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The Tree That Never Was: the Latest Sign of Our Collapsing Regulatory Ecosystem

On December 8th, the American Chestnut Foundation (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 announcement was shocking, one that should have huge implications for the idea of releasing GMOs into the wild.  The TACF press release explained…

Written by

Steve Taylor

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Originally Published in

On December 8th, the American Chestnut Foundation (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 announcement was shocking, one that should have huge implications for the idea of releasing GMOs into the wild.  The TACF press release explained that “a significant identity error in the propagation materials supplied to TACF” had occurred, and that “independent confirmation now shows all pollen and trees used for this research was derived not from Darling 58.” Throughout the regulatory process, no one noticed that they were working with the wrong tree.