Press Release: USDA Reportedly “Pauses Work” GE American Chestnut

American Chestnut Foundation’s Chief Conservation Officer States that Petition for Deregulation Should be Withdrawn by SUNY-ESF

For Immediate Release Dec. 24th, 2023

A December 24th, Washington Post article, “Genetic engineering was meant to save chestnut trees. Then there was a mistake,” based in part on The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) pulling its support from the petition to deregulate a genetically engineered (GE) American chestnut tree, revealed that the USDA is pausing work on the controversial application. The petition would allow the unregulated release of the first GE trees into the wild to intentionally contaminate wild relatives. According to the article, “USDA spokesman Richard Coker said officials “have paused work [on the petition] until we receive additional information from SUNY.”

The article highlights concerns by TACF regarding transparency from the researchers the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF), who provided them with the “wrong” genetically engineered trees and pollen, upon which TACF has based their research since 2016. Their former partners in the research, SUNY-ESF did not inform TACF that there was a “significant identity error” resulting in field trials being conducted with the wrong GE chestnut variant for seven years. TACF withdrew its support for SUNY’s application when it independently discovered the error.

The GE trees grew significantly slower than non-GE counterparts, had high rates of mortality and were susceptible to the blight they were engineered to resist.

In the Washington Post story TACF Chief Conservation Officer Sara Fitzsimmons expressed concerns over a lack of candor by SUNY-ESF after the foundation learned of the mix-up not from SUNY-ESF but from researchers in Maine. “It’s not that the mistake was made,” she said. “It’s that we weren’t told about it.”

When GJEP asked Fitzsimmons what she thought about SUNY-ESF continuing their plans to get the defective GE trees deregulated, she said, “We think ESF should pull the petition, adding, “if you look at ESF’s response to our position, you’ll see that we have more information about performance and about what the product is doing than ESF does.”

Today, Anne Petermann, Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project and Coordinator of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees released the following statement:

“For more than ten years the Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees has called for the rejection of the proposal to release genetically engineered American chestnut trees into wild forests where they would intentionally contaminate remaining wild American chestnuts. They would further derail long-time efforts to breed wild American chestnuts that exhibit levels of blight tolerance.

 

Our criticisms were based on solid scientific analysis of the research–concerns which are now being echoed by TACF and other researchers.

 

It is not enough for the USDA to pause its work on the Darling 58, they must reject the application by SUNY-ESF. And SUNY-ESF must drop their effort to deregulate this faulty tree – a call we launched early in December, and which has been endorsed by hundreds of people. It’s good to see that TACF is joining this call.

 

The idea that SUNY-ESF would continue to pursue deregulation of this clearly defective GE chesntut shows a complete disregard for science and underscores the need for an independent investigation into SUNY-ESF’s GE chestnut research program.

 

The public has a right to know what the publicly-funded researchers at SUNY-ESF knew and when they knew it and why they did not inform the research community or regulators of this critical error in its research.

 

This was very nearly a tragic mistake for our forests and for the beleaguered American chestnut. This must be seen as a lesson to ensure this mistake never happens in the future.”