Zack Denfeld, a self-described information ecologist and lecturer at Pacific Northwest College of Art — and my good friend — is developing a creative form of resistance through his Center for Genomic Gastronomy. Taking a Yes Men-inspired, tongue-in-cheek approach, Zack is extending the logic of genetically modified organisms to their unnatural conclusion by putting them in situations their inventors never considered.
In his first experiment with the Center, Zack made sushi rolls out of GloFish — a patented, genetically engineered fluorescent zebrafish, which is publicly available as a pet. The idea, as Zack explains in the above video, is to give people the opportunity to beta-test transgenic fish before the FDA approves transgenic salmon — likely to soon be the first such animal approved for human consumption.
Says Zack:
What’s really interesting about [GloFish] is they’ve been existing in science labs and all of a sudden one guy had a really interesting market strategy, which was to make them available to the public. And we think that’s really innovative and we’re building on his innovation by cooking w... Read more
