Alaska fought for policy rider on GMO salmon
A bill poised to pass the U.S. Congress would require the FDA to produce labeling guidelines before it allows the sale of genetically engineered salmon.
That’s one policy rider Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski says she fought for that’s included in the package of year-end spending and tax bills.
The FDA has already approved a genetically altered salmon for human consumption, without a labeling requirement. Murkowski, in a written statement, says the measure would also require the FDA to adopt a program to inform consumers whether a salmon on the market is genetically engineered.
Murkowski says a separate provision in the bill would prohibit the marketing of fish from foreign waters as “Alaska pollock.”
An unrelated measure to end the crude oil export ban is included in the bill. It wouldn’t directly affect North Slope oil, since it was already exempt. But lifting the ban is one of the national goals Murkowski set when she became chairman of the Senate Energy Committee at the start of the year.
Congress is expected to pass the package this week.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Peel Watershed case returns to Yukon court, Eye on the Arctic
Finland: Fishermen receive environmental award for competition boycott in North Finland, Yle News
Denmark: Arctic countries ban fishing around North Pole, Alaska Dispatch News
Iceland: Iceland blasts Arctic Five for exclusion from fishing agreement, Eye on the Arctic
Norway: Norway-Russia fishery expedition finds abundance of cod, decline in other species, Barents Observer
Sweden: Record numbers for Swedish wild salmon, Radio Sweden
Russia: Oryong 501 sinking highlights Arctic fishing, shipping issues, Blog by Mia Bennett
United States: Ice retreat threatening Bering Sea pollock, Alaska Public Radio Network
