WASHINGTON This week, thirteen national advocacy groups concerned about public health, environment, and animal welfare urged key federal agencies to maintain regulatory authority over genetically engineered food animals within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In response to a Trump U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposal to withdraw most of the FDA’s regulatory authority over genetically engineered animals, including fish, and transfer that authority to USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the groups sent letters to U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) Secretary Becerra and USDA Secretary Vilsack urging them to maintain authority of genetically engineered animals within FDA.
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According to a press release published by the Center for Food Safety on Wednesday
, 13 public health, environment, and animal welfare advocacy groups sent letters to officials imploring them not to switch regulatory authority over genetically engineered (GE) animals to a department within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The letters seek to undo the eleventh-hour Trump Administration proposal, allegedly one of several aimed to “weaken [the] FDA’s authority to protect public health.”
The letters, sent to Secretary Xavier Becerra of the Department of U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) and Secretary Tom Vilsack of the USDA, explain the dangers posed by the deregulation of GE animals, like undetected off-target mutations that threaten animal and human health as well as the environment. Though the agency has yet to “develop final regulations on genetically engineered animals, [the] FDA posse
Minneapolis, February 20
Eighty-seven farmer organisations and allied agroecology, farm and food justice groups in the United States delivered a solidarity statement in support of Indian farmers' his
87 American farmer groups extend support to their counterparts in India
U.S. groups express respect for the unified struggles of the farmers and farm workers in India
Saturday February 20, 2021 8:01 PM, IANS
Minneapolis: Eighty seven farmer organisations and allied agroecology, farm and food justice groups in the United States delivered a solidarity statement in support of Indian farmers historic protests to Samyukt Kisan Morcha, a united front of over 40 Indian farmers unions.
In the statement, U.S. groups express respect for the unified struggles of the farmers and farm workers and urge both U.S. and Indian governments to support independent family farmers and localised food systems to protect food sovereignty and the livelihoods of millions.