Press Releases: Food

Press Release: Food & Water Watch joined nearly 1.5 million consumers last Friday in submitting federal comments to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on GE salmon. In their public comment to the FDA, Food & Water Watch cited dozens of inadequacies in the agency’s risk assessment, highlighting the FDA’s failure to meaningfully examine growth rates of GE salmon, which purportedly grows twice as fast as conventional salmon. All of the available evidence strongly suggests that GE salmon—whose trade name is AquAdvantage salmon—offers no growth-rate advantage over conventional salmon already in commercial production.

“The debate in Washington over GE salmon isn’t cold, hard science versus irrational consumers,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “It’s cold-hard science versus the biotechnology industry and its hype. If GE salmon really can grow fast, let’s see the science behind it.”

Press Release: Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth, Center for Food Safety, and Food & Water Watch will join nearly 1.5 million people who have raised vehement objections, based on science, policy and law, to a proposal before the Food and Drug Administration to approve genetically engineered salmon, the first-ever GE animal intended for human consumption. The comment period ends Friday, April 26 at midnight.

The close of the comment period comes as documents disclosed through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request raise serious questions about the adequacy of the FDA’s review of the AquAdvantage Salmon application. Among other things, while the FDA has refused to look at the environmental impacts of these GE fish beyond the Canadian and Panamanian facilities proposed in the application, it appears that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has already received requests to import AquAdvantage Salmon eggs into the U.S. for commercial production.

Press Release: “Governor O’Malley’s announcement last week that Maryland is investing in a controversial manure to energy scheme is good for factory farms, but bad for the Chesapeake Bay. Manure to energy projects are no solution for managing the estimated 300,384 tons of excess poultry litter in the Bay region.

“The state, in partnership with the University System of Maryland, will enter into a power purchase agreement with Green Planet Power Solutions to purchase a minimum of 10 MW of electricity produced from animal waste in Caroline County. But converting poultry litter into energy is not a sustainable solution for the problems created by concentrating too many animals in one place. These projects, funded by government subsidies and tax credits, often create new waste streams, such as toxic air emissions that introduce harmful air pollutants into communities, and do not eliminate many pollutants of concern in animal waste such as nitrogen and phosphorous that choke the Bay.

“While the details of the Green Planet Power Solutions project are not yet publicly known, we call upon Maryland’s political leaders to stop asking citizens to bail the industrial ag interests out of their massive waste problem by financing projects that only perpetuate unsustainable farming practices.”

Media statement: “Yesterday, Nestle Purina Petcare Company announced it will recall their Waggin’ Train and Canyon Creek Ranch dog treat brands and Delmonte announced it will recall its Milo’s Chicken Jerky Treats and Chicken Grillers because of residues of an undisclosed antibiotic. This is a long overdue step to protect pets from unsafe imports. The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets should be commended for conducting the testing that resulted in these national recalls. But the Food and Drug Administration still must take action to prevent further pet illnesses and to inform consumers of the safety issues related to these products. Since 2007, thousands of American dogs have fallen ill or died after eating jerky treats made in China and it is time for the FDA to step up and block these potentially deadly treats from harming more animals.”