Albany fish farm plans to harvest genetically modified fish, but will it have local buyers?

ALBANY, Ind. — Officials with AquaBounty Technologies are looking to harvest their first batch of genetically modified salmon at its indoor facility in Albany this March, but as pressure mounts from environmental groups, convincing potential buyers could be the companies biggest challenge. 

AquaBounty already has harvested conventional Atlantic salmon from its Albany facility, where fish are raised in recirculating tanks that look like above-ground swimming pools ranging in size from 750 gallons to 68,684 gallons.

The new fish, engineered to grow faster than conventional Atlantic salmon, are attracting attention because they're the first genetically modified animals approved for human consumption in the U.S.

AquaBounty has been looking seize its share of the industry, one in which the U.S.A. imports 97% of the salmon on the market today. That's about 400,000 metric tons per year according to experts.

Sylvia Wulf, CEO of AquaBounty, told media that there was a lot of misinformation the company was looking to combat during a virtual press conference on Wednesday. The key, she said, was holding conversations with potential buyers about the fish and the process used in breeding them.

In 2016, the Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice, representing a broad coalition of environmental, consumer, commercial and recreational fishing organizations, and the Quinault Indian Nation sued the federal Food and Drug Administration for approving AquAdvantage salmon planned to be used by AquaBounty.

That led to a potential cooling effect on buyers for the fish, though officials with AquaBounty said there is still plenty of interest from food distributors, restaurants and more.

According to The Counter, a food journalism website, grocery provider Aramark recently joined 85 other grocery chains, seafood companies, restaurants, and foodservice companies that have pledged not to sell the GMO salmon.

A full list of those companies not willing to sell the product can be found on the website of Friends of the Earth, an activists group.

Most major grocery store chains within Delaware County are on the list, including Kroger (of which Pay Less and Ruler Foods are subsidiaries), Aldi, Meijer, Walmart and Target. (Fresh Thyme is not on the list, but The Star Press could not confirm on Wednesday whether the store would carry the salmon.)

Downtown Farm Stand owner Dave Ring said his organic grocery store wouldn't be carrying the product since the fish are genetically modified. Minar's Market in Albany did not plan to carry the salmon, owner Tom Bellar said.

Unless AquaBounty convinces any of those retailers otherwise, it’s possible that the fish grown and harvested within Delaware County might be hard to buy at many stores here.

Officials with AquaBounty stand by the use of genetically modified fish because it solves many of the challenges in making land-based fish farms economical; the major one of which is scale and speed of production.

“We can do more with less and produce (the fish) closer to the point of consumption,” Wulf said on Wednesday. That means a fish at the plant can be on someone's table significantly faster over what it takes to get imported fish to the same location.

That alone they argue helps the environment because of shipping and overfishing natural habitats. 

Activists have fought against the company, coining AquaBounty's product with the term "frankenfish" because of the genetic modification process. Other concerns from environmentalists are about the impact the fish could have if they got into natural waterways.

“We know there are a number of forward-thinking progressive customers,” Wulf said. 

Wulf said that once buyers understand how the process works, they are happy to buy the product.

Still, misinformation and mischaracterization of the process that they use has been a problem, according to the CEO. Moving forward, Wulf said the company was focused on getting retailers to understand what it is that AquaBounty does.

Wulf said their market analysis showed the determining factors for most consumers were taste and costs.  

“They don’t have the full story on environmental impact,” Wulf said, noting that some who originally came out against the fish have changed their minds after talks with AquaBounty officials.

“We are very aware of the concerns from environmentalists,” Wulf said. She talked about the facility's designs to protect the environment, one of the biggest concerns raised by groups opposed to the fish.

During tours given to The Star Press and other media over the past two years, AquaBounty has shown journalists netting that covers the Albany farm's nursery fish tanks to prevent the salmon from jumping out.

Officials showed several layers of protection within the facility to prevent fish from reaching a local waterway. Even if a breakout occurred, the fish couldn't breed, according to company officials, because the fish are all sterilized females.

Last year, a federal judge ordered the Food and Drug Administration to go back and complete its analysis of what might happen to normal salmon if genetically engineered (GE) salmon escaped from the landlocked farms into the wild.

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The process was one Wulf said that company was fine with reexamining, and willing to help complete.

“In 20 years, we have never had an escape and we take that responsibility very seriously,” Wulf said.

So what will happen with Albany’s plant going forward into the first harvest of fish this coming month?

According to Wulf, they plan on ramping up the production process as they go. The facility can produce 100 tons of fish a month.

“We’ve had a lot of inbound interest from customers,” Wulf said. “We are going to share their feedback with you as we get it.”

A new processing portion of the Albany plant is also now operational, but part of processing the fish is still being sourced to a partner in Chicago.

Wulf said the Albany facility was a smaller scale so vacuum packing them on site was never part of that plan.

The Albany farm's capacity is 1,200 metric tons annually, which is small for the overall goals of the company. Wulf told the media on Wednesday that plans to expand were still moving forward, including a new facility 10 times the size of the one in Albany.

A final decision on where that plant would be located will be announced later in March according to Wulf.

Corey Ohlenkamp is the city/county government reporter. Contact him via email at cohlenkamp@muncie.gannett.com or by phone at 765-213-5874. Follow him on Twitter at @Ohlenkamp.