Mass-Protest against genetically engineered (GE) trees at an International Union of Forest Research Organizations Tree Biotechnology conference in Asheville, NC in May 2013. Photo: Orin Langelle/GJEP
May 30, 2024 – the importance of our our ten years of dedication to protecting the forests from the risks and unknowns of the genetically engineered American chestnut has been demonstrated through a bombshell article released May 30, 2024 in New York Times Magazine: The Problem With Darling 58 The fight to save America’s iconic tree has become a civil war.
In December of 2023 it was revealed that the Darling line of America chestnuts that researchers at the American Chestnut Foundation and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry had been hoping would receive quick approval by the USDA for widespread and unmonitored release into forests was defective. It was susceptible to the blight it was engineered to resist, some trees were stunted and sickly and many of them unexpectedly died.
Failed Science
For our allies in the Campaign to STOP GE Trees, the failed science behind the GE chestnut was not surprising. For years we pointed out, through articles, presentations and a major report, that GE trees are unpredictable. There is no way to know what will happen as the trees age – in this case they lost their blight resistance – nor is there any way to know what will happen to forest ecosystems if GE trees are released into them.
In this case, the trees that researchers were ready to deploy into forests were genetically defective. As pointed out in the article,
“In addition to evidence of lower-than-expected blight resistance, Darling 54’s chromosome tweak causes the deletion of more than 1,000 DNA base pairs, the ultimate effect of which is hard to know. ‘It’s not something you want to deploy into a restoration population,’ [said TACF Chief Conservation Officer Sara Fitzsimmons].”
The article also exposes additional motivations behind the effort to develop the GE American chestnut.
“In 2022, [researchers at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) at the State University of New York] began meeting with American Castanea, a newly formed company whose founders saw a huge opportunity in meeting the intense demand for seedlings they expected to follow deregulation. American Castanea would agree to pay ESF for distribution rights to sell millions of transgenic seedlings worth millions of dollars.”
ESF, though, was undeterred by the startling discovery about [the major problems found with Darling 58/54 and] is forging ahead with getting approval from the FDA and EPA as well.