First commercialized GMO animal a market failure following rejection by largest food retailers, food service companies and court challenges
Following decades of controversy, widespread market rejection and legal and regulatory challenges, U.S.-based biotechnology and aquaculture company AquaBounty Technologies recently announced it will stop production of all genetically engineered 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 in mid-December that it is shutting its remaining GMO 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 GMO 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.
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, Costco, Albertsons and Kroger; food service companies Sodexo, Aramark and Compass Group restaurant chains, including Red Lobster and Legal Seafood.
