GM salmon company AquaBounty shuts down operations

[Oscar]

GM salmon company AquaBounty shuts down operations

[ https://gmwatch.org/en/106-news/latest- ... operations ]

- December 12, 2024 - GM WATCH

"Company announced that it does not have sufficient liquidity to maintain its “only remaining operating farm”

EXCERPT: "The troubled biotechnology company AquaBounty has announced it will stop production of all genetically modified (GM or genetically engineered) salmon and is closing its last working facility, at Bay Fortune in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, reports Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN).

“We’re glad to see the back of this company after over twenty years of our protests against genetically modified food,” said Sharon Labchuk of GMO Free PEI.

AquaBounty released the world’s first GM food animal – a GM salmon – onto the market in 2017 but is now culling the last of its fish. Yesterday, the company announced that it does not have sufficient liquidity to maintain its “only remaining operating farm” at Bay Fortune and its chief executive officer, David Melbourne, has resigned.(1)

“This struggling company has survived largely due to investor hype along with decades of government funding and the support of the federal policy to deny consumers mandatory labelling of GM food. The company couldn’t make producing GM salmon viable even with all the government subsidies and supportive policies,” said Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator of CBAN.

The company’s announcement comes just weeks after the federal and PEI governments announced $231,095 in joint funding for the company.(2) Just last week, CBAN wrote to the Auditor General of Canada and of PEI and to the federal and provincial ministers of fisheries to object to this use of funds and request a review of government decision-making in continued funding for AquaBounty.(3) AquaBounty still owes the Government of Prince Edward Island at least $1.5-million from a 2018 loan of $2.7-million.

“And so ends a science experiment which never should have started because of the risk to wild Atlantic salmon. As they shut their operations in PEI, we encourage the company to ensure that all genetically modified fish and eggs are safely culled to ensure there is no risk of escape in the closing days,” says Mark Butler, Senior Advisor at Nature Canada. . . . "

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