As the recent prevalence of GMO crops has been a worldwide point of contention in courts, the US Food and Drug Administration is now being sued. Environmental groups filed the lawsuit on Thursday in an effort to block the FDA’s approval of genetically modified salmon this last November.
The suit, which is led by the Center for Food Safety, Food & Water Watch, and the Center for Biological Diversity, seeks to overturn the decision, as they are concerned about the risk that it poses to the wild salmon population if they were to escape. The groups have also stated that they are concerned over potential health risks in their consumption.
The 64-page lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, challenging the FDA’s authority to regulate genetically engineered animals under the 1937 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
The salmon, engineered by AquaBounty Technologies, has used genes from a Pacific Chinook salmon and a deep water ocean eelpout in order to grow the Atlantic salmon at twice the rate.
In response to concerns over the genetically engineered salmon, AquaBounty has said that they use 25 percent less feed than any other Atlantic salmon, and that the risk of the salmon escaping into the wild is removed because the salmon are raised on land far from the ocean.
Plaintiffs in the case include Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, Golden Gate Salmon Association, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association, Institute for Fisheries Resources, and several others.
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