For Immediate Release July 8, 2024
Contact: Steve Taylor (314) 210 1322
New York – July 8th, Global Justice Ecology Project (GJEP) has requested that the United Stated Department of Agriculture (USDA), Office of Inspector General investigate what has been described in media reports as what could be a lack of transparency by the New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), regarding fundamental errors in its attempt to produce a Genetically Engineered American chestnut tree, the Darling 58.
In its letter to USDA, OIG, GJEP cited a statement by The American Chestnut Foundation’s president in where he reportedly stated to New York Times Magazine, that,
“as a nonprofit organization, we can’t hide things from our members or the public. If we wouldn’t have brought this out, we would be complicit with a cover-up.”
The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) originally was a strong supporter of ESF’s petition to deregulate the Darling 58 with the intent of releasing it into the wild to contaminate its wild relatives. On December 8th, 2023 TACF publicly withdrew its support citing “significant performance limitations” as well as a fundamental error which resulted years of field trials on the wrong variant.
According to New York Magazine’s article, TACF’s conservation officer, Sarah Fitzsimmons expressed concerns that along with poorer than expected resistance to the blight, that the chromosome tweak on the Darling 54 variant, on which some of the environmental tests were done, “causes 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,’ she says.” Original critics of the plan to deregulate ESF’s GE Chestnut have long made similar arguments regarding such risks.
Below is the letter sent to the USDA, OIG:
The Honorable Phyllis K. Fong
USDA, Office of the Inspector General
Room 117-W Jamie Whitten Bldg
1400 Independence Ave SW
Washington, DC 20250
PHONE 202-720-8001
On August 19, 2020 a notice was posted in the Federal Register of a petition to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) by the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) for a determination of nonregulated status for blight-resistant Darling 58 American chestnut trees.
The Darling 58 American Chestnut is a genetically engineered tree, which SUNY ESF claims to be blight resistant. If deregulated it would be the first genetically engineered plant to be released into the wild with the intention of pollinating its wild relatives and freely spreading. Thousands of comments regarding the risks known and unknown from such a dangerous and irreversible experiment were made to the USDA during its comment period on the petition.
Originally, The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) was a prominent supporter of the petition as well as a partner with ESF in research on the tree. TACF was a vigorous public promoter of the Darling 58 American Chestnut as it saw the tree as a potential solution to fortifying the natural population of American Chestnuts devastated by the Cryphonectria parasitica blight which began in the early 1900s.
According to media reports, on December 8th, 2023 TACF announced it was withdrawing support “for several pending regulatory petitions that would authorize distribution of transgenic Darling 58 trees outside permitted research plots”. The stunning turnaround was reportedly based on poor performance of the Darling line when it came to blight resistance and growth, as well as high rates of mortality. Reportedly, TACF claimed that the GE trees did not grow as expected probably due to metabolic costs resulting from the OXO gene being “on all the time”. Opponents of deregulating the Darling 58 had predicted such complications during the comment period, but the additional announcement by TACF that trees and pollen provided to them by ESF for field research were in fact not Darling 58 trees was completely unexpected.
According to public statements, TACF no longer supports the petition to deregulate the Darling 58 based upon performance problems with the Darling line, but has also reportedly been more vocal about what it has characterized as a lack of forthrightness about the error and data. According to a story in New York Magazine “The Problem with Darling 58“, a third party Thomas Klak, an environmental-science professor at the University of New England in Portland, Maine, informed TACF that the trees being used in research plots were not Darling 58, but Darling 54, an earlier iteration, with the OXO gene inserted on a different chromosome, causing the deletion of more than 1,000 base pairs, and was likely responsible for the high mortality rates and lack of blight resistance among the trees.
As stated in the article, TACF President Pitt stated, “To this day, we’ve never heard anything directly from ESF,” says Pitt, the American Chestnut Foundation’s president. If Tan and Klak hadn’t shared their findings, Pitt wonders if ESF ever would have “told us, told the public, told anyone.” “As a nonprofit organization, we can’t hide things from our members or the public. If we wouldn’t have brought this out, we would be complicit with a cover-up.”
Adding to this troubling lack of transparency is the fact that SUNY ESF was reportedly involved in discussions with American Castanea, Inc., a for-profit startup, regarding an exclusive license to sell the Darling 58 American chestnuts–a deal that would have allegedly meant millions of dollars in revenue for both parties. With TACF’s public revelations of the problems with the Darling 58, this deal has been terminated.
Given the unparalleled nature of this petition which would allow for the release of a genetically engineered tree into the wild, we are requesting that the Office of Inspector General USDA investigate circumstances surrounding the petition. Given public statements from TACF casting doubt on the veracity of SUNY ESF we believe that such an investigation into whether information was given to the USDA in a timely fashion or if SUNY ESF was failing to act in good faith or possibly in violation of rules, regulations or law is warranted by the Office of Inspector General USDA.
Given the gravity of the implications of SUNY ESF’s research we ask that OIG USDA investigate and take any action available to it to prohibit future petitions by SUNY ESF if in fact it has been culpable in any fraud or deception as recent statements by TACF leadership seem to allude.
We also continue to call for a denial of the petition to deregulate the Darling 58/54 American Chestnut.
Sincerely,
Anne Petermann
Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project