Last Friday a coalition of organisations including the Washington Biotech Action Council, Ecoropa, Women in Europe for a Common Future, EcoNexus and Greenpeace organized a talk on GE fish during lunchtime at the Biosafety Protocol meeting in Nagoya.
While about 40 people were expected, over 75 people showed up and in particular representatives from delegations such as the US, Argentina, Kenya and the EU. It seems that Canada didn't turn up for this meeting, probably too busy playing bad guy on other important issues (Embassy). However even without Canada, this high turnout is evidence of the level of controversy generated by the near approval by the US FDA of the GE salmon. However, it seems that the Canadian government was not present despite the fact that the GE salmon eggs might originate from Canada.
Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher from the Federation of German Scientists summarized some of the risks related to GE fish including some of the recent scientific evidence.
For my part, I explained that we have already enough science expertise to back up a precautionary approach and to put in place a global ban on GE fish.
Antonietta Gutierrez, Professor at the Agricultural University of Peru gave a very moving story on how AquaBounty had approached the Peruvian government to try to get GE salmon authorized and how Peruvian authorities have little expertise to assess the risk on GE fish.
Daniel Maingi from the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition (KBIOC) reminded us that some African countries like his were expanding aquaculture and as the authorities tend to be close to the biotech industry, the authorization of GE salmon by the US FDA could open the door to the commercialization to many GE fish in other parts of the world.
From left to right: Ricarda Steinbrecher, Antje Lorch, Antonietta Gutierrez, Daniel Maingi and Éric Darier de Greenpeace. Photo: Phil Bereano.
Yes… GE salmon is only the door opener for other GE fish!
Outside of this lunchtime conference, a colleague from Greenpeace Chile confirmed that salmon producers in his country are fearful that should the US say yes to GE salmon, it would force them to accept GE salmon in Chile too.
You can watch the full presentations and the powerpoint slides here.