Whole Foods retail chain won't sell biotech fish
Date: 20-Sep-02
Country: USA
Author: Randy Fabi
The Austin, Texas, company was one of more than 200 small
grocers, restaurants, and seafood distributors in 40 states
that announced they would sell only biotech-free fish.
Although biotech fish will not be commercially available
until 2005 at the earliest, an application from Aqua Bounty
Farms to sell transgenic salmon was being considered by the
Food and Drug Administration.
Environmental groups and consumer advocates have petitioned
the FDA to temporarily ban the use of biotech fish, saying
they could threaten the environment if they escape
commercial farms and slip into nearby rivers.
"What we are really concerned about is if it has a
disruptive affect on the environment or long-term human
health issues," said Kate Lowery, spokeswoman for Whole
Foods. "This has not yet been thoroughly addressed."
The retailers who won't stock bio-fish include restaurants
and grocery stores in New York, Chicago, San Francisco,
Washington, Boston, and New Orleans.
"If my patrons don't want genetically engineered fish, then
I certainly don't want to serve it," said Todd Gray, owner
of Equinox restaurant in Washington.
Industry officials said gene-altered fish currently being
developed would not endanger the environment.
Massachusetts-based Aqua Bounty Farms said the transgenic
salmon it hopes to market by 2005 would be sterile females
that would not reproduce in the wild, thus, not endangering
native species. The biotech salmon, which matures twice as
fast, would also not compete with their traditional
counterparts for food.
Lowery said the company would re-evaluate its position on
biotech fish if the FDA can assure its safety.
"There may be some positive benefits from (biotech fish),"
she said. "We are really for establishing mandatory labeling
for food with genetically modified ingredients because
consumers have a right to choose what they put in their
bodies."
Last month, a National Academy of Sciences panel expressed
concerns that U.S. government agencies would be unable to
ensure biotech fish would not threaten the environment. The
report found that farmed salmon had escaped into the wild
and risked the ecological and genetic make up of native
stocks.
