The November 22 issue of Time magazine took on the task of listing the 50 best inventions of 2010. A real-life Iron Man suit and a “fur” coat made of plastic were worthy, apparently, of my attention despite the fact that I didn’t know they had come into being (though, admittedly, the Iron Man suit does deserve, as Time put it, the “most awesomest” invention title). I also, somehow, managed to block out the most disconcerting invention of the year, if not of the decade: “Fasting Growing Salmon.”
Coming in at number 16 on the Times list, this invention (monstrosity?) by AquaBounty, “splice[s] in a gene from Chinook salmon with DNA from an eellike creature called an ocean pout” to create a salmon that “grows twice as fast” and, thus, “mak[es] them easier to farm “ (1).
According to a survey conducted by National Public Radio, 35 percent of Americans would try a genetically engineered fish (2). The other 65 percent? Well, their preference doesn’t really matter: The Food and Drug Administration is currently reviewing the salmon in question but, since they have stated that there is “no material difference between the flesh of the altered fish and the ubiquitous farm-raised Atlantic salmon in markets today,” the likelihood of a required special label for these engineered salmon is slim to none. Translation: It doesn’t matter if you would try a genetically modified fish because you might, one day, being doing so without even knowing it. This is especially troubling given the fact that the less educated an individual is, the less likely they are to know that genetically modified foods are already on the market (3).
Yet again, the government is proving to be not only reckless in their practices by skirting environmental issues in favor of keeping companies in business but also in their negligence in educating the masses on food production.
Salmon, who’s strife I cannot even think of summarizing in one simple blogpost (instead, I suggest reading Derrick Jensen’s Endgame to better understand their journey from wild animal to endangered meal), are like cows: the amount of feed it takes to grow one pound of them makes the process costly – both monetarily and environmentally. (It takes three pounds of feed for one pound of salmon; sixteen pounds for beef (4)). Therefore, just as corporations have done with cows, the way that we “grow” salmon has been altered in order to tip the cost scales in favor of companies as increasing production rates means increased profit margins. Though this process for a replenishment of farms serves producers well, it continues to ignore the issues of over-consumption, exhaustion of natural resources, and ecological damage.
Once this farming transition occurs, the government – whose corporate ties have already been talked about explicitly on Stay Free – simply has to keep the masses ignorant to the practices of unethical, anti-ecological companies, an easy feat for an institution setting the regulations and rules that keep us ignorant, unhealthy, and quiet. As former rancher turned vegan Howard F. Lyman once put it, “the disturbing truth is that the protection of the quality of our food is the mandate of foot-dragging bureaucrats at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration who can generally be counted upon to behave not like public servants but like hired hands of the meat and dairy industries” (5).
Did you know that the majority of grains consumed by Americans are genetically modified? Did you know that growth hormones and antibiotics are still used in both beef and dairy cows and, therefore, are part of your diet if you consume these products? Did you know that part of the food being fed to factory farmed animals includes animals of the same species? If you didn’t, now you do. Tell your friends. If you did know, keep telling your friends.
Education breeds action. Action means change.
Live free, stay hungry.
1: Time Magazine; November 22, 2010 (73).
2-3: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/11/12/131270519/americans-are-wary-about-genetically-engineered-foods
4: Lyman, Howard F. with Glen Merzer: Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth From the Cattle Rancher Who Won’t Eat Meat; 1998: “It takes roughly sixteen pounds of grain to create one pound of beef […] Eighty percent of American grain production is currently destined for the gullets of animals” (125).
5: Lyman, Howard F. with Glen Merzer: Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth From the Cattle Rancher Who Won’t Eat Meat; 1998 (20).
Photo: http://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/
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