Glofish may be the first genetically engineered pets but with no rules to control them who knows what will happen?
Then, as consumers around the world rejected newer GE food
crops, like US maize, the biotech industry came up with a novel
propaganda campaign. They are now spending millions of dollars to
convince us that GE is an essential technology for feeding poor
people in the developing world (never mind that most of the GE
crops currently grown are used to feed animals, not humans).
The latest GE product to hit the shelves illuminates the fact
that this technology has little to do with feeding people. Genetic
engineers have made a zebra fish that glows in the dark - the
GloFish. Of course, we wouldn't be surprised to hear the GE
industry claim that GloFish will feed the world, revolutionise pet
ownership, and help find car keys lost in dark aquariums the world
over...
What's all the fuss about a little aquarium fish?
Genetically engineered organisms are novel creatures - they've
never before existed on the planet. We have no way of predicting
what havoc they will cause when they are released into the wild.
Scientists have studied what other GE fish species might do and
their conclusions are worrying - depending on the fish, GE
varieties could invade ecosystems, threaten populations of native
species, or cause other unpredictable damage. Aquarium fish get
introduced into native ecosystems all the time, and can survive in
the warmer waters of some springs and around industrial wastewater
pipes, so this really is no laughing matter. Any escape would be
irreversible - the escaped fish could not be recalled like a
supermarket product can be recalled.
Todd
Grischke, fisheries supervisor at the Michigan Department of
Natural Resources, likened genetically engineered fish to an
invasive species. "You threaten entire ecosystems," he said. "You
don't know how those new animals are going to behave in the wild.
They could cause our original stocks to die off. They could be
susceptible to disease outbreaks. They could change their life
cycle patterns. Who knows?"
California has recently banned the sale of GloFish in the state.
Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Schuchat explained the decision this
way: "Creating a novelty pet is a frivolous use of this technology.
No matter how low the risk is, there needs to be a public benefit
that is higher than this."
But is it a fish or is it a drug?
Amazing as it may seem, there is no agency of the US Government
that considers itself responsible for evaluating the risks of GE
aquarium fish. A few years ago, the US Food and Drug Administration
(US-FDA) announced that they would regulate such fish as animal
drugs. But when the company selling the fish, Yorktown
Technologies, submitted a New Animal Drug Application to the US-FDA
this year for GloFish approval, the agency backed away from its
claim to regulate aquarium fish and declined to consider the
application stating that the fish was not a drug. (Those
bureaucrats clearly have a firm grasp on the obvious).
Forget for a moment the absurdity of regulating an aquarium fish
as a drug. Regulatory agencies sometimes make bizarre definitional
leaps in order to use already existing laws to regulate completely
new products - like glow-in-the-dark zebra fish. What the FDA
decision means is that the fish is now being sold in stores in the
US with absolutely no review of its potential to cause damage to
the environment. In deciding not to regulate the fish, the US-FDA
has created a regulatory vacuum of immense proportions - there is
now no federal agency responsible for assessing whether these fish,
or any future genetically engineered pets, may pose environmental
or other problems.
"Not to make a pun, but I think it's shedding a light on serious
regulatory and safety issues that are not getting much attention,"
said Art Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the
University of Pennsylvania. "This is going to be a very important
issue. The fish is just the first wave on the beach."
On January 14, 2004, the Center for Food Safety and the Center
for Technology Assessment filed a lawsuit against the US Food and
Drug Administration and its parent agency, the US Department of
Health and Human Services, to block the sale of the GloFish. The
lawsuit represents the first-ever legal action seeking to block the
sale of a genetically engineered animal. The lawsuit also asks the
court to decide that the US-FDA must regulate genetically
engineered pets.
More:
For more information and to become involved in the GE fish
campaign, visit the Center for Food Safety's
website.
Read the lawsuit
filed against the USFDA.