US company AquaBounty has closed its genetically modified (GM or genetically engineered) salmon “tank farm” in Prince Edward Island and put the building up for sale. Currently, AquaBounty is not producing any GM salmon and has no working fish farm.
Our press release today: GM Fish Factory in P.E.I. for Sale: Taxpayers Should Get Their Money Back.
- Cliquez ici pour le communiqué de presse – L’usine de saumon OGM sur l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard est à vendre: Les contribuables devraient récupérer leur argent
Just four years after its first “harvest” of GM Atlantic salmon in Canada, AquaBounty is selling its on-land GM fish factory at Rollo Bay, PEI. CBAN’s member group GMO Free PEI confirms that the building is now shut. See the photos from PEI in our new factsheet along with a timeline of events and government funding: www.cban.ca/GMsalmonupdate2024
AquaBounty owes $2.2 million to the Government of Prince Edward Island from a loan provided to assist construction of the building that is now for sale. In total, over $8 million was invested by the federal and provincial governments through multiple grants and loans. In February 2023, AquaBounty announced that it would no longer produce GM salmon at Rollo Bay but in December 2023 the federal government provided AquaBounty with funds to support “scale-up” at Rollo Bay. In September 2024, the company announced that the building is for sale, however, in February 2024 the federal government gave the company another loan.
The Canadian facility was one of two sites run by AquaBounty. Both are now closed. The second, in Indiana, US, was sold earlier this year to the company Superior Fresh that only uses non-GM fish and non-GM fish food. AquaBounty says it will use funds from the building sales to finance construction of a bigger GM salmon factory in Ohio, however, construction in Ohio has been on hold since June 2023.
This was the first GM food animal sold in the world. There is no mandatory labelling of GM foods in Canada for consumers. The coalition GMO Free PEI has been actively working with CBAN to stop the GM Atlantic salmon for over 15 years.
For more information see our new factsheet at www.cban.ca/GMsalmonupdate2024
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