[env-trinity] Court rejects FDA's OK of genetically engineered salmon

[Tom Stokely]

FISHERIES

Court rejects FDA's OK of genetically engineered salmon

Michael Doyle, E&E News reporterPublished: Thursday, November 5, 2020

AquaBounty Technologies Inc.'s bioengineered Atlantic salmon (above) grows twice as fast as its similarly aged conventional counterpart. AquaBounty

A federal judge today cast back as inadequate a Food and Drug Administration review of the environmental consequences of unleashing genetically engineered salmon.

In a closely watched case, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that the FDA's action violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act.

The agency had concluded that the engineered salmon were highly unlikely to escape from the two facilities where a company planned to raise them and that even if the salmon escaped, they were unlikely to survive in the wild.

"The FDA did not, however, meaningfully analyze what might happen to normal salmon in the event the engineered salmon did survive and establish themselves in the wild," Judge Vince Chhabria wrote. "Even if this scenario was unlikely, the FDA was still required to assess the consequences of it coming to pass."

Chhabria, an Obama appointee, ordered the FDA to more thoroughly analyze the environmental consequences of an escape of genetically engineered salmon into the wild.

"Today's decision is a vital victory for endangered salmon and our oceans," said George Kimbrell, Center for Food Safety legal director. "Genetically engineered animals create novel risks, and regulators must rigorously analyze them using sound science, not stick their head in the sand as officials did here."

In 2016, the Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice, representing a coalition of environmental, consumer and other interests, sued the FDA for approving the first-ever commercial genetically engineered animal, an Atlantic salmon engineered to grow fast.

The genetically engineered salmon was produced by AquaBounty Technologies Inc. with DNA from Atlantic salmon, Pacific king salmon and Arctic Ocean eelpout.

"Before starting the country down a road that could well lead to commercial production of genetically engineered fish on a large scale, the FDA should have developed a full understanding — and provided a full explanation — of the potential environmental consequences," Chhabria wrote.

Twitter: @MichaelDoyle10Email: mdoyle at eenews.net

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