Meet your meat: The argument for increasing education and public outreach regarding the regulation and safety of animal biotechnology.

Abstract

Biotechnology has evolved beyond the realm of child's guess-and-check to a precise science, and now promises to help solve some of the globe's most pressing challenges, including food insecurity and environmental degradation. Beyond this, biotechnology also represents an important part of the American intellectual property landscape. Unlike transgenic plants, no transgenic animals have yet to reach the American dinner table, despite the fact that transgenic animals offer cheap, healthy, and an environmentally friendly source of protein. AquaBounty's AquAdvantage Salmon, which counts itself among the most heavily regulated product in the Food and Drug Administration's history, suffers greatly from negative stigma from special interest groups and the media. This article will examine the important role of biotechnology in America's intellectual property market, the regulation of the AquAdvantage Salmon, and transgenic animal products more generally, before FDA, as well as some of misinformation about AquAdvantage that has been presented to the American public. This article additionally advocates for FDA to adopt a more proactive public outreach role in explaining to the American public, in terms accessible to the layperson, what a transgenic animal product is, how FDA regulates transgenic animal products, and why FDA feels these products are safe for human consumption. In doing so, this article hopes to establish that FDA is best suited to provide the American public with objective facts surrounding this highly stigmatized product.