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When Mutant Salmon Meet Killer Tomatoes by Santa Rosa Press Democrat Capital Press - March 15, 2002

The news that the Food and Drug Administration may approve a genetically modified salmon will make seafood lovers salivate and nature lovers cringe.

A gene has been transplanted into Atlantic salmon that allows the farm-raised fish to grow to full size in half the normal time.

The company that created the salmon says that only sterile females will be farmed, elimiating the chance of contaminating native fish populations. They also provide assureances that the fish are safe to eat.

Maybe so, but too many failed experiments with hatchery fish and too many questions about genetically modified food have led California Sen. Byron Sher, D-Stanford, to introduce SB1525, which would ban the import, sale or release of transgenic salmon within the state.

The Sher bill may go too far (some people argue that consumers should have the choice of buying genetically modified food), but it will generate an important debate.