The “FDA has a lot of resources at hand, as well as a government and an economy that promotes technology, believes in technology and is much more interested in having the best technology in the world,” Mr. Hobson said. “Canada's maybe not as aggressive when it comes to technology.”
He said Chinese regulators are also quickly catching up.
Garth Fletcher, one of the researchers from Memorial University in Newfoundland who did the original research for the genetically altered salmon, feels some affinity with other overlooked Canadian inventors – including those who came up with a light bulb before Thomas Edison. “Very few people know that it wasn't Edison but a Canadian scientist who invented the light bulb,” he said, predicting that the Canadian roots of AquaBounty's salmon might also be forgotten.
It made commercial sense for AquaBounty to seek approval in the United States first because the potential market there is so much bigger, Dr. Fletcher said.
Still, genetically altering animals for human consumption remains uncharted territory, and regulators in the United States and Canada are still grappling with how such food technology should be handled. U.S. regulators have decided to treat genetically modified animals as veterinary drugs; in Canada, at least three federal agencies are involved in the application process (no animal or fish has ever been approved for human consumption in either country).
Mr. Hobson at the University of Guelph said that if the AquAdvantage salmon is approved, applications for other technologies from other companies will quickly follow. “But nobody really wants to go first, because it's probably five times as hard to go first as it is to follow.”
Fewer government resources in Canada means the application for approval of Enviropig – which has cost more than $5-million to research – has been slow. The University of Guelph submitted applications to Health Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Environment Canada last year, as well as to the FDA.
Although Enviropig is about halfway through the FDA's seven-step approval process, the university does not know where it stands with Health Canada and the CFIA. (In February, Environment Canada approved Enviropig for commercial production because it was legally required to respond within 120 days. But without approval from the other agencies, any commercially bred Enviropigs at this point would merely be expensive pets.)
Even if Enviropig got the go-ahead in Canada, it would still require U.S. approval before it was brought to market locally, said Cecil Forsberg, one of the creators of the Enviropig. Since the United States buys so much Canadian pork, the entire domestic industry would be undermined if Enviropig were to slip into that food system unapproved, he said.
Dr. Forsberg said he has no hesitations about the safety of eating Enviropig meat. “I would almost be prepared to do it illegally, except I'd run into problems here on campus.”
Lucy Sharratt, co-ordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, however, isn't convinced the market wants or even needs DNA-altered animals. “Genetically engineered animals are so far from what consumers want, so far from the trend looking toward a sustainable local food system, it doesn't make any sense that governments would waste taxpayers' money assessing the safety,” said Ms. Sharratt, whose Ottawa-based group promotes sustainable local agricultural production.
She said dispersing hog production and reducing the size of farms – steps that would essentially reverse the trend of global food production – would ease the environmental burden of pig excrement without Enviropig.
Dr. Forsberg noted that the industry has indicated it wants Enviropig. If, and when, regulators approve it, the biggest hurdle will be winning over consumers.
“If consumers will accept it, they will produce it,” he said. “So that's where the issue lies.”
