’s GMO self … which means frankenfish …right?!!! ewww

I ask, do you ask your grocer or the restaurants you eat at if your food of choice is farmed, if not, it is time to demand proper labels wherever aquaculture products are sold. Now, you need to say GM and though we all know something not much sunlight has been shed on GM’s … farmed raised fish are GM’s in my opinion.  AquaBounty stated that “If the company is successful, the salmon would be the first genetically modified food animal on the market.”  I have to say the notion that GM Salmon would be the first GM food is one thing but to say it is safe has yet to be proven and beyond offensive

One problem among many I have with GM salmon and the company the FDA is doing business with is: Is AquaBounty really a US company as portrayed or was it certified in Canada, given special treatment and relocated in the U.S. The story I heard was that the eggs will come from Canada be hatched and raised in Panama, not Panama Florida, then sold to the U.S.   I don’t know about you but I prefer to know where my food comes from, what I am eating and that it is properly labeled giving me the option a CHOICE to say no thanks.  Labeling, it is not lost on me that labeling food might not be cost effective or lucrative for restaurants or grocers yet I cannot imagine anyone working for those places or the owners actually eating GM products at home by choice without knowing where ” It” came from .

Choice, my word of the day lately, which covers so many things going on today and the lack of it, pisses me off.

In 2010, 6500 folks chose to take a survey asking if you would eat GMs, 643 said sure, 177 maybe, 5466 No Way, and 147 said I am not sure. Yes, I would have voted No Way.  I can hear my dad warning us, who first thought farmed fish, would help sustain the wild; talk about the whispers of ill-equipped , lack of technology or knowledge resulting in nasty bacteria and the possibility of cross contamination. There are reports that marine mammals, such as seals, sea lions and porpoises, may have been killed as the result of the production of the farmed fish not to mention them selling GM without telling you that what you are eating has a little something extra in it.  Some environmentalists worry about the possibility of GM salmon breeding with wild salmon. AquaBounty says, “All its salmon are female, most are sterile, and they would be raised in land-based facilities.”   This is supposed to make us feel better after reported incidences in Panama.  I admit to laughing about these GM Salmon being female… and mostly sterile. There are far too many jokes to be sure, but the joke is the number folks are talking about ~~ 95% … sound familiar to you. Okay, I will say it, you only need one sperm deposit to break through to fertilize a possible 7000 eggs – or roe as my family calls it that wild female salmon lay; maybe 10% of those survive but that 5% margin is silly and suffice it to say cross contamination with GMs could eliminate wild salmon, alter all that salmon do organically for the eco-system like support wildlife at least in the NW – Healthy Salmon runs mean a healthy eco-system.

Folklore has it that Salmon return to the exact spot where they were born to spawn; tracking studies have shown this to be true, and this homing behavior has been shown to depend on olfactory memory …   Yet another thing no GM probably can do.

Americans need to demand labels

Salmon Farm Facts

from   www.farmedanddangerous.org

• A salmon farm is likely to hold 500,000 to 750,000 fish in an area the size of four football fields.
• The biomass of farmed salmon at one farm site can equal 480 Indian bull elephants – that is 2,400 tonnes of eating, excreting livestock.
• Salmon are carnivores. On average it takes two to five kilograms of wild fish (used in feed) to produce one kilogram of farmed salmon.
• In one study, over a billion sea lice eggs were produced by just twelve farms in a two week period. preceding the out-migration of wild juvenile salmon.¹
• Infection with one to three sea lice can kill a wild juvenile pink salmon.²
• In British Columbia alone there are approximately 136 salmon farm licenses with over 85 farms active at any given time.
• Canada and Chile are the two primary sources of farmed salmon for American consumers.³
• Two-thirds of the salmon consumed by Americans is farm-raised.³
• The government and industry would like to see BC farmed salmon production double within the next 10 years — that means twice the toll on our oceans, wild fish and coastal livelihoods.

On March 18, 2013

AquaBounty Technologies, Inc.

(“AquaBounty” or “the Company”)

Result of General Meeting

Further to the announcement of 15 February 2013, the Board of AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. (AIM: ABTX), a biotechnology company focused on enhancing productivity in the aquaculture market, announces that at the General Meeting of shareholders held on 15 March, all resolutions were duly passed.

The Company will proceed to complete the transaction to raise $6.0 million (£3.9 million) before expenses by means of a subscription of 22,883,295 new Common Shares (the “Subscription Shares”) by Intrexon Corporation (“Intrexon”) and certain other existing shareholders of the Company. Admission to AIM and commencement of trading of the Subscription Shares is scheduled to occur on 19 March 2013. Total shares outstanding upon admission will be 125,138,983, of which Intrexon will hold 67,346,258 shares or 53.8 percent.

For further information, please contact:

AquaBounty Technologies +1 781 899 7755

David Frank, Chief Financial Officer

Nomura Code Securities +44(0)20 7776 1200

Giles Balleny

Luther Pendragon

Resources:

consumersunion.org

cbc.ca/news  …

naturalnews.com …

wiki

Be a Seed for Change -me

AquaBounty, is also just one of probably many companies in the “aquaculture” industry … I just chose to write about their upcoming or direct association with the US Government and some say they are based in Massachusetts

Written in 2013