Reason Writers Around Town: Katherine Mangu-Ward on Frankenfish at Esquire.com
Messing around with DNA is serious business, and the registered trademark symbol at the end of "AquAdvantage® Salmon" is a little creepy. The equally unpleasant word "Frankenfish" has been floating around the blogosphere atop scare stories about the future of food. And there is serious (and legitimate) concern that modified fish will sneak out of their aquaculture pens and join Atlantic salmon for wild aquatic sex parties, crossbreeding with — and potentially out-competing — their genetically pure peers. The specter of piscine promiscuity understandably makes people nervous. But they needn't worry, writes Senior Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward at Esquire.com today in an article about the FDA's anticipated approval of genetically modified salmon for human consumption.