Legislature(2017 - 2018)BUTROVICH 205
01/29/2018 03:30 PM Senate RESOURCES
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SJR4 | |
| HJR12 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | SJR 4 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | HJR 12 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
HJR 12-OPPOSING GEN. ENGINEERED SALMON
4:03:57 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL announced consideration of HJR 12 [CSHJR 12(FSH),
version 30-LS0276\D, was before the committee].
4:04:09 PM
REPRESENTATIVE TARR, Alaska State Legislature, sponsor of HJR
12, thanked the committee for hearing the resolution.
THATCHER BROWER, staff to Representative Tarr, Alaska State
Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, introduced himself.
REPRESENTATIVE TARR said HJR 12 is not a new topic for the
legislature. When she first started working on it in 2013, they
were still pushing the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to not
approve genetically modified salmon. That changed with the
November 2015 decision to allow genetically modified salmon. The
reason for her continued concern is that this is the first time
the FDA has approved a genetically modified animal for human
consumption. Genetically modified plants were approved for human
consumption in the early 90s.
She said AquaBounty Advantage Salmon uses Ocean pout DNA that
makes fish grow year-round and Chinook salmon DNA making fish
grow bigger faster for its genetic modifications.
4:06:22 PM
She showed pictures of a wild salmon compared to a GM salmon and
said Alaska is proud of its strong fisheries policies that
manage for sustainability, so this renewable resource will be
around for years to come. It is important for the state's
economy but also for its culture. Our relationship with salmon
is different than the company that is promoting the GM salmon. A
picture of the AquaBounty website revealed that the business is
not so much about sustainability as it is about growing a
product faster.
4:07:26 PM
REPRESENTATIVE TARR said the fact that the salmon are grown in
an indoor facility is one of the reasons people say it may be
less risky, but that may not be the case. This highly mechanized
indoor operation does not say sustainable fishery management to
her. Besides risk to human health and the state's economy,
escapement still poses a threat to wild salmon. These GM salmon
are produced in three different countries. She has visited the
facility on Prince Edward Island [in the Bay of Fortune, Nova
Scotia] where the eggs are produced. The eggs are shipped to
Panama to grow into fish. Then they are sold for consumption in
the U.S. The regulatory oversight is "strange" because all these
jurisdictions are involved. In a broader sense, Alaska fisherman
have caught Atlantic farmed salmon and there are risks
associated with that.
REPRESENTATIVE TARR said Prince Edward Island has a tourism-
based economy and when she first visited in 2013 some people
were concerned that "Frankenfish" came up first when Prince
Edward Island was googled, and they didn't want to be branded
that way given the controversy around it. They didn't know if
people would want to visit. That is what made them interested in
the work she was doing in Alaska; they have since filed a
lawsuit.
She said the AquaBounty facility was really concerning because
it was so closely situated to a water body where native Atlantic
salmon live. Farmed salmon can also spread more disease and a
scientific study found that when they cross-breed with wild fish
the new hybridized fish could out-compete and outgrow the wild
variety within several life cycles.
4:12:14 PM
The FDA approved genetically modified salmon under the
veterinary medicine component of the FDA rather than as a food
product, and people have questioned whether that is the
appropriate way to test if one is testing for human health
concerns. The lack of rigorous scientific examination of what
the human health risks are is a big part of the opposition to
this particular proposal even for folks that may be supportive
in the end.
REPRESENTATIVE TARR explained the price of wild salmon took a
huge dip when farmed salmon was introduced. The legislature's
response was creating the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute
(ASMI) to market Alaska's wild salmon. It has been very
successful in doing that. It has been reported that wild Alaska
salmon is the second most recognized brand on restaurant menus.
But absent labelling, the introduction of this genetically
modified salmon will undermine people's confidence in our
product. The fishing industry is the largest private sector
employer in Alaska and we want to keep jobs rather than lose
jobs. Alaskans are not alone in opposing GM salmon. Major
retailers, like Fred Meyer and Costco, where Alaska buy a lot of
their food have said they will not sell the GM salmon, but its
approval is still a challenge and it can be sold almost
anywhere.
4:15:46 PM
She said there is also international opposition. When the
approval first was made, the Prince Edward Island filed a
lawsuit for the way the Canadian government approved the
production of the GM eggs. Panama is where the fish are actually
grown, and the company was fined by the Panamanian government
because of escapement issues. One can see the potential
jurisdictional problems, because this industry involves three
different countries. Some U.S. fishing, environmental, and
consumer safety groups filed a lawsuit on March 31, 2016
questioning how it was approved in the first place.
4:17:26 PM
REPRESENTATIVE TARR applauded the Alaska Congressional
delegation for their leadership as outspoken advocates for
Alaska wild salmon. On July 11, 2017, Senator Murkowski
introduced legislation to mandate the labeling of genetically
engineered (GE) salmon. The bill requires an independent third-
party scientific review of the FDA's environmental assessment
for all GE fish for human consumption. This would be additional
protection.
She said the AquaBounty website used to list a whole number of
species that they were interested in having genetically modified
from shrimp to crab to other fish. So, questions around the
regulatory framework used (rather than a focus on human
consumption) and concerns for the marine environment need to be
understood before the flood gates are opened to many more
applications. Senator Murkowski's bill, S1528, has been referred
to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and
has not received a hearing, yet. It is co-sponsored by Senator
Dan Sullivan, Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, and Senator
Jeff Merkley of Oregon.
4:19:40 PM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if the resolution opposes just
AquaBounty or all GE salmon.
REPRESENTATIVE TARR replied theirs is the only application that
has been approved at this time, and the application is specific
to this three-country scenario of eggs, growing the fish, and
the marketing of the fish.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI said the next resolve urges the same
legislature or the U.S. Congress to enact legislation that
requires prominently labeling GE salmon and asked if it would be
possible for Congress to outright ban the sale of GE salmon.
REPRESENTATIVE TARR answered that Congress could ban it, because
that decision would supersede the FDA decision. Alaska is
limited by the Interstate Commerce Clause to what it can say.
However, she has introduced a bill that would ban the sale of GE
salmon in Alaska. The way a company would have to show harm is
to say that it violates the Interstate Commerce Clause. So, they
would have to prove that barring this law they would stood to
make a lot of money in Alaska. But Alaska would have a strong
argument that Alaskans probably aren't going to buy this fish if
they know that it is genetically modified, probably for the same
reasons that a lot less farmed salmon is sold here. Alaskans
prefer to catch it themselves or get it from a friend. Her
thought was to poke at that a little bit at the state level.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI said that 50 percent of restaurants say
their salmon is wild but it's not and asked if there is any way
to address that issue.
REPRESENTATIVE TARR answered that ASMI does a lot to educate
retailers and restaurant owners on where to buy their products
and to have a chain of custody to know that it is really wild
Alaska salmon, but it needs to be addressed more thoroughly. It
is a problem if people are using the brand that Alaska has
worked so hard to build to sell farmed salmon; if people get an
inferior product they won't buy it again.
4:24:06 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL opened public testimony.
4:24:11 PM
VAL GIDDINGS, consultant, Biotechnology Innovation Organization,
said he specializes in the regulation and policy related to
biotechnology and these were his views. He is an angler and
loves the wilderness. He shares their concerns for the safety
and sustainability of Alaska's salmon fisheries, "a crown jewel
in our national heritage of incalculable value, and they face a
number of threats."
Unfortunately, the AquaAdvantage salmon framed in this bill is
the opposite of one of these threats, he said. To the extent it
is successful, it will reduce the threat from farmed salmon to
Alaska's wild salmon. These salmon are intended to be grown in
terrestrial systems far from where they can escape. This is
exactly the method for growing Atlantic salmon that the Monterey
Seafood Watch Program has rated as "the best choice." The data
show that if these salmon did escape, their biology and behavior
would make it highly unlikely that any would survive. If they
survive, they are sterile and incapable of reproduction.
MR. GIDDINGS said if commercial sea pens of Atlantic salmon in
the Pacific Northwest were all replaced by these indoor
circulating tanks the concerns that the sea pens raised for wild
salmon will be completely negated. Even if the AquaAdvantage
salmon were capable of reproduction, eggs and fry require fresh
water and can't live in the ocean.
Another concern raised by the legislation is equally unfounded.
The FDA chose to do a more thorough review of this salmon under
the new animal drug provisions of the Veterinary Biologics law
before allowing it to be introduced into the food supply. All of
FDA's analyses were made available for multiple rounds of public
comment including an independent third-party review. He has read
all the comments and documents to this docket and followed the
process from the beginning and after this unprecedented
analysis, the FDA concluded that this salmon is
indistinguishable from other salmon. It is at least as safe to
eat as any other salmon and the way it will be grown gives it
the smallest environmental impact of any farmed salmon.
4:28:33 PM
FRANCES LEACH, Executive Director, United Fishermen of Alaska
(UFA), Juneau, Alaska, strongly supported HJR 12. UFA strongly
opposes genetically modified salmon and requests that GM seafood
products be clearly labeled as such. According to a New York
Times poll, over 90 percent of Americans would prefer that their
food is labeled to reflect the content containing GM
ingredients; 37 percent of those surveyed expressed concern that
GMO in their food may cause cancer and allergies; 75 percent of
respondents said they would not eat genetically modified fish.
4:30:38 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL, finding no further comments, closed public
testimony.
SENATOR COGHILL asked the sponsor to respond to language on page
2, line 8, saying AquaAdvantage salmon "could devastate native
fish populations."
REPRESENTATIVE TARR replied that what she saw peer-reviewed
scientific papers showing that this interbreeding took place and
why it was such a concern. For example, in Panama, the company
was fined for escapement issues. Unpredictable things happen,
like an earthquake, that could result in a major release into an
adjacent water body.
SENATOR COGHILL commented it's an obvious area of dispute.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if she agreed that GE fish are
sterile.
REPRESENTATIVE TARR replied that it's not true 100 percent of
time, and that is why there is a concern.
SENATOR COGHILL moved to report [CSHJR 12(FSH)], version 30-
LS0276\D, from committee with individual recommendations and
attached zero fiscal note. There were no objections and it was
so ordered.