The Food and Drug Administration today released an electronic version of its Environmental Assessment (EA) for a genetically modified (GM) salmon developed by AquaBounty Technologies of Massachusetts—effectively giving its preliminary seal of approval on the first transgenic animal to be considered for federal approval.
The FDA concluded that the salmon would have “no significant impact” on the environment and was “as safe as food from conventional Atlantic salmon.”
According to sources within FDA, the draft EA had been approved by the all the relevant agencies on April 19, 2012, but had been blocked for release on orders from inside the executive branch—which has raised both legal and ethical issues of political interference with science and the independent work of federal agencies.
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