TWN Info Service on Biosafety
20 December 2024
Third World Network
www.twn.my
Dear Friends and Colleagues
AquaBounty Shuts Down GE Salmon Operations Following Widespread Rejection
AquaBounty’s production of genetically engineered (GE) Atlantic salmon, the world’s first commercialized GE food animal intended for direct human consumption, has come to an end. The salmon was engineered with a growth hormone gene from the Chinook salmon and genetic material from ocean pout.
A growing body of science suggests that the GE salmon may pose serious environmental and public health risks, including potentially irreversible damage to wild salmon populations that are critical to the livelihoods, cultural heritage and wellbeing of Indigenous and fishing communities.
Due to environmental and health concerns, consumer rejection and an ongoing campaign led by Indigenous Peoples and environmental groups, the largest grocery retailers, food service companies and major restaurants in the US and Canada committed to not sell the GE salmon.
AquaBounty just announced that it will stop production of all GE salmon and is closing its last working facility at Bay Fortune in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada. This follows a series of sell-offs and closures of its other production facilities.
With best wishes,
Third World Network
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Item 1
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SALMON PRODUCTION ENDS AS AQUABOUNTY SHUTTERS LAST FACILITY
Friends of the Earth
https://foe.org/news/aquabounty-ge-salmon-ends/
12 Dec 2024
First Commercialized GE Animal a Market Failure Following Rejection by Largest Food Retailers, Food Service Companies and Court Challenges
HALIFAX, Canada/ WASHINGTON, U.S. – Following decades of controversy, widespread market rejection and legal and regulatory challenges, U.S.-based biotechnology and aquaculture company AquaBounty Technologies (NASDAQ: AQB) announced it will stop production of all genetically engineered (GE) AquAdvantage® salmon, cull all its remaining fish and close its last working facility.
After selling its fish farm in Indiana earlier this year and putting its other major site in Canada up for sale (at Rollo Bay, Prince Edward Island), AquaBounty announced yesterday that it is shutting its remaining GE salmon facility in North America, at Bay Fortune in Prince Edward Island, Canada. The company says it does not have sufficient liquidity to maintain the operation.
“This company was propped up by the hype but had nothing of value to sell. Genetically engineered food is a losing investment,” said Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network.
A growing body of science suggests that GE salmon may pose serious environmental and public health risks, including potentially irreversible damage to wild salmon populations that are critical to the livelihoods, cultural heritage and wellbeing of Indigenous and fishing communities.
AquaBounty was producing a genetically engineered Atlantic salmon, the world’s first commercialized genetically engineered food animal intended for direct human consumption. The salmon was engineered with a growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon and genetic material from ocean pout.
“The development of GE salmon violates Wild Salmon, and all the human and more-than-human communities that Wild Salmon support. Wild Salmon underpin our cultural, spiritual, emotional, and physical wellbeing as Indigenous Salmon Peoples. We need to build on this victory to ensure that no other company takes up the colonial project of genetically engineering salmon,” said Carl Wassilie, a Yup’ik biologist, co-founder of Salmonberry Tribal Associates, and organizer with the Block Corporate Salmon campaign.
Consumer opposition to genetically engineered animals is high in both the U.S. and Canada. Polls in the U.S. show that most Americans believe GE animals for protein production is not an appropriate use of biotechnology. Most consumers won’t eat genetically engineered fish if it is available and 95% of consumers believe genetically engineered food animals should be labeled.
Due to environmental and health concerns, consumer rejection and an ongoing campaign led by Indigenous peoples, environmental groups, the largest grocery retailers, food service companies and major restaurants committed to not sell genetically engineered AquAdvantage® salmon. The markets campaign by Friends of the Earth, Block Corporate Salmon, North American Marine Alliance, Community Alliance for Global Justice, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, American Anti-Vivisection Society and Center for Food Safety, and allies moved more than 80 grocery retailers to reject GE salmon, including Walmart (NYSE: WMT), Costco (NASDAQ: COST), Albertsons (NYSE: ACI) and Kroger (NYSE: KR); food service companies Sodexo (SDXAY), Aramark (NYSE: ARMK) and Compass Group (OTCMKTS: CMPGY) restaurant chains, including Red Lobster and Legal Seafood.
“Genetically engineered salmon is unwanted, risky and unnecessary,” said Dana Perls, Food and Technology senior program manager at Friends of the Earth U.S. “People deserve the right to know what they are eating and have made the choice to reject GE salmon. Instead of genetically engineered animals designed to fit into industrial systems, we need sustainable wild salmon that supports fishing, Indigenous communities and our environment.”
The company has long been plagued by public challenges in both Canada and the U.S. In 2020, a U.S. federal judge ruled that the FDA’s approval of GE salmon violated environmental laws, in response to a lawsuit filed by environmental, consumer and fishing groups, and the Quinault Indian Nation. This September, the FDA released an amended environmental assessment of AquaBounty’s Bay Fortune and Rollo Bay facilities in Prince Edward Island.
“It’s heartening to see we’ve dodged this bullet. If AquAdvantage had made it to market, it would have set a dangerous precedent, opening the floodgates to more GE animal products. This is a false solution that distracts from the real issue at hand, which is unfettered corporate control over our food systems,” said Jon Russell, organizing coordinator of the North American Marine Alliance.
In a 2022 whistleblower report titled “AquaBounty Exposed,” a former employee at the Indiana site shared evidence of food and worker safety violations, animal welfare concerns and routine environmental and water contamination infractions. AquaBounty sold this U.S. facility in July 2024 at a loss.
In February 2023, AquaBounty announced it was closing its second genetically engineered salmon production facility at Rollo Bay, PEI, and the building went up for sale in September 2024. The company is now also shutting down its smaller, remaining facility at Bay Fortune in PEI, which it said would produce genetically engineered salmon eggs for its not-yet-built facility in Ohio.
Construction of the Ohio operation has been on hold since 2023 and the company has been selling equipment from the site. Yesterday AquaBounty announced it is now looking for “alternatives for our Ohio farm project.” Residents have fought the proposed the Ohio project for years, raising concerns about groundwater contamination.
“We hope these announcements ring the death knell for AquaBounty’s proposed facility in Pioneer, Ohio. Over the last few years, we’ve built a strong grassroots movement locally to oppose this facility. Its operations would threaten the Michindoh Aquifer and St. Joseph River, key sources of drinking water for our communities in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan,” said Sherry Fleming, organizer with the Williams County Alliance in Ohio.
“Companies like AquaBounty claim that they want to ‘feed the world,’ yet they displace local food systems in favor of the global industrial food system, and they show no respect for the wild ecosystems and animals that community-based, artisanal, and traditional fisherfolks like myself rely on to feed our communities. If they truly cared about feeding people, they wouldn’t be wiping out the livelihoods of community-based food producers,” said Jason Jarvis, an artisanal fisherman and founder of Quonochontaug Fish Company, a fishermen’s cooperative in Rhode Island.
“While the demise of the AquaBounty salmon is a landmark victory for public health and the environment, the specter of future similarly wrongheaded GE food animals remains. We will be pushing the new administration to deny any future approvals of GE food animals, among other efforts to keep our food supply safe,” said Jaydee Hanson, policy director at the Center for Food Safety.
“GE salmon was always a false solution. We know that if we breach the dams, the salmon come back en mass. Breach the dams, restore salmon habitat, regulate factory trawlers, decenter industrial aquaculture from policy, build local infrastructure so fishers can distribute their fish more widely, invest in fishing communities! Those are real policy solutions,” said Estefania Narvaez, organizer with Block Corporate Salmon.
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Item 2
GM SALMON COMPANY AQUABOUNTY SHUTS DOWN OPERATIONS
Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network
https://cban.ca/gm-salmon-company-aquabounty-shuts-down-operations/
12 Dec 2024
The troubled biotechnology company AquaBounty has announced it will stop production of all genetically modified (GM or genetically engineered) salmon and is closing its last working facility, at Bay Fortune in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada.
“We’re glad to see the back of this company after over twenty years of our protests against genetically modified food,” said Sharon Labchuk of GMO Free PEI.
AquaBounty released the world’s first GM food animal – a GM salmon – onto the market in 2017 but is now culling the last of its fish. Yesterday, the company announced that it does not have sufficient liquidity to maintain its “only remaining operating farm” at Bay Fortune and its Chief Executive Officer, David Melboure, has resigned.(1)
“This struggling company has survived largely due to investor hype along with decades of government funding and the support of the federal policy to deny consumers mandatory labelling of GM food. The company couldn’t make producing GM salmon viable even with all the government subsidies and supportive policies,” said Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN).
The company’s announcement comes just weeks after the federal and PEI governments announced $231,095 in joint funding for the company.(2) Just last week, CBAN wrote to the Auditor General of Canada and of PEI and to the federal and provincial ministers of fisheries to object to this use of funds and request a review of government decision-making in continued funding for AquaBounty.(3) AquaBounty still owes the Government of Prince Edward Island at least $1.5-million from a 2018 loan of $2.7-million.
“And so ends a science experiment which never should have started because of the risk to wild Atlantic salmon. As they shut their operations in PEI, we encourage the company to ensure that all genetically modified fish and eggs are safely culled to ensure there is no risk of escape in the closing days,” says Mark Butler, Senior Advisor at Nature Canada.
In February 2023, AquaBounty announced it was closing its purpose-built GM salmon production facility at Rollo Bay, PEI, and put the building up for sale in September 2024. In July 2024, the company sold its other major GM salmon production facility, in Indiana, US. The company is now shutting down its remaining, smaller facility at Bay Fortune in PEI which it said would be used to produce GM salmon eggs for its not-yet-built facility in Ohio, US. Construction of the Ohio site has been on hold since 2023 and AquaBounty now says it is assessing “alternatives for our Ohio farm project” while the company continues to sell its assets.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Sharon Labchuk, GMO Free PEI +1 902 626 7327
Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator, Canadian Biotechnology Action Network +1 902 209 4906, coordinator@cban.ca
Mark Butler, Nature Canada, +1 902-266-5401 mbutler@naturecanada.ca
NOTES:
(1) AquaBounty, Press Release: AquaBounty Announces Plans to Cease Fish Farming Operations, December 11, 2024.
(2) Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Press Release: Government of Canada and Province of Prince Edward Island announce funding for 39 companies to help improve quality, productivity and sustainability in the provincial fish and seafood sector, November 13, 2024.
(3) Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, RE: Request to investigate decisions to provide public funds to AquaBounty, Letter, December 2, 2024.