April, 2013 - Running The Country

SITKA April 12, 2013: Sea Mart Quality Foods and Market Center will be joining over 2,000 grocery stores across the country in pledging not to sell genetically engineered salmon. Sea Mart Quality Foods and Market Center have been Sitka’s locally owned and operated grocery stores since 1949 and currently do not support farm-raised salmon.

CEO Roger Hames stated, “We support wild Alaskan salmon and the fishermen that catch it. We do not believe in farm-raised salmon when our economy is fed through the fish caught right outside our doors. Genetically engineered salmon is just another type of farmed-fish that will threaten our wild salmon stocks. We will not sell it in our stores.”

Executive Director of Sitka Conservation Society Andrew Thoms said, “We applaud Roger and his management team, and all the other retail stores across the country that recognize there is limit to what will be done for profit and that we need to take care of the environment that surrounds us. Sea Mart and Market Center look out over the rich salmon fishing grounds of Sitka Sound and recognizes that its part of that environment and is doing its part to protect our salmon fisheries.”

The period to comment on the Food and Drug Administration’s environmental assessment finding of no significant impact concerning genetically engineered salmon is April 26th, 2013. Members of the Sitka community will gather at Sea Mart next week to help people submit their comments opposing genetically engineered salmon.

The state of Alaska is also in opposition to genetically engineered salmon, with the passage of numerous bills and resolutions attempting to stop, and at minimum label, the GMO fish. United States Senator Lisa Murkowski, “We come together across thousands of miles because the FDA thinks Frankenfish will have ‘no significant impact’ on the environment. I wholeheartedly disagree with the FDA. I do not believe that a salmon-eel hybrid, genetically modified to grow twice as fast as wild salmon will not have an impact on our environment” she said.

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Thank you, Mr. Roger Hames and the people of Sea Mart for refusing to sell genetically engineered salmon!

We only have until April 26, 2013, to tell the FDA:

No Way To Frankenfish!

Submit your comments now!

Go to www.regulations.gov and search genetically engineered salmon and then click on the “comment now” button.

Thank you!!!

Virtually no one wants to eat GMO salmon. Absolutely no one needs to eat GMO salmon! And thousands of stores have announced that they refuse to sell GMO salmon.

Like all other genetically modified products, genetically modified salmon were created because they have the potential to make money. And like all other genetically modified products, GMO salmon has the potential to do tremendous harm to our environment.

Paul Rioux, Ray Friedlander, David Wilcox, the Sitka Conservation Society, and the community of Sitka rallied against GMO salmon in February. But Paul and Ray didn’t stop there. They got together and wrote an article published in the April 2013 Pacific Fishing magazine. The article is titled: Last Minute Do-It-Yourself Activist Toolbox Against GMO Salmon. In the article they lay out and explain exactly what you need to do to sponsor and hold your own Anti-GMO Salmon rally.

In the article, we read:

On Dec. 26th, 2012, the Food and Drug Administration opened a 30-day period to comment on environmental assessment and preliminary finding of no significance concerning genetically engineered Atlantic salmon.

Despite the fact that the FDA opened the period to comment amidst the holiday spirit, more than 33,000 people submitted comments, hosted rallies, and signed petitions opposing Frankenfish. This nationwide public activism prompted the FDA to extend the period to comment by 60 days. Your new deadline to comment is April 26.

Since the FDA began discussing genetically engineered salmon in 2010, more than 400,000 comments have been submitted to the agency urging the FDA not to approve the fish.

April 26! That’s coming right up! If you haven’t submitted your comment to the FDA, now’s your chance. It’s easy. It only takes a minute and it matters.

If you haven’t spoken out against genetically modified salmon to the FDA, go to www.regulations.gov and search for “genetically engineered salmon.” Click on the top “comment now” button you see. For the required field “Organization Name,” put “citizen,” or if you are representing a group, put the name of the group.

Center for Veterinary Medicine, which dealt with the fish request, (240) 276-9300.

FDA main number (for general inquiries), 1 (888) 463-6332.

Thank you, Paul and Ray, for leading out in a battle that may very well save life on earth as we know it.

Over the past 20 years, the FDA has repeatedly demonstrated that they are not a governmental agency at all. By and large, the key players are former and future biotechnology corporate lynchpins and lobbyists. And the biotech industry has repeatedly demonstrated it doesn’t give a cancerous rat’s ass about you, your health, or the environment.

I am struck by the megalomaniacal hubris of the FDA. By what authority do they approve GMO crops which will spread, infect, infest, and pollute the world’s natural ecosystems? By what authority do they approve fish that will, almost certainly, destroy natural fish species?

Of course, we all know the answer to those questions. They act by the authority of the all mighty dollar.

GMOs will only be stopped when we rise up and tear down the absurd patent laws that permit corporations to patent and profit from their mutant creations. And if we can’t change the patent laws, then we must demand that the perpetrators of genetic pollution be held financially and criminally liable for their crimes against humanity and nature.

I am not a proponent of the death penalty for human beings. I am, however, in favor of the death penalty for psychopathic corporations such as Monsanto. If a psychopathic person had committed a fraction of the crimes that Monsanto has perpetrated around the globe over the past century, society would have eliminated that person from the gene pool long, long ago.

The FDA is little more than another governmental branch of Monsanto. If the FDA says no to GMO salmon, it will weaken their pro-biotech position, and that’s the last thing the FDA/Monsanto wants to do.

Go to the FDA web site and leave a comment regarding GMO salmon. And while you’re at it, leave a comment regarding the corrupt nature of the FDA. Let them know that you know about their incestuous relationship with Monsanto and the biotech industry.

Tyranny always falls! The question in the GMO scenario is this: Will tyranny fall due to the efforts of good people like Paul Rioux, Ray Friedlander, and you, or will it fall from worldwide environmental destruction caused by the worldwide dissemination of genetically modified organisms?

Month: April 2013

Sea Mart Quality Foods and Market Center Oppose Genetically Engineered Salmon (GMO)

Do It Yourself Activist Toolkit Against GMO Salmon