A court case is now awaiting a verdict in Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal.
The case centres on government approval for the sale of genetically modified salmon as a food for human consumption.
Ecojustice lawyers on behalf of environmental groups, Ecology Action and Living Oceans Society are appealing an earlier decision allowing the production and sale of the genetically modified salmon.
An American company, Aqua Bounty, operating on Canada’s Prince Edward Island, genetically modified Atlantic salmon so they would grow much faster and bigger than natural salmon.
Among the environmental group’s concerns are that if any GM salmon escaped into the wild, they could reproduce with wild salmon and forever modify the species with unknown ecosystem effects.
Karen Wristen of the British Columbia-based Living Oceans Society quoted by CBC, said, “This whole approval process has taken place behind doors. There’s been no engagement of Canadians on the subject should we be genetically modifying animals for food”.
The environmental groups say the federal government and its agencies approved the GM salmon production and sale as food without any public consultation.
In their legal arguments they said the government approval ignored requirements of Canada’s Environmental Protection Act and that:
-the federal Ministers acted unlawfully in purporting to complete an assessment of whether AquAdvantage salmon is toxic or capable of becoming toxic without obtaining all the information required by law;
– the Minister of the Environment had no jurisdiction to publish a notice setting out permitted uses, based on an incomplete toxicity assessment of AquAdvantage salmon;
-Alternatively, the Minister of the Environment failed in her legal duties by permitting unassessed uses of AquAdvantage salmon, such as its grow out in Canada, to proceed.
Ecojustice lawyer Kaitlyn Mitchell said, “Decision-making about genetically-modified organisms must follow the requirements in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. The safety of human health and protection of biodiversity depends on it.”
The approval of the “Aqua Bounty” salmon marked the first time in Canada that a genetically modified animal was approved for human consumption, and only the second time in the world following a US approval for the salmon.
Ecology Action Centre has also joined a court case against U.S. approval of the GM salmon. That case involving commercial and recreational fishing groups, other environmental groups, consumer organizations and aboriginal groups, is still making it’s way through the U.S justice system.
AquaBounty — a biotechnology company specializing in genetically modified fish — won approval from the federal government to grow genetically modified salmon eggs at a P.E.I. facility. AquaBounty says salmon from its genetically-modified eggs grow at twice the rate of regular salmon. (AquaBounty Technologies
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