Are GMO Fish Safe for the Environment?

Photo of an Atlantic salmon by Hans-Petter Fjeld, licensed under
the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License and
available at Wikimedia Commons.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the first genetically engineered animal for food consumption, AquAdvantage Salmon, a salmon strain developed 25 years ago by AquaBounty Technologies. The FDA determined that this salmon strain is as safe to eat and as nutritious as other wild-caught or farm-raised Atlantic salmon and they have provided strict guidelines as to where and how these fish can be farmed (authorizing only two specific facilities, one in Canada and one in Panama, to breed and raise them). These fish will likely soon be in our grocery stores and restaurants, despite the resistance of many environmental and food-safety groups as well as skeptical grocery chains and citizens. What exactly are these animals and do they pose a threat to our environment?

Today at Accumulating Glitches, I talk about genetic engineering, GMOs, and what scientists think about whether AquAdvantage Salmon pose a risk to our environment. Check out the whole article here.