What should one make of the following set of facts? A federal government, urged on by self-designated advocates for the “public interest,” blocks for a quarter of a century the availability of an irrefutably safe product that would improve Americans’ health, lower consumer costs and deliver a host of environmental benefits. Sound fishy? You’re right.
For about three decades, science has known how to genetically modify salmon so the fish can be safely and economically raised anywhere …. But only in March [2019] was this long-stalled technology released from regulatory purgatory by the Food and Drug Administration and cleared for operation in the United States.
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So, you say, what’s been the problem? As usual when a seemingly clear public interest is being anomalously violated, one can look for the involvement of a special interest. In this case, it’s commercial fishing interests, most notably from Alaska, which have been eager to squelch such a cost-competitive competitor.
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But the years of opposition by the self-styled green lobby is less logical. Given the positives for the environment from GE salmon, the greens’ obstruction has to be added to the list of bizarre cognitive dissonances to which this community has proved so vulnerable.
