5 GMOs the New FDA Should Take Off the Market
Generally Recognized as Safe?
Since the George H.W. Bush Administration, the FDA has treated genetically engineered synthetics the same as normal foods, allowing them to be approved without safety-testing or post-market monitoring through the “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) loophole.
President Donald Trump could change this. His new Health & Human Services Department, which includes the Food & Drug Administration, is expected to be very different from his last.
There are five GMOs Trump’s new FDA could take off the market (four his old FDA put on the market): Monsanto (now Eli Lilly)’s Posilac GMO growth hormone for dairy cows; AquaBounty’s AquAdvantage GMO salmon; Impossible Food’s synbio burger made with fake blood; Bored Cow’s “milk,” made with Perfect Day’s faux whey protein; and lab-grown chicken made by UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat.
Here are five GMOs Trump’s new team should take off the market (four are GMOs his old team put on the market):
1. POSILAC –
The genetically engineered growth hormone (aka rbGH/rbST) that makes cows produce so much milk their udders painfully swell, causing ulcers that ooze pus into the milk that’s also contaminated with a growth factor (IGF-1) linked to cancer.
2. AQUADVANTAGE SALMON –
Salmon that’s genetically engineered to grow unnaturally fast by producing growth hormones year-round. GMO salmon has increased levels of IGF-1, a hormone linked to cancer. It has less of the healthy omega-3 fats than normal salmon and it is more likely to trigger an allergy.
3. IMPOSSIBLE BURGER –
Impossible Food’s “bleeding” veggie burger made with synthetic blood that’s spit out of genetically engineered yeast. Preliminary animal lab data submitted by Impossible Foods indicated potential health risks including blood clot issues, anemia, and kidney damage.
4. BORED COW –
Perfect Day’s synthetic whey protein, made from genetically engineered microbes. It’s the single ingredient in Bored Cow’s “milk.” Trump’s FDA gave it GRAS status in 2020 even though the whey was contaminated with heavy metals and GMO fungal proteins that are similar to known allergens.
5. LAB-GROWN “CHICKEN” –
The Biden Administration FDA made two approvals of what they call “Human Food Made with Cultured Animal Cells,” one in 2022 for UPSIDE Foods and the other in 2023 for GOOD Meat. No one’s eating it yet, because neither company can figure out a cost-effective way to grow the chicken without antimicrobials we shouldn’t eat.
Kommentare