Genetically modified agriculture products have been prevalent in our grocery stores since the 1990s, and now GMO seafood is hitting the market as well. AquaBounty Technologies announced in its most recent earnings report that they have sold the first batch of their genetically modified salmon, AquAdvantage salmon.
Fish farmers turned to farming salmon years ago to help meet the growing consumer demand for salmon which wild stocks could not fulfill. Since then strides have been made to reduce the environmental impacts of this farming. AquaBounty is exemplifing those strides towards sustainability by farming in RAS systems, near metropolitan areas to reduce the carbon impacts of transporting fish, and by using genetic modifications to decreasing the feed consversion rates of their salmon.
Derived for Canadian Atlantic salmon, AquaBounty’s genetically engineered fish require 25% less feed, reducing the amount of foraging fish that need to be harvested to grow these animals (a common critisim of farmed fish.)
AquaBounty Technologies has purchased a facility in Indiana and will bringing their fish to the U.S. soon.
Farmed Seafood 