Murkowski’s Frankenfish Labeling Measure Passes Committee
Senator Fights Against Messing With Mother Nature, Gets Milestone
WASHINGTON, DC — Senator Lisa Murkowski today won a major battle in the war over genetically modified salmon on Capitol Hill in the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee – as the amendment she introduced (attached) to mandating that ‘Frankenfish’ are labeled passed out of committee. Leading up to the vote, Appropriations Chair Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) asked Murkowski if she wanted a vote on her amendment (audio here), to which Alaska’s senior Senator responded “I do if I’ll win” to laughter and the roll call proceeded towards the one-vote victory.
Murkowski introduced her measure before her colleagues, making her point-by-point case against the product of gene splicing with an eel:
- Consumer concern of ‘Jurassic Park’ science ending up on Americans’ dinner plates;
- Scientific discoveries show these lab experiments can actually breed with natural salmon;
- Flaws in the FDA using a drug approval process for a product for humans to eat, and
- The threat that all these concerns and damaging possibilities pose on the national and international salmon industry.
She closed by shutting the door on the propaganda about Frankenfish creating American jobs, pointing out the science, funding and research is being done in Russia, the eels come from Canada and the fish will be raised in Panama.
One by one, support grew around the large appropriations committee horseshoe-shaped table. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said Frankenfish was “opening Pandora’s Box,” and Jon Tester said “the public has a right to know what they’re eating.”
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