Archives: Press Releases

October 28, 2014—Brussels and Washington, DC. Officials in Panama fined U.S. biotech company AquaBounty Technologies a near-maximum US$9,500 after ruling that the company has been operating in violation of environmental regulations during its experiments with genetically modified (GM) salmon. Food & Water Europe, Food & Water Watch, the Center for Food Safety and Friends of the Earth U.S. today called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to terminate its ongoing safety review of GM salmon and to reject AquaBounty’s pending application to sell the company’s GM fish in the United States.

“The FDA has always assured the public that it is checking, monitoring and regulating AquaBounty’s production platform to ensure that the company can mitigate the well-documented environmental impacts of escaped GM salmon,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Europe. “We now know that AquaBounty is unwilling or unable to follow basic rules and regulations, and that the FDA is unable or unwilling to enforce them. It’s time to put an end to this dangerous experiment.”

Last week’s decision from the Panamanian National Environmental Authority came in response to a complaint filed last year by the Panamanian environmental organization Centro de Incidencia Ambiental (CIAM). Regulators found AquaBounty out of compliance with a raft of environmental safety rules and regulations, including failing to secure prior to beginning operations the legally required permits related to water use and water discharge. Regulators concluded, “We are of the opinion that it [AquaBounty] has repeatedly violated the aforementioned environmental regulations.” The US$9,500 penalty is very near the US$10,000 maximum penalty provided for in Panamanian law.

AquaBounty’s facility in Panama has long experienced serious security issues, including a storm-related accident that led to “lost” salmon in Panama. A visiting journalist described the company’s facility as a “run-down shed.”

To date, the FDA has made no regulatory decision on AquaBounty’s application to sell GM salmon, which, if approved, would be the first biotech animal to enter the food supply anywhere in the world. The FDA’s current regulatory review considers only one production scenario in which AquaBounty produces GM salmon at a remote facility in Panama, then sends fillets to U.S. retailers. Critics have long worried that AquaBounty chose its out-of-the-way production facility as a way to evade regulatory scrutiny.

“In the European Union, we are well aware that GM foods are not labeled in the U.S. One of the big reasons we are fighting the U.S. approval of GM salmon for food is the grave doubts surrounding the ability of either AquaBounty or the U.S. food system to keep these GM fish out of exports headed our way,” said Eve Mitchell, EU food policy advisor for Food & Water Europe. “If AquaBounty doesn’t even have legal permission to do what it is doing, it only adds to worries that the entire regulatory process is too full of holes to be trusted, especially on something as important as a safety assessment. We do not want GM salmon in the EU, and we don’t think anyone else does either, so it’s time for the FDA to reject the application and put this thing behind us.”

Contacts:
Eve Mitchell, Food & Water Europe (UK time), +44(0)1381 610 740, [email protected]
Rich Bindell, Food & Water Watch (Washington time), 202-683-2457, [email protected]

Washington, D.C.— Today, a coalition of consumer and advocacy organizations including Food & Water Watch, the Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention, Consumer Federation of America, National Consumers League and United Food & Commercial Workers International Union called on the Office of Management and Budget to create an inspection program for domestic and imported catfish. The 2008 Farm Bill mandated the creation of such a program, to be administered by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which was supposed to be implemented by December 2009.

“In 2013, Americans consumed more than 305 million pounds of catfish, 78 percent of which was imported, mostly from Vietnam,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. “Americans want to be sure that the catfish they eat and feed their families is safe, yet bowing to pressure from importers and other nations, the Obama administration continues to hold up the implementation of this important rule. Enough is enough.”

The Food and Drug Administration currently regulates catfish. Domestic catfish processors are subject to FDA inspections once every 5 to 10 years and only 2 percent of imported catfish gets inspected. The new inspection program would subject domestic catfish processors to daily USDA inspection, and imported catfish, much of which is raised in unsanitary conditions and is treated with antibiotics and other chemicals that have been deemed to be illegal in the U.S., would receive more rigorous inspection by the USDA.

There is clear scientific evidence that the residues of chemicals used in aquaculture can remain in the edible portion of the fish through harvesting, processing and consumption. The FDA has determined that the potential immediate and long-range human health consequences may include hypersensitivity reactions, toxicity-related reactions, potential carcinogenic and mutagenic effects and increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms.

A 2011 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that the FDA imported seafood sampling program did not generally test for drugs that some countries and the European Union have approved for use in aquaculture, despite the fact that many of those drugs remain unapproved in the United States. Moreover, only a small share of imported seafood is tested. For example, GAO determined that in fiscal year 2009, FDA tested about 0.1 percent of all imported seafood products for drug residues. Specifically regarding catfish during fiscal years 2006 through 2009, GAO found that the FDA did not analyze a single catfish sample for nitrofurans, which is a class of antibacterial drug commonly used in foreign aquaculture that has been banned by the FDA because of its carcinogenic effects and potential risk to public health.

“USDA catfish inspection has the potential to significantly improve consumer safety, without negatively impacting U.S. seafood companies, international trade or the regulatory responsibilities of federal agencies. The domestic catfish industry welcomes this regulation, as do consumers. Six years is more than enough of time, let’s get this rule implemented,” urged Hauter.

Read the letter here: http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/doc/CatfishLetter.pdf

Contact: Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch, (202) 683-2500, kfried(at)fwwatch(dot)org.

Brussels – This morning, Members of the European Parliament and environmental groups played the board game ‘Fracking RISK’ to highlight how shale gas fails to offer a real solution to climate change or to the EU’s growing dependency on imported natural gas. In the lead up to the ‘Global Frackdown’, an international day of action against shale gas on 11 October, Food & Water Europe and Friends of the Earth Europe were warning against the environmental and social harm that fracking for shale gas brings.

Commenting, director of Food & Water Europe Geert Decock said “Communities across Europe are standing up on this Global Frackdown day to make their voices heard and call for a ban on the risky and unnecessary practice of fracking for shale gas. Any energy security concerns resulting from the Ukraine crisis should motivate the EU to seek real, renewable solutions, not to further lock itself into dependence on fossil fuels like shale gas.”

Local groups are springing up all around Europe in opposition to fracking, and their message is echoed in numerous opinion polls, showing strong public support for ambitious policies on energy efficiency and renewable energy. Amplifying the message of the Global Frackdown, citizens’ groups across Europe are protesting against the opaque negotiations on free trade agreements between the EU and Canada and the United States. Also on October 11, a European day of action against the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and EU-Canada Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement (CETA) will highlight that these deals risk opening the back door to the expansion of fracking in Europe. A report by Friends of the Earth Europe earlier this year outlined how the TTIP could limit governments’ ability to regulate the development and expansion of fracking, stopping efforts to address climate change and to protect citizens.

“European decision makers haven’t listened to the concerns of the citizens they are supposed to represent. This is why the anti-fracking movement keeps on growing,” said Friends of the Earth Europe shale gas campaigner, Antoine Simon. “Relying on the fossil fuel industry to have the best interests of citizens at heart is absurd. Considering the danger shale gas poses, both in terms of climate change and local pollution, only an outright ban can protect the environment and people’s health.”

Video courtesy Greens EFA.

Washington, D.C. – Spurred on by reports that meat companies are abandoning the Australian Meat Inspection System (AEMIS) that USDA’s Inspection Service found to be equivalent, the national advocacy organization Food & Water Watch today asked USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to re-evaluate the equivalency determination for AMEIS. This is the fifth time in two years that Food & Water Watch has made this request.

“Although the European Union has flagged definite problems in allowing meat companies to police their own inspection systems, the USDA has yet to speak out about this very obvious conflict of interest,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. “Yet if the result of a privatized meat inspection system in Australian is food that is unsafe to eat, the United States owes it to consumers to revoke the equivalency determination for AEMIS.”

In 2013 alone the US imported over 620 million pounds of red meat from Australia, and that figure is expected to increase by the end of 2014. Since Australia implemented AEMIS, USDA import inspectors have found serious food safety violations, including traces of fecal matter on meat shipments and even positive test results for the pathogen E.coli 0157:H7.  An audit of the system conducted by FSIS and posted last month concluded that the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) was not holding Australian meat companies accountable for the contamination that was being found on meat being exported to the U.S. Specifically, FSIS found that DAFF did not require those meat companies that shifted to AEMIS to reassess their food safety plans to ensure that they were not putting contaminated meat into commerce.

“It’s clear that Australia’s privatized meat inspection system is failing consumers, particularly as some plants are asking that the government take up this essential service. With Australia a major trading partner, we need to take every measure possible to ensure that meat from that nation is safe to eat. That can only be accomplished under a government-led inspection system,” said Hauter.

Read the letter here.

Contact: Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch, (202) 683-4905, kfried(at)fwwatch(dot)org.

Maryland’s political leaders continue to choose the gas industry over citizens

Statement by Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter

Washington, D.C. — “In its approval of the Dominion Cove Point LNG export facility late Monday evening despite local opposition, the Federal Energy Regulation Commission (FERC) chose to sacrifice the well being of Maryland communities and endanger public health in favor of hefty profits for Dominion Resources. Cove Point will be one of the largest LNG export facilities in the U.S., and the first of its kind to be located so close to a community.

FERC’s authorization to render the Cove Point facility capable of processing and exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) overseas is merely one part of the oil and gas industry’s aggressive push to expand fracking in the Marcellus Shale region – an agenda actively backed by the Obama Administration. By approving Dominion Cove Point, FERC puts the interests of oil and gas companies above the health of local communities—especially the 2,500 residents of Lusby, MD who live less than one mile away from the facility.

Dominion Cove Point is designed to send fracked gas to markets in Europe and Asia where it can fetch the highest price, accelerating the pace of fracking here in the U.S., and transforming rural communities into sacrifice zones that endangering public health, natural resources and local economies.

At a time when citizens should be looking to their political leaders to help lead them away from destructive fossil fuels toward a more sustainable energy future, they are working hand-in-glove with the oil and gas lobby, enabling a process that continues to sacrifice communities and the potential for a healthier environment.”

 

 

Washington, D.C.— In an effort to protect Americans from questionable meat imports, the national advocacy organization Food & Water Watch today pressured USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to explain whether meat products produced under Australia’s newest inspection model will be allowed into the United States. The inquiry came on the heels of revelations that some Australian meat companies have opted to hire private third party firms to perform meat inspections on products destined for the European Union and expressed interest in using this system in plants sending red meat to the United States.

“I don’t understand the contortions that the Australian government is going through to avoid having competent government inspectors in its slaughterhouses,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. “The meat industry there should certainly not be allowed to police itself. Moreover, our government has been complicit in this scheme, first by recognizing privatized inspection in Australia, and now by trying to foist questionable imports on U.S. consumers. Every year, the United States imports over 600 million pounds of red meat from Australia, so it’s critical we get to the bottom of this.”

In 2013, the European Union rejected an inspection model, the Australian Export Meat Inspection System (AEMIS), that privatized most inspections in Australian red meat plants. The EU argued that AEMIS inspections created an inherent conflict-of-interest. The U.S. granted approval to AEMIS in 2011 for red meat exports. The formation of private third party inspection firms was intended to alleviate the concerns expressed by the European Union. There is no record of USDA recognizing this new inspection scheme.

“In June, Food & Water Watch petitioned the USDA to revoke their approval of privatized meat inspection systems in several countries, including Australia, for import to the United States,” said Hauter. “This latest example of the chaos in the Australian meat inspection program is further proof that we should not be importing meat from companies that do not use government employees for inspection.”

Contact: Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch, (202) 683-2500, kfried(at)fwwatch(dot)org.