"Hello, I’d like to eat a genetically modified animal today"

"Do you have one on the menu?"

I found an interesting section in an FDA report, “GMO Crops, Animal Food, and Beyond.” The information is listed as current as of August 2022.

Are There GMO Animals in the Food Supply? Yes. FDA has approved an application allowing the sale of the AquAdvantage Salmon to consumers. The AquAdvantage Salmon has been genetically modified to reach an important growth point faster. FDA has also approved an alteration in the GalSafe pig for human food consumption and potential therapeutic uses. The GalSafe pig was developed to be free of detectable alpha-gal sugar on its cell surfaces. People with Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) may have allergic reactions to alpha-gal sugar found in red meat (e.g., beef, pork, and lamb). FDA has determined that food from the AquAdvantage Salmon and the GalSafe pig are as safe and nutritious to eat as food from non-GMO salmon and pigs.

Sounds wonderful. Shall we try a bit of each? I’ve ways wanted to eat salmon that was engineered to grow faster than usual.

Perhaps we should read a piece in the Alaska Beacon first. Title: “Pushback continues against genetically modified salmon being raised at Indiana farm.” October 10, 2023.

Engineered by biotech company AquaBounty Technologies Inc., the “AquAdvantage” salmon is the first such altered animal to be cleared for human consumption in the United States.

In 2018, the federal agency greenlit AquaBounty’s sprawling Indiana facility, which as of last December was raising roughly 492 metric tons of salmon from eggs imported from Canada but is capable of raising more than twice that amount. The company is currently making improvements to its Indiana production facility. Once completed, salmon harvests are expected to increase.

During the 2023 Farm Aid concert site, organizers from Block Corporate Salmon traveled an hour north to AquaBounty’s salmon growing facility where they sought to raise awareness about the “risks and harms” of genetically engineered fish.

“AquaBounty misrepresents its system to raise salmon in tanks that they claim will be recirculating water,” said Jaydee Hanson, Policy Director of Center for Food Safety. “In fact, their operations literally mine water, foul it with salmon feces, and dump it into the nearest river. They have a serious problem of illness in their chronically inflamed fish. They are not disclosing how many antibiotics they use. Consumers don’t need sick fish like these.”

Earlier, in 2022, Block Corporate Salmon also released “AquaBounty Exposed,” a report that outlined allegedly concerning conditions at AquaBounty’s Albany facility.

Former employee Braydon Humphrey, who spoke at last month’s news conference, shared more than 60 pages of photos and videos that he claims detail how AquaBounty “regularly violated food and worker safety standards, ignored animal welfare concerns, and caused environmental damage unbeknownst to the public and its investors.”

“I was deeply disturbed by what I witnessed during my time at AquaBounty,” said Humphrey, who worked as a tech at the Indiana facility from December 2018 to January 2020. “Among other atrocities, we saw high mortalities in densely packed fish tanks—including common instances of AquAdvantage salmon dying from ruptured stomachs, caused by their artificially fast growth rate.”

—Waiter? I’ll pass on the salmon. How about the rattlesnake fang sushi instead? I think it’ll be safer.

And now, on to the GalSafe GMO pigs. Approved for people with meat allergies. Sort of.

A publication called The Counter brings up rather disturbing facts.

FDA only evaluated [the pig producer] Revivicor’s claim that GalSafe pigs are, in fact, free of alpha-gal and safe to eat. But because Revivicor did not provide data or make claims related to food allergies, FDA didn’t “evaluate food safety specific to those with [alpha-gal syndrome].” In other words, GalSafe pigs aren’t expected to trigger reactions in people with red meat allergies, but FDA has not scrutinized any allergy-related guarantees. “People with an alpha-gal allergy that would like to consume meat from these pigs but have questions should talk to their doctor,” an agency spokesperson said in an emailed statement. This caveat is worrisome for some consumer interest advocates, who believe that FDA jumped the gun with its approval.

“It shouldn’t have been approved until they had adequately addressed the allergenicity of the product,” said Jaydee Hanson, policy director for the Center for Food Safety.

Eating the GMO pigs might be a problem for people with allergies. Or it might not.

Very good. Glad we got that straight.

Another brilliant decision from the FDA.

When I eat GMO bacon or GMO salmon—I have a special microscope that allows me to make that determination—I drop the meat in a vat full of a propriety poison I manufacture in my garage. It removes any trace of GMO problems. So far, only one of my arms has fallen off from the poison.

It’s a trade-off.

Or Love your GMOs. Assume They’re good for you.

-- Jon Rappoport

Episode 57 of Rappoport Podcasts—“Aaron Rodgers and the death of television! Rodgers, Jimmy Kimmel, Jeffrey Epstein, COVID, Fauci, ESPN, Disney, Taylor Swift, ‘Mr. Pfizer’—it’s one big ball of wax; Let’s melt it down and see what it looks like”—is now posted on my substack. It’s a blockbuster. To listen, go here. To learn more about this episode of Rappoport Podcasts, go here.