In a shocking turn of events, authorities in Norway have approved genetically modified (GMO) canola oil as feed for its farmed salmon industry, despite the fact that GMO canola is grown using a banned herbicide called glufosinate that was withdrawn from the French market back in 2017 for damaging human reproduction.
According to reports, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA) approved the GMO canola oil for its salmon industry because it was unnaturally genetically engineered to contain omega-3 fatty acids, which when they occur naturally in nature are healthy for the body.
Also known as NS-B50027-4, the GMO canola oil was specifically developed as a land-based source of marine "fishy" acids, as they are also called. Norwegian authorities say this is environmentally beneficial since farmed salmon are already fed fish oil to boost their omega-3 levels.
"Wild fish get their omega-3 from eating algae," reports The Defender, citing GMWatch. "But wild fish stocks are depleted and the price of fish oil has risen, meaning that the amount of fish oil in salmon feed has decreased markedly in recent years."
The 'Aquaterra' omega-3 canola oil is being promoted as sustainable in the media by Nofima, a Norwegian research institute that conducts research and development for the aquaculture industry. Its scientists carried out research on Aquaterra omega-3 canola oil."
(Related: Did you know that the farmed salmon industry laces artificial dyes into its pale salmon meat to make it look more appealing to consumers?)
GMO canola oil linked to wing deformities in butterflies – what does it do to humans?
It turns out that the GMO canola oil also fixes another major problem with Norway's farmed salmon industry: the lack of natural "pink" pigment in the fish meat, pink that normally comes from astaxanthin as it develops naturally in wild salmon as they go about their lives.
Farmed salmon might technically be salmon at the scientific level, but it is hardly the same thing as real wild salmon. As such, Norway is trying to artificially boost the color levels in its farmed salmon industry to make the fish end product appear more desirable to the eye and to the palate.
While it might seem to some that lacing fish food with GMO canola oil artificially enriched with omega-3 fatty acids is good for both humans and the environment, the opposite is actually true.
Past research published in the journal PLoS One found that artificially laced omega-3 GMO crops damage the environment, including by inflicting deformities in pollinators like butterflies.
If artificially laced omega-3 GMO crops are doing this kind of thing to crop pests, what might they be doing to humans who eat the end product, in this case GMO-fed salmon from Norway's "factory" salmon farms?
"The study was not on GM canola, but on the fish oils that such GM crops are engineered to contain," GMWatch reported.
"The researchers found that when the long chain omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil – eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) – were fed to cabbage white butterflies, the insects grew into heavier adults and had a higher frequency of wing deformities."
Commenting on these latest developments, Dr. Angelika Hilbeck, senior scientist at the Institute of Integrative Biology at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, noted that the study in question provides unique insight into the dangers and risks of these types of GMO crops.
"The fact that these compounds [long-chain omega-3 fatty acids] are novel in terrestrial systems has been entirely overlooked until this study," Dr. Hilbeck said. "I congratulate the authors for having raised the issue of this important ecological risk before these crops are planted on a significant scale."
The latest news about the GMO takeover of the global food supply can be found at GMO.news.
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