On a winding road on the outskirts of a small Rust Belt town in eastern Indiana, a fish hatchery is poised to raise the country’s first genetically engineered animal approved for human consumption by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
AquaBounty Technologies, a Massachusetts-based biotechnology company, altered the genetic makeup of the Atlantic salmon to include a gene from chinook salmon and DNA sequence from an eel-like species known as an ocean pout. The result is a salmon that grows to market size about twice as fast as its natural counterpart.
The company, which already breeds the salmon in Canada, [had its] first batch of bioengineered eggs … arrive at its indoor facility in Albany, Ind., [on May 29], and the first salmon fillets raised there could appear in U.S. supermarkets in late 2020. AquaBounty’s decision to raise the salmon in Indiana is a landmark moment for the Midwest, a region …. where land-based fish farming operations have struggled mightily to become profitable.
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However, some consumer groups remain fiercely opposed to the production and sale of genetically modified organisms. These organizations have been vocal crusaders against AquaBounty ….
Read full, original article: Indiana salmon hatchery to raise nation’s first genetically modified animal cleared for human consumption
