September 23, 2010 - The Boston-based company AquaBounty has engineered a faster-growing, cold-resistant salmon by splicing in genes from other fish, and now the FDA is holding hearings on whether to allow this genetically modified creature into your grocer's freezer case. How do you prove that a GMO fillet is safe to eat? Compare it to regular fish. If you wanted to sell a completely novel chemical compound as food—say, a newly developed preservative—you would have to spend years feeding the stuff to laboratory animals, waiting for ill effects. By international consensus, however, genetically modified foods do not have to go through this process. Here's the full story from Brian Palmer at Slate.

September 5, 2010 - An examination by Alabama's Press-Register of the process used to reopen state waters around the Gulf to commercial fishing suggests that the Food and Drug Administration used an imprecise testing method, less protective standards than after past oil spills, and seafood consumption estimates that may not account for the dietary habits of Gulf Coast residents. For the Gulf spill, the FDA assumed an adult eats about 3 pounds of fish per month, and about 1.6 pounds total of shrimp, crabs and oysters. Such consumption rates offer a built in-safety net, the FDA says, because the agency believes only 10 percent of the people in the U.S. eat that much seafood in a month.  Dr. Gina Solomon, a University of California toxicologist and a senior science adviser to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said the FDA’s approach leaves people who like shellfish more vulnerable.

Here's the full story by Ben Raines.