Salmon Confidential Movie & Review; CFIA Blocks Only Independent ISA Salmon Virus Testing Lab

Edited and Compiled by Raoul Bedi, BASc

A film by Twyla Roscovich

This article compilation is dedicated to ‘Salmon Are Sacred ‘www.salmonaresacred.org  , all its friends and supporters, and to Dr.Fred and Molly Kibenge . Sections A and B provide some background information and analysis about the breathtaking Salmon Confidential documentary , and its leading protagonists. Sections  C and D  deal with some of the current activism , latest research around harmful effects, and  an update from marine biologist  Dr. Alexandra Morton   about the CFIA’s recent move to block independent farmed and wild salmon virus lab testing in Canada  .

CFIA vs PEI fish scientist, over salmon

From Denis Calnan in the Toronto Star:

CHARLOTTETOWN—There’s something fishy going on in Prince Edward Island.

A professor at Atlantic Veterinary College says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is trying to discredit his work after tests he conducted showed a virus in British Columbia’s valuable wild salmon population.

Dr. Frederick Kibenge, who found the infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus in October 2011, is recognized by the World Organisation for Animal Health — known as the OIE — as an expert on the virus.

Despite Kibenge’s results, and a Department of Fisheries and Oceans lab in B.C. that also found ISA, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has maintained that West Coast salmon is free of the virus, which has never been found in the province before.

So what’s the CFIA been up to lately?

Remember the CFIA, that official Canadian Food Inspection agency, that was so concerned about wiping out a flock of heritage Shropshire sheep a few weeks back? Well maybe that wasn’t such an isolated incident. What can we make of this latest development on the food safety front? Is this a real problem that’s being covered up? To protect what, short term business prospects of continuing to sell more salmon in the supermarkets? And for that, they’re willing to scupper the international credentials of a university science lab? Is this is a government agenda, rogue “regulators”, or what? Are we still living in Canada?

From Mark Hume, in the Globe and Mail:

“A lab that revealed the first evidence of an infectious virus in British Columbia salmon should be stripped of its international credentials, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

In a letter to the World Organization for Animal Health, the CFIA urges the international agency to accept the findings of an independent audit that recommends “suspension of the reference laboratory status,” of the facility.

The lab is run by Frederick Kibenge at the Atlantic Veterinary College-University of Prince Edward Island.

As more GMO foods enter the market, non-labeling become a bigger problem

From Dr. Mercola:

“You can avoid sugar, aspartame, trans-fats, or MSG if you’re a savvy reader of labels. But if you want to avoid genetically modified organisms (GMO’s), it’s not so easy. They’re not listed on labels. You could buy organic foods, which by law can’t contain more than 5 percent GMO’s — but now that might not work either.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved three new kinds of genetically engineered foods — alfalfa, a type of corn, and sugar beets. And the FDA will likely soon approve GM salmon, which would become the first genetically modified animal to be sold in the U.S., but probably not the last. And the FDA and USDA will not require any of these products, or foods containing them, to be labeled as genetically engineered.

This despite the fact that over 95 percent of people polled say they think GM foods should require a label.