SalmonPhoto: Liz LawleyGenetically engineered salmon
According to the Chinese zodiac, 2010 was the year of the tiger, but we think of it as the Year of the Frankenfish. And no, we don’t mean that floppy senator from Minnesota. The FDA is still considering whether to approve a new kind of Atlantic salmon called “AquAdvantage,” engineered to grow faster with the
help of genes from the Chinook salmon and the eel-like ocean pout. It’s not the DNA tinkering that gives us the willies, though: it’s the agency’s rush to approve it in the face of misgivings of other government scientists and opposition from numerous consumer groups. Because once that salmon slips through, other GE animals like the Enviropig are bound to come lurching after.