I'm not talking specifically about gmos, I'm talking about just what I said.
Animals being pumped full of hormones and steroids. the article said genetically modified salmon that are given growth hormone double whammy
There needs to be more strict labelling on these products if this type of thing is going to be allowed.
With all due respect, because I do believe you have a sincere concern for this issue, the bolded is an example of the information gap that causes unnecessary panic over GMOs.
1) The fish are not being "pumped full of hormones". The article does not indicate that they will be given ANY foreign chemicals, so there is no double whammy.
2) In this example of GM, the whole point is to take advantage of hormones that the salmon are ALREADY producing naturally. Every time you eat a wild-caught salmon, you are ALREADY eating that hormone.
3) The way this works is that instead of producing that hormone during a limited part of its life, the salmon's hormone "switch" is always set to "on", so it gets to adult size faster. That does not mean it's a different animal, it just grows faster. Similar to putting fertilizer on your garden, where you're not making unnatural vegetables... you're just growing them faster than they would in the wild.
4) The one legit objection that environmental groups are raising is that these salmon could escape into the wild and spread their genes, causing wild salmon to become overgrown and creating an imbalance in the ecosystem. That's why, as stated in one of the links embedded in that article, the company is only growing sterile females, in a land-based farm with no connection to outside waterways.
Again, I respect your concern and I think it's important that the process of GM approval be strictly managed and highly accountable. There should be zero margin for error -- but that is not the same as giving an automatic "no" to every discovery, which is what anti-GM groups demand. They simply do not understand or acknowledge the hard science that backs these decisions by health authorities.
