Food & Water Watch is asking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the FDA to stop AquaBounty’s “campaign of misinformation” on its GMO salmon. That agency states there is misleading information in AquaBounty Technologies’ newest regulatory filings with the SEC, including that the genetically engineered salmon will not require a label.
The FDA has not made a decision about whether or not the product will need to be labeled. The letter from Food & Water Watch states that “AquaBounty has not sufficiently corrected the vast majority of the problems that we originally identified [in the first complaint]. Potential investors remain at risk because of the missing or misrepresentative disclosures and the untrue statement.”
There is strong consumer opposition to AquAdvantage Salmon. But AquaBounty’s amended Form 10 includes only one poll from the International Food Information Council, an organization with ties to the biotechnology industry. That poll showed favorable consumer inclinations toward AquaBounty’s product, in direct opposition to many independent surveys that show the exact opposite.
No equivalence determination has been made about the GMO salmon. FDA has made no final conclusions or decisions on any aspect of the product, including labeling.
Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch said in a statement, “AquaBounty’s pattern of willful distortion shows how desperate the company is to promote its totally unnecessary product, which consumers have said they won’t eat, grocery stores have said they won’t sell, and the salmon industry has said they won’t grow, and scientists have said is too risky. While we are happy that SEC appears to be taking these issues seriously, and we hope the SEC will continue to compel AquaBounty to make corrections, we remain troubled with the many weaknesses found in FDA’s ongoing regulatory review of GMO salmon.”
I’m sure the FnDA will pander to the GMO industries, as usual, regardless of what is best for the people who want to eat safe food. They refuse to put the health and safety of many, before the profits for a few.