Occasionally, someone makes a PR gaffe so blatantly off-target that it would be downright funny—if it weren’t such an important consumer right-to- know issue.

AquaBounty Technologies—a name that conjures up images of fresh, wholesome seafood swimming straight to your plate—is the company behind AquaAdvantage genetically modified salmon, coming soon to an FDA approval process near you. We call them FrankenFish or Arnold Schwarzensalmon. Included in their very own website is a statement that breaks one of the most important rules of sensible business practice: make the customer feel important.

Straight from their online press room: “MYTH: These fish should be labeled. Consumers have a right to know what’s in their food.”

The American Meat Institute (AMI) thinks that everything is just fine in the meat industry. They represent the biggest meat packers and processors—the ones who have consolidated the meatpacking industry into a market dominated by four firms that exercise tremendous leverage over independent cattle producers. The few companies in control of the market insist that there is nothing wrong.

But, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder are in Fort Collins, Colorado today, listening to the testimonies of independent ranchers who have been struggling to get fair prices for their cattle from the meat packer monopolies. If nothing is wrong in the meat industry, why would these top U.S. officials travel to the Mountain State to listen to the concerns of ranchers and small farmers at a joint hearing about restoring competition? And why would the groups like the Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC) and Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF), who represent independent cattle producers, rally thousands of people to attend the hearings?

Names can be powerful. They conjure up images of people and places, smells and textures. What do you think of when you see the word rose? Most likely, you see a beautiful, red flower and you can imagine a familiar and pleasant fragrance. You know what a rose is.

What about the word sludge? I think of human waste, grease, and other types of filth. I’ll spare you from a description of the odor.

But, what about, “biosolids?” The term sounds clinical or biological like something that comes from a lab in pellet form. If I’m not sure what biosolids are, I can at least be certain that they are different from sludge… right? Wrong.