The internet was on fire these past two days after the FDA deemed AquaBounty’s genetically-engineered salmon safe for human consumption this past Tuesday. Bloggers and opinion columnist on both sides of the issue gave their best shots at influencing their readers and arguments raged in the comments. A call-in campaign started by The Center for Food Safety resulted in a flooding of the White House’s phone comment lines as people voiced their concerns over this genetically-engineered organism making it their plates. The FDA will hold a public hearing on this issue in Maryland on September 19 and 20th, after which it will decide the fate of this laboratory-born fish.

In a blow to the biotech industry and a victory for food integrity advocates, a U.S. District Judge banned sugar beet farmers from planting genetically-engineered sugar beet seeds next year. Genetically-engineered sugar beets currently make up 95 percent of the crop in the U.S. The judge ruled that due to cross-contamination, the genetically-engineered crops were infringing on farmers’ fundamental right to choose the crop of their choice.

In the past year we saw Ajinomoto Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., one of the largest producers aspartame, change the name of their controversial artificial sweetener from ‘Nutrasweet’ to the healthier sounding ‘AminoSweet’. There was nothing new about the product, they just changed the name. If the high-fructose corn syrup lobbyists are successful, we may see this chemically-refined syrup get a healthier-sounding name as well. The Corn Refiners Association applied Tuesday to the FDA to allow use of the name ‘corn sugar’ instead of the tarnished ‘high-fructose corn syrup’.