Frankenfish

...the GM salmon, growing to harvest weight in half the time, the first GM animal to be released for public consumption. It will arrive unmarked, and largely untested, in an astounding display of FDA corruption and AquaBounty greed. But honestly, why not? The most demoralizing thing is that I can't even come up with a quick someone to blame. That, in my opinion, is a key component of a facebook-status-sized rant, along with a sensationalist name like "frankenfish." Thus, this decidely not-twitter-sized rant.

We will pay AquaBounty, and handsomely, to produce this fish. We do not pay them to consider health benefits or environmental impacts. When, not if, we have proof of the many ways GM salmon is a terrible idea, they will as usual pass the buck to a faulty contractor or the FDA. Even if, in a stroke of genius, we actually manage to hold the company accountable for lying to our faces then their condemnation will be small reconciliation for the human toll and environmental destruction this playing-God will reap.

FDA will approve this fish, and everything else that comes across their table, in time. We pay them to exist, not to protect. This is because they have no accountability. At this point they are, like most governmental regulation agencies, a tax on innovation. You'll get through, it just takes time and money. That doesn't prove your product is safe or wise, just that you have time and money. Even if, in a stroke of genius, we actually manage to hold the FDA accountable for lying to our faces, well, I guess we fire the head and get a new one. If people had any evidence they'd be held accountable, we wouldn't see this parade of corruption scandals (including the previous head of FDA). We would see greedy, reckless companies like AquaBounty pause, even a moment, before condemning our future. That PAUSE, not FDA's mere existence, is our protection.

Accountability, transparency, incentives. In a land where Presidents claim powers that exist nowhere in the books or the Constitution, and where organizations such as the FBI, CIA, FDA conduct irrefutably illegal activities, lie to Congress and us citizens about them for years, get caught and then get...ignored, accountability is nowhere to be found. With it, on the same midnight train out of this country, is any sort of incentive to look beyond one's own paycheck. What has struck me the most recently is the trend of audacity, that people of power need not even pretend they're doing the right thing. I guess, well, at least that's transparency. Isn't that something.